Kathelene Cattell-Daniels
Contributions
Get on the playful side
You’ve almost made it. There are only a few weeks left before the end of classes. Not only that, but the weather’s warming up...
In photos: After School Special a sold-out success
Last Thursday, UTM's radio station, CFRE, hosted the After School Special, a sold-out music event at the Blind Duck which featured performances from Jazz...
Actors soar in season’s closing production
One of the first signs of a great play is that you don’t know you’re watching it.
Let me explain that a little better. It’s...
The flip side of trigger warnings
Last month, I attended U of T’s Drama Festival, which showcases new work acted, written, and directed by students at U of T’s various...
Revisiting: Goldfrapp | Head First
Judging from the cover art alone, Head First by Goldfrapp looks like an adventure in cotton-candy land. I figure that might be ironic. I...
Blackfriar actors have good sea legs
I somehow managed to talk myself into the idea that Pericles, Prince of Tyre, the second installment in Theatre Erindale’s Blackfriars Project, would somehow...
Patrick Watson | Just Another Ordinary Day
Just Another Ordinary Day starts in a moody place, sounding like your average indie-rock album. Then things get weird. As you might already know,...
Onstage hullaballoo walks the plank
The opening of Theatre Erindale’s Comedy of Errors, written by William Shakespeare and directed by David Matheson, uses projections to create a world. Waves...
Make ’em laugh: the ins and outs of farce
Hart House is about to open its final show of the season, the farce Boeing Boeing written by Marc Camoletti and translated by Beverley...
U of T colleges face off at Drama Fest
Hailey Mason
From February 10 to 14, Hart House Theatre and the U of T Drama Coalition hosted the U of T Drama Festival. The...
On your marks, get set, Shakespeare
Last year, Theatre Erindale ran an experiment: they took two condensed Shakespeare plays (Troilus and Cressida and Romeo and Juliet) and cast both with...
Learning to take risks as an actress
I’m in second year, standing in a rehearsal hall in a far corner of the North Building, and I am taking my clothes off....
Checking in at the Chelsea
I’ve seen Oklahoma! one too many times. I grew up watching Oliver! and listening to the soundtrack for Les Miserables. Needless to say, I...
So what kind of a writer are you, exactly?
I sit across from Professor Robert Price in his tiny office in CCT as he twists a black ballpoint pen between his fingers. I...
Saints and satyrs of the liberal arts
Theatre Erindale’s latest concoction, Uncommon Women and Others, is spellbinding. Set at a prestigious liberal arts college for women, Wendy Wasserstein’s play takes the...
Lost something? Find it in the woods
What do you want? What do you want more than anything else in world? And to what ends are you willing to go in...
Content approved for immature adults
I like to watch kids’ movies. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I like to watch good kids’ movies. And sure, part of it is...
Are we out of the woods yet? Ask Rapunzel
Hart House Theatre is currently in the throes of tech week before their third production of the season, Into the Woods, opens this Friday....
A World Next Door | The Parlotones
They say to never judge a book by its cover or, by extension, an album by its cover art. But I think I have...
Girls can go to law school too, you know
The biggest problem I had with Legally Blonde as a story was that I knew how it was going to end before it even...
Have a jolly month off with no assignments
Exams are over, papers are in, and suddenly UTM students have nearly a month of freedom on their hands. As with everything, there are...
Getting colder
I first discovered The Winter’s Tale when I saw it at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Prior to seeing the play, I didn’t know the...
Working on a better rap
Here’s the truth: I don’t listen to rap. Ever. I usually find it exhausting to listen to and very hard to follow. To my...
Let’s talk about sex in a canoe, baby
You can argue that all actors are exhibitionists. By that logic, I suppose that anyone who goes to the theatre is automatically a voyeur.
I’ll...
When the finals hit home
Therapy dogs? Been there. Stress eating? Done that. Crafts? It’s not the first thing that came to mind, is it?
Everyone has their own ways...
Exploring the world of online art shows
There’s something marvelous about having a day off, no plans, and the option of deciding to stroll over to the nearest museum you can...
Hard knock life for Denmark’s prince
The biggest thing I’m taking away from Hart House Theatre’s production of Hamlet is this: a director with a vision is the best thing...
