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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Arts and Entertainment
- Category: Theatre
Lee Siegel fell in love with the musical Rent as a teenager after hearing the soundtrack and reading the Rent Bible. He always dreamed of playing Tom Collins, and as he grew older, he appreciated the show's complex themes of love, growth, and finding oneself in a rough city like New York. Lee loves observing people but also enjoys jumping into the action of the city. Playing a part in Rent has been a fulfilling experience for him.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Arts and Entertainment
- Category: Theatre
An interview with stage actresses Akosua Amo-Adem and Déjah Dixon-Green. They are both part of the Stratford Festival's current production of Death and the King's Horsemen, written by renowned Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet and Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka. The production runs until October 29. As part of our conversation, we discuss the singularity of staging a Yoruba classic play at Stratford.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Arts and Entertainment
- Category: Theatre
An interview with stage artist Beck Lloyd—as part of our conversation series from the Stratford Festival's 2022 season. Lloyd currently plays the role of Marianne in the festival's adaptation of Molière's The Miser, which runs until October 29.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Arts and Entertainment
An interview with Ngozi Paul, founder of FreeUp! She discusses her film "FreeUp! Freedom Talks," celebrating BIPOC vocalists broadcasting on CBC and CBC Gem on Canada’s Emancipation Day.
Today is Emancipation Day 2022. Emancipation Day marks the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire, declared on August 1st, 1834. In this episode, I speak to Ngozi Paul, a seasoned performing arts practitioner, writer, producer and award-winning director. She's the founder of FreeUp! Through her company, Emancipation Arts, in partnership with CBC, she speaks to us about her film "FreeUp! Freedom Talks," celebrating BIPOC vocalists within the context of Canada’s Emancipation Day. The film will air today, August 1st, at 8 p.m. ET on CBC and CBC GEM as part of a two-hour special celebration of Emancipation Day.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Arts and Entertainment
- Category: Theatre
An interview with actors Jessica B. Hill and Jordin Hall, both currently part of two shows in the Stratford Festival's current season. Namely, Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well and Richard III. Our conversation focuses on their leading roles as Helen and Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well.
In this episode of Afropolitan Dialogues, we speak with Jessica B. Hill and Jordin Hall. The two actors are currently performing leading roles as Helen and Bertram in the Stratford Festival's current production of Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well. They're also both concurrently playing Richard III. Performances for both plays are taking place at Stratford's new Tom Patterson Theatre.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Arts and Entertainment
- Category: Theatre
An interview with performing artists Sandra Caldwell and Amanda De Freitas about their experience on stage with the Stratford Festival's production of the musical Chicago. They discuss their careers and what the show says about women's empowerment and agency.
In this podcast episode, we speak to two performers from the Stratford Festival's current production of the well-known musical Chicago, holding the record as the longest-running American musical on Broadway and is now part of the festival's lineup until October 30th. Directed and choreographed by Donna Feore, the show captures the effervescence of the Roaring Twenties in a tale full of intrigue, adultery, revenge, murder and justice.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Arts and Entertainment
- Category: Theatre
Amaka Umeh, the first artist of colour to play Shakespeare's Hamlet in the history of the Stratford Festival, is no stranger to breaking norms. In this conversation, she shares how she has navigated her life upstream from conventions both on and off the stage.
"Art in general, there's no substitute for its healing capabilities, and I think it's some of the best of what we do as human beings."
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Arts and Entertainment
An episodic series created, co-written, and co-produced by Amanda Parris that follows Dr. Toni Shakur, a self-help guru whose singular mission is to cancel the entertainment industry's reliance on token Black characters....before she gets cancelled herself.
Do you recall the exact time in early childhood when you became aware of your place in the world? Whether you were born into a royal family in Europe or in an impoverished favela in Brazil, there comes a time when this reality hits. This moment of reckoning often determines whether or not you remain oblivious to the ideology behind, for example, cowboy and Indian movies. This coming of age may drive you to start questioning why you're cheering for the cowboy to win, even if the Indian looks more like you.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Arts and Entertainment
- Category: Spoken Word
An interview with the Spoken Soul Collective (Paulina O'Kieffe-Anthony, Randell Adjei and Dwayne Morgan) on their curation work on the ArtworkxTo-supported exhibition called Scarborough: The Backbone. The exhibition runs until October 2022 at Scarborough Town Centre.
We speak with the Spoken Soul Collective on this episode, comprising three members representing a powerhouse of Toronto's spoken word poetry scene. The three groundbreaking artists are Scarborough Walk of Fame Inductee, Dwayne Morgan, who needs no introduction given his three-decade-long career as a deeply entrenched builder and pioneer of the local and national spoken word scene, award-winning artist, arts educator and executive director at SKETCH Working Arts, Paulina O'Kieffe-Anthony, as well as Scarborough spoken word artist, founding director of R.I.S.E. Edutainment and Ontario's first Poet Laureate, Randell Adjei.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Arts and Entertainment
An interview with actress Shailene Garnett from CBC Television's legal drama, Diggstown. We delve into season 3, which explores a changed post-COVID society and the injustices threatening the lives of racialized communities.
The first Canadian drama series to feature a Black Canadian woman as its lead character, CBC Television's legal series, Diggstown, stars Vinessa Antoine as Marcie Diggs, a lawyer who leaves her high-powered corporate job to work for a legal aid clinic in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia after her aunt commits suicide.
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