Clothing in Semlac is perhaps the hardest detail to keep track of in Between Worlds. I have photos, but they don’t match the exact years that Between Worlds takes place in. Fashion in between the wars did begin to modernize, but to what extent I…
A Russian-Canadian Impresario Have you ever heard of the word “impresario”? That’s someone who organizes and maybe even finances performing arts events, including concerts, plays, ballets, operas, and more. It’s a very risky profession, and likely not one taught in arts management…
Continuing With Flamenco Last month, I wrote about Bonnie Masina, a woman who took up flamenco dance at age 50. This month, I ask the question: What is flamenco? And Myriam Allard, co-founder of and dancer and choreographer with La Otra Orilla…
Engage With Your Art Form Theatre guru Trevor Copp has a bowl of theatre tickets, roughly 1,200 of them. The bowl makes its stage appearance when Copp judges the Ontario Drama Festival (formerly the Sears Drama Festival): it contains one way of…
One myth I want to take down with this interview is the romanticized image of inspiration. Yes, we all get eureka moments: I have plenty of them. However, in my case, they’re never actually good ideas. Instead, those moments of inspiration are…
If there’s one thing I’d wish I’d done more of, it’s pay attention in English class, specifically grade 10 English class. That’s when we studied Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology ad nauseum. Maybe it was my religious upbringing (more so in the…
My Hometown A myth is developing about Canada, my country: that our arms are wide open to immigrants. It’s also easy to begin believing in that myth yourself when you read it often enough. I’m happy that we’re known for something so…
One thing I’ve always envied about descendants of pioneer families is that those descendants had easy access to their roots from the past one to three centuries. Naturally, everyone in Canada is or is a descendant of an immigrant (save for the…