All posts by Leanne

Five for Twenty (or Less)

by Leanne Milech

Our mission at Mooney on Theatre is to make theatre more accessible, which is just one of the reasons we are over-the-moon excited about this weekly post: we get giddy helping people find their way to local Toronto theatre, especially when it’s high quality entertainment on a budget!  This week, we’ve uncovered a secret code that gives you a cost-efficient edge on theatre-going, two pay-what-you-can laugh-ins, an edgy, experimental theatre festival and a poetry play, all for twenty dollars or less.

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New Ideas Festival

By Leanne Milech

The New Ideas Festival is almost here!  Alumnae Theatre Company is presenting its 22nd annual festival of new writing, works-in-progress and experimental theatre over three exciting weeks spanning from March 10 until March 27.  The works being performed were all selected for the festival by a blind jury, meaning the jury wasn’t aware of the writers’ identities until after the selections had been made.  This makes for unique plays curated solely on the merit of the works submitted.  Festival goers are sure to be treated to three very different – but equally interesting – weeks of new ideas.  To learn more about the festival and the short scripts selected for this year’s performances, read on.

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My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding – Mirvish

By Leanne Milech

MMLJWW

My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding or MMLJWW for short, is, to put it bluntly, colossal Canadian yummyness.

After an amazing run at the 2009 Fringe Festival, Mooney on Theatre writer Sam Mooney raved about MMLJWW in her review of the show.  After Fringe, Mirvish swiftly picked MMLJWW up and extended its run as long as it possibly could before it had to make room for a previously scheduled production. During that run, our very own editor, Megan Mooney, reviewed the show, professing her love for the production just as earnestly as our first reviewer did.

Indeed, Mirvish chose wisely when it decided to pick up this touching true love story of Claire, played by Lisa Horner, and Jane, played by Rosemary Doyle, two middle-aged women who fall for each other.

As a lesbian and a Jew, I had actually been a tad skeptical about this show: could they really pull off the whole lesbian thing without making all of the usual stereotypes and without being cliché or boringly political?

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Luminato 2010 Curatorial Threads

By Leanne Milech

Luminato, Toronto’s festival of art and creativity, is back!  Or at least, it will be soon (June 11-20, 2010).  For now, we’ll have to settle for whetting our appetites with press releases that feed us tidbits about the upcoming festival.  Today’s press release does the trick.  We now know that the three overarching themes selected for the 2010 Luminato festival are: 1) the relationship between east and west; 2) the artistic expression of rights and freedoms; and 3) that ever-popular and ever-present cultural figure, the diva.

Read more in the official press relase.