Every cake should have silver icing
UTM’s Theatre and Drama Studies program represents a tiny portion of the student population. Housing about 80 students at a time across all four...
Up close and personal with Hamlet
The last time I sat in the Hart House lobby to interview actors, they were working on a new play, one that’s almost as...
Find Waldo: the search for the AGM
To be honest, getting into Art Toronto was a bit of a hassle. I show up at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and buy...
What’s the scariest thing you’ve seen?
There are different kinds of fear: there’s giggly fun fear, psychological spine-chillers, and jump scares. Once upon a time, fear was witches being burned...
Dishing the dirt on Greek dramatics
With tech week—also known as crunch time—starting next week, Theatre Erindale cast and crew are all extremely busy. I sit down with Autumn Smith,...
The hidden soup bar
It seems to me that everything these days is customizable. You can pick a case for your cell phone, a background for your desktop,...
Think you’re classy? High Ends agrees
As arts editor, I get stuff in the mail sometimes. It’s one of the perks of the job—mystery mail appears on my desk.
Before I...
Night life at the Gardiner
I head downstairs to the basement of the Gardiner Museum, a place I haven’t been since I was in grade six. I sit on...
Making an entrance on the Toronto stage
Hailey Gillis sits across from me in the lobby of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. I figured that, at 11:00 in the...
Spotlight on the good vibes and good art
U of T Spotlight—formerly the Hart House Players—gathered on Wednesday evening for their first cabaret of the school year.
The strongest part of the event...
Hart House gets away with murder
I’ve been a fan of George F. Walker since high school. He writes intriguing, complex plots. He writes the kind of characters that every...
Hart House actors get their hands dirty
I sit in the lobby of Hart House theatre, flanked by John Cleland and Sarah Murphy-Dyson, two members in the cast of George F....
Political critique of Pan Am madness
Let’s imagine that Sports, Fine Art, and Politics are people and they all end up in a room together. All three know each other,...
Painting a new picture
I open my eyes and I’m looking right at Matti Maclean. He’s my height, with piercing eyes and a black T-shirt that says “I...
Theatre Erindale wraps up a successful year
I walked out of the Thursday night preview of Mary Vingoe’s Living Curiosities or What You Will thinking about a lot of things. I...
A hidden, gripping gem
Snowpiercer is one of those movies that should have been a big box office hit but wasn’t. People love this stuff, this kind of...
Love never gets old
With Reading Week past us, I imagine that most UTM students have just about had enough of school-related reading. So, here’s what I’d propose:...
When you cross star-crossed lovers and fun
Watching theatre is never about checking a play off my list of plays I haven’t seen. As with books and movies, every time I...
Writing & Photo Contest 2015 Runner-up — Poetry
Draw Me a Dress
Draw me a dress
that I can colour in
inside the lines
and wear during the dances
that spin inside my head.
Ballrooms of marble
fringed with...
UTM drama turns to classical drama
Sometimes I wonder why plays as old as Antigone are still kicking around and getting produced. I wonder if maybe it’s because, as people,...
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
By complete coincidence, I am at this very moment involved in Theatre Erindale’s production of Picnic, a Pulitzer Prize–winning play by William Inge, who...
CBC just got a little stranger
Television is getting edgy. Admittedly, I don’t follow a lot of shows (blame it on the honours BA), but I do know what people...
Through a different lens
The Orenda by Joseph Boyden was not exactly an easy holiday read. Over the break, I usually opt for a less politically intricate story,...
Wild ride in a van
Though not explicitly billed as a mystery or a thriller, Wolf in White Van moves at an impressive pace with a large helping of...
The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
Christmas was, at one time, more of a religious holiday than a commercial one. This is something that has been forgotten, for the most...
Hazel McCallion’s musical sendoff
November 30 will mark Hazel McCallion’s last day in office after 36 years of being Mississauga’s esteemed mayor. Watching McCallion mingling and taking selfies...
Theatre Erindale puts on killer production
The Massey Murder, Theatre Erindale’s second show of the season, tells the story of Carrie Davies, a woman who worked for the prestigious Massey...
F*ck the system pub night
I have spent four years at UTM and I have never been to an open mic night at the Blind Duck. To be honest,...
Using the past to write the present
I read Tasneem Jamal’s Where the Air Is Sweet in the span of two days over the summer. In her blog, Jamal describes the...
