Angela Sun is a Toronto-based fat East Asian performer, theatre creator, poet, and writer. She is currently a member of the environmental theatre company, Broadleaf Theatre. In her spare time she enjoys reading and writing about art, feminism, pop culture, identity, body image, mental health, and social justice. Ironically, she fell in love with Canadian theatre after seeing a televised production of Kristen Thomson’s I, Claudia on CBC. (She finally saw the remount on stage 5 years later and was over the moon.) You can follow her exploits on her sporadically-updated Twitter @21sungelas.
Caminos 2015 is a week-long festival of new “propuestas” (performance proposals) presented by Aluna Theatre in partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts. Caminos ask Toronto audiences to join them in “re-imagining las Americas” through the presentation of new works in theatre and dance from 60 Panamerican and Indigenous artists. Each night features a wide variety of long and short-length programming, including: conversation and experimental performance labs on making theatre in two languages, a remount of the award-winning 2015 SummerWorks production of Ayelen, an interdisciplinary creation on the history of stoning, and a Latin American dance lesson.
Opera Atelier presents Armide at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto
Opera Atelier’s sexy production of Armide is a perfect refutation to those who claim that opera is too long or too boring. Overflowing with sumptuous sights and sounds, the production’s two-and-a-half-hour-plus run time sped by in a captivating flash.
Native Earth Performing Arts kicks-off their 2015/16 season with a remount of award-winning Cree playwright, Cliff Cardinal’s darkly-comedic production, Huff, about First Nations youths dealing with solvent abuse in the face of familial tragedy. Previously opened to rave reviews at the 2012 SummerWorks Festival, the production was awarded the 2012 Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk & Innovation.
We asked playwright and performer Cliff Cardinal and director Karin Randoja some questions about the production.
Happy Place takes on mental illness with a contemporary spin on the Toronto stage
This is one of those plays that I think everyone has to see at least once. Or preferably twice, so as to really hear all the nuances in playwright and performer Pamela Mala Sinha’s snappy, fast-paced writing. The tragically comedic Happy Place, from Soulpepper Theatre, takes a decidedly more contemporary, heart-felt look at mental illness.
Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World, a play about friendship and memory at The Box Toronto