Toronto doled out its 29th annual Dora Awards, which recognize outstanding achievements in Toronto theatre, last Monday at the Winter Garden Theatre. Awards shows are notorious for running on and on and having copious boring thank you speeches. This one was no exception.
They could have easily chopped the two-hours-plus show in half by eliminating a lot of the out-of-context song-and-dance routines, primarily performed by the show's host, Sharron Matthews. What started out as a joke about Sharon's Party soon became the overriding theme of the night.
About half a dozen students of the Toronto Dance Theatre were on hand to hand off the statuettes to the presenters and usher the winners off stage. It seems a waste of their talents not to let them take the stage to dance. Instead we get a woman trying too hard to crack jokes and flaunt five costume changes, singing unmemorable songs mostly irrelevant to this year's nominated productions.
For the 5th year, downtown Toronto took in a weekend of 'Beats, Breaks and Culture' at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre. The blurred edges of the urban music niche have pretty much fallen to pieces as events like this begin to dominate public spaces, and Toronto is coming to love the style of this once chastened graf and break culture. This year's curators, along with break masters Bag of Trix and The Manifesto crew, did not disappoint, again mashing up the music against a backdrop of flying windmills, graf pieces, and incredible urban competition.
Strolling past the Engine Gallery on West Queen West my eye was immediately drawn to a massive tartan clad native woman beckoning me to enter into her sacred space. Frightening, yes, at 2am. In the light of day I had to inquire within.
Contributed by Nick Hanekom
I'm a little confused today.
After last nights viewing of Damn Your Eyes the question I'm asking myself is what exactly was I supposed to experience? At first glance it was just a bunch of guys and gals sitting around doing well, nothing. Perhaps I should have joined them to truly understand the conceptual aspect; the idea of sitting around listening to whatever the two main installations - one bright and revealing, the other dark and personal - were all but occupied for the entire hour spent at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Arts (MOCCA). So instead I wandered around squinting in the light cast by the fluorescent tubes in the main hall. I was still wondering, what's this all about then?
My appetite was whet after hearing about the Canadian Conservative Government's introduction of Bill C-61 and how artists will respond to what is being hailed a police state if the act is passed. Bill 61 is the Harper Government's attempt at initiating digital locks by ensuring complete control over media that is purchased, rented or downloaded.
The Appropos group, a coalition of artists whose exhibit opened at the Edward Day Gallery on Thursday night is a middle finger to the proposed law displaying imagery of existing popular culture icons.
Evil Dead: The Musical last Thursday proved the show has legs. And fangs. And lots of blood left. After 300 shows and 140 gallons of fake blood, the Toronto production is still going strong, building a loyal cult following.
The production, based on the Evil Dead film series, celebrated its 300th show in Toronto at The Diesel Playhouse Thursday night. There were prizes awarded for the best Evil Dead character costume, a bustling after-party and likely the rowdiest fans the show has seen since Bruce (Don't Call Me Ash) Campbell's attendance at the show.
The show just finished a successful run in Seoul, Korea and is playing in California, with plans for Berlin later this year. It has seen about 600 performances worldwide and is now the longest-running musical ever written by a Canadian.
This is your last weekend to check out the Nathan Jurevicius exhibit at Magic Pony.
See the photos larger on Flickr here.
Who doesn't love a cool new tee? NOW Magazine just revealed the grand prize winners of their third annual Designer Challenge, with each design printed onto four different t-shirts. These tees will be sold at various events around the city at $10 each, with all the proceeds going to Art Heart, a charity that supports creativity in visual arts for inner city children, youth and adults. The shirts will make their debut at the NOW booth this coming Sunday, June 29 for Pride Day.
I've always found photography depicting skateboard culture very compelling, and one of my main sources of inspiration. I don't know what it is about it, but it always evokes in me a certain sense of rawness and truth in the way the sport is documented, including the lives of those around it.
This Friday June 27th, STUDIO Gallery presents the work of Patrick O'Dell.
Today was the last day of school before summer break for students at Ogden Junior Public School, and prior to handing out achievement awards to deserving students, a very special ceremony took place.
Attended by special guests TTC Chair Adam Giambrone, and Trinity-Spadina MP Olivia Chow, talented and only slightly camera-shy students took to the microphone (under the flashes of photographers and the close attention of CityTV and Global video news crews). Principal Madelaine Allan and Vice Principal Rob Hochberg, along with the other teachers and students, looked on with pride.
Under the guidance of grade 4/5 teacher Mark Shouldice and librarian Jennifer Nelson (and with a little help from New York-based graphic designer Joe Shouldice) students painted and assembled smaller component pieces to form a large mural in the image of the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle - the iconic TTC streetcar.
