I've been posting my weekly theatre picks on Monday, but this week's pick, Hotel Bethlehem, will have finished its Vancouver run by then, so I'm jumping the gun a bit. Drew McCreadie's script is completely wacky. Not all of it works, but, under Diane Brown's...

  When asked what advice I'd give to aspiring writers, I often say, "Take an acting class." That's because, in an acting class, you'll find out what storytelling feels like from a character's point of view, and you'll get that feeling in your bones. An actor...

A wise young actor named Sasa Brown once told me that, if you're not having fun onstage, you have no business being there. Well, in Aaron Bushkowsky's witty new play, After Jerusalem, actors Andrew McNee and Deborah Williams establish their right to be on any stage...

There's nothing like a little homophobia to start off the holiday season. On the surface, La Cage aux Folles looks like it's promoting inclusivity, but my sense is that it is also ridicules homosexuality. The relationship between the central gay characters, Georges...

Isn't this just the best baby mug shot? The photo is by my pal Michael Edmondson, who also did the pics on this site. Michael is a very nice guy and a terrific photographer, who specializes in weddings and kids. Do check out his work at http://www.thenuptialist.com/...

Sometimes writers get lost in poetic descriptions or associative tangents. Sometimes there's a lot of action in a story, but it's sequential rather than cumulative. The cure for all of these ills? Clear goals. The three-act structure works on the principle of...

  This week, my pick is definitely battery opera's M/Hotel, which runs until December 10 at the Holiday Inn on Howe Street. The maximum audience is five and the piece unfolds in a hotel room, so it's a given that you'll be dealing with issues of intimacy. A...

                      This week, the best show I've seen is The 13th Chair at Studio 58. In this production, director Sarah Rodgers takes a creaky old thriller and turns it into a hilarious and stylin' evening....

At the beginning of the three-act structure, which I outlined in my previous post, your hero is STUCK in the Ordinary World. Things might look perfectly cosy from the outside; Frodo's life in the Shire looks okay, right? But deep in his or her heart, your hero is...