Andrea Montgomery

3 days ago | calgary.citynews.ca | Andrea Montgomery

What if a wedding, a concert, and a confessional all merged onstage? At this year's IGNITE! Festival, theatre gets personal and unpredictable. And if you've got the itch for live theatre, the ticket prices can't be beat - starting at just ten bucks. Now in its 15th year, the IGNITE! Festival is more than a play festival. It's a space for introduction - for Calgary audiences to see what's coming next in local theatre, and for artists to put ideas on their feet.

1 week ago | calgary.citynews.ca | Andrea Montgomery

You don't need to know what an initiative roll is to get swept up in the chaos of Winging It.But it certainly helps if you've ever shouted "nat 20!" in triumph. Part improv comedy, part Dungeons & Dragons-inspired adventure, the fantasy show wraps its first Calgary season with a final performance on May 31 at the Erratics Indie Arts Club - and it's your last chance (for now) to roll for perception and join the party. "It is so beautifully nerdy," laughs director and host Andrew G. Cooper.

1 week ago | calgary.citynews.ca | Andrea Montgomery

How do you take a global thriller that takes over seven hours to read and shrink it down to two hours on a stage? That's the challenge director Simon Mallett faced with Da Vinci Code, the latest production at Vertigo Theatre, taken from the popular Dan Brown novel. "It's an interesting challenge to take a 600-page novel and distill it down into a two-and-a-quarter-hour theatre experience," Mallett says.

1 week ago | calgary.citynews.ca | Andrea Montgomery

"525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?"How do you measure a life in musical theatre? This past theatre season, Calgary's Joe Slabe has been involved in Twelve Days, Austentatious, and his four-time Betty Mitchell Award-winning autobiographical show Buy Me a Drink, Joe. Those are just the most recent lines on a resume that spans decades of original songs, celebrated productions, and the creative community he helped build from the ground up.

2 weeks ago | calgary.citynews.ca | Andrea Montgomery

Before the spotlight hits the ring, before the audience takes their seats, before a single drum roll sounds - a small city springs to life in the parking lot of CrossIron Mills. "We closed on Monday in Vancouver, moved over the Coquihalla, and we're set up and ready to go for a show," says Joseph Dominic Bauer, longtime ringmaster of the Royal Canadian International Circus. "I don't know many shows that could ever pull that off... especially the size of it."This isn't your average tent.