Alice in… erotic fan-fic
To say that Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Lost Girls is only a sex book is, in my mind at least, to subscribe to...
L-shaped fashion
These days, we strive for or already see accessibility in just about every office building and school. Buildings have ramps and elevator access, and...
Accuracy is key in art
What must it be like to look at a house and say, “I built that”?
Listening to artist Diane Daniels’ speech at the show opening,...
Divergent strikes uncomfortably familiar chords
The problem with Divergent is that it’s The Hunger Games all over again, but with less fire. Dystopian fiction is a difficult genre because...
UTM theatre season closes on a high
The Rover has guts. In this latest adaptation by Nancy Copeland and Patrick Young, restoration playwright Aphra Behn tells a story that pretty much...
Form, Colour, Line gets back to the basics
The Art Gallery of Mississauga’s new exhibition, Form, Colour, Line, promotes the work of two emerging artists, Natasha Gouveia and Laura Marotta. The show...
The Tonight Show gets a needed makeover
To be perfectly honest, I don’t watch a whole lot of TV. Don’t get me wrong; I knew the Tonight Show existed. I’d just...
A theatrical treat for Toronto
London Road is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Writers Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork experiment with a technique called “verbatim theatre”, which means that...
Drama Club tackles The Tempest
The Tempest is a handful of a show. One of Shakespeare’s last plays, The Tempest is highly complex both in text and in plot...
Theatre Erindale sews up another hit show
If you need a little something to perk you up from the depths of January despair, A Stitch in Time by Dorothy Lees-Blakey with...
The Guggenheim comes to the AGO
The Great Upheaval: Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Collection is a selection of pieces taken from the selection that Guggenheim made. There’s a potential for...
Indie romance comes to Toronto
Admittedly, I was a little sceptical when I heard that the musical Once was based on a film of the same name. How do...
Holiday Events Guide 2013
The Medium collected a few events, artsy and otherwise, to keep you occupied over the break. Click for a larger size! A plain text...
Tarragon serves up both style and creativity
As is the case with many GTA theatre companies, the audience that attends the Tarragon Theatre’s shows isn’t exactly young, and may be more...
Music with impact
The new recording of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, conducted by Antonio Pappano, is a little terrifying, especially released so close to Remembrance Day. To...
Whimsy with a side of social commentary
The Gardiner Museum is empty. Located just across from the Royal Ontario Museum, which has four school buses lined up outside, it’s easy to...
Atwood returns with another feisty tale
I keep saying I’m going to give Margaret Atwood one more chance to convince me that she’s the writer Canada gives her credit for...
Theatre Erindale starts season on a high
I first saw Arthur Miller’s The Crucible adapted by Soulpepper a couple of years ago, and I liked it; the profoundly disturbing and thought-provoking...
Venus in Fur flips convention on its head
Venus in Fur is a powerful play that rocked the Broadway boat last year and has now come to Toronto. Directed by Jennifer Tarver...
Lost in Game of Thrones lore
I spent my summer doing three things: taking a full load of summer courses, folding clothes at Costco, and reading A Song of Ice...
Fibre art finds a home at AGM
I admit that fibre art is not something I’m well-versed in. Perhaps because of my ignorance of the medium—which actually seems pretty widespread among...
Can graphic novels elevate storytelling?
“You read that stuff?”
I get mixed reactions when I read graphic novels in sight of other people. The best was the look on my...
We all go a little mad sometimes
There’s no denying it: Macbeth is one of my favourite plays. It took me a long time to learn to love it, though, and...
A play for all eras
Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is a play of words and ideas. This is all very well sitting in a chair with a book in hand,...
Drama students break a leg (literally?)
The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth is not only a mouthful of a title but also a handful...
Third-year drama students make explosive debut
In the Midst of Alarms: Women and the War of 1812 is not a play in the traditional sense of the word. It is...
Equal parts glamour and scandal
Semi-Monde by Noel Coward is not a plot-driven show. Its primary concern is character, which means it’s the actor’s job to develop said character...
Exploring the world of online art shows
There’s something marvelous about having a day off, no plans, and the option of deciding to stroll over to the nearest museum you can...
Making an entrance on the Toronto stage
Hailey Gillis sits across from me in the lobby of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. I figured that, at 11:00 in the...