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My first experience with FringeMTL was in 2013. I’d not been living in Montreal long at this point, and at the time I was focused on poetry and spoken word performance. I wanted to get involved with something theatrical, and took the opportunity to audition for a production in that year’s program.
As you know, I generally like to say (or try to say) something profound in my essays. I like to bring the personal to the point of universality, and then shrink it back down to a pocket sized concept you can integrate into your life. In reality though, sometimes the real life shit closes down the uh, Idea Station, and my train of thought goes elsewhere.
The hospital closed in 2017, bought in part by the City of Montreal with a plan to transition the site into a “shared public space”. The reinvented space, now called the Cité-des-Hospitalières, had strict guidelines when considering who would occupy the space, including preserving the spirit of the grounds, and responding to the needs of the community.
HOT SIX
According to the Oxford dictionary, busking is defined as “the activity of playing music in the street or another public place for voluntary donations.” People have been busking for hundreds of years, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of (regardless of what your family says).
Funny Women began in the UK in 2002, organized by Lynne Parker. Parker was sick of comedy spaces being dominated by men and the narrative that women don’t carry the same calibre of humour. Their goal was simple yet challenging: to see and support more women in comedy spaces.
The Chemical Valley Project is a production about the Aamjiwnaang First Nation on the banks of the St. Clair River, near Sarnia, Ontario, and the physical and emotional damage done to its people by the over 60 petrochemical plants and oil refineries operating in the surrounding area.
It’s September 2022, and I’m standing at the back of the Diving Bell Social Club, leaning up against the bar. The house lights have been dimmed, and the coloured stage lights flash with precise coordination, making for an ambiance that is at once intimate and exciting.
It was love at first sight, but before I saw it with my own eyes, I admit I was skeptical. When I was first invited to a comedy show at Espace Joie de Vivre, my friend's description gave me pause: it's in a basement. BYOB. The entrance is in the alley. I wondered aloud if we were going to someone's apartment, and my plus one wondered if we would be trapped in a stuffy room with cigarette smokers. Thankfully, we were both entirely wrong.
Performed at Agora de la danse, We All Fall Down Creations’ Dans Les Bras De Morphée is aimed at a young audience, and so I sat with Emery after the show to get his response to the vision and imaginative choreography by the brilliant Helen Simard.
LATEST
The hospital closed in 2017, bought in part by the City of Montreal with a plan to transition the site into a “shared public space”. The reinvented space, now called the Cité-des-Hospitalières, had strict guidelines when considering who would occupy the space, including preserving the spirit of the grounds, and responding to the needs of the community.
As you know, I generally like to say (or try to say) something profound in my essays. I like to bring the personal to the point of universality, and then shrink it back down to a pocket sized concept you can integrate into your life. In reality though, sometimes the real life shit closes down the uh, Idea Station, and my train of thought goes elsewhere.
My first experience with FringeMTL was in 2013. I’d not been living in Montreal long at this point, and at the time I was focused on poetry and spoken word performance. I wanted to get involved with something theatrical, and took the opportunity to audition for a production in that year’s program.
According to the Oxford dictionary, busking is defined as “the activity of playing music in the street or another public place for voluntary donations.” People have been busking for hundreds of years, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of (regardless of what your family says).
I've been stressed lately. Yes, some actual things have been pressing on me, but as is my MO, I've been more stressed than need be. My brain is a particularly shitty place to be when stressed (I’m sure you can relate), and it didn't take long for my intrusive daytime thoughts to slip and slide into my dreams.
Faith is wild. We usually take the word as being part and parcel with religion. We call people at church the faithful and those who stand outside the non-believers, but faith encompasses so much more than that.
“Forever”, that’s what Jesse Winchester told the immigration officer when asked how long he would be staying in Canada. Then, all of a sudden there he was, a draft dodging asylum seeker at the Dorval Airport with a guitar in hand.
ARCHIVE
Café Cleopatra is going to court. True, the artists of Café Cleo already won the case against their eviction in the court of public opinion, the OCPM ruling confirmed their victory and the recent attention paid to the Dead Dolls appeal to Prince Charles reinforced it, but now they’re taking the case to a court of law.
When the public supports you, but the Mayor’s against you and the federal government isn’t doing anything to help protect their own historic site, where do you turn? Well, for members of the Dead Doll Dancers, the answer is simple: Prince Charles.
In the 1980s, Christian Yaccarini was on the administration council of the Association générale des étudiants de l’UQAM when he was found guilty of stealing the contents of a caisse étudiant (student-run bank).
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Forget The Box is by Montreal, for Montreal.