Some exciting news: I’ve landed in New York because tomorrow, I begin my new job as the Magic & Illusion Lead for the North American Tour of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
This is my first-ever national tour and I’m so eager to get to return to this world after serving on the magic direction team for the Canadian premiere.
I’m only in NYC for a heartbeat before flying to Chicago for tech and previews, and then I’ll be looking after the show as it tours on to Los Angeles, Washington, and well beyond.
Cursed Child is hardly an isolated case for this hefty use of theatre
magic. Plenty of prominent productions utilize magic design in considerable
ways, including the current West End hit
Stranger Things: The First Shadow (also featuring illusion design by
Cursed Child’s Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher), which is already
planning to hit more stages internationally, with little doubt that Canada
will eventually be in the mix. Hit musical adaptations from the West End and
Broadway like Back to the Future (illusions by Chris Fisher) and
Beetlejuice (illusions by Michael Weber) are both slated for the
forthcoming Mirvish subscription season.
Of course, a common
thread here is that these are all imported, big-budget commercial
properties. But the beautiful thing about magic is that a relentless spirit
of ingenuity and creative problem-solving is far more important than a price
tag. The entire job description is about making the impossible possible
onstage, and the greatest magic is achieved by earthy, organic means rather
than high-tech gadgets.
One such homegrown example is Young
People’s Theatre’s Dora-winning The Darkest Dark, adapted by Jim
Millan and Ian MacIntyre from Chris Hadfield and Kate Fillion’s book of the
same name. Canadian conjuror David Ben – who also staged the effects in the
Stratford Festival’s Grand Magic last season — was tasked with
crafting magic that had a childlike spirit of play and imagination, with
sophisticated, memorable illusions built from humble cardboard boxes. On a
smaller-scale indie level, Eric Woolfe’s Eldritch Theatre is also known to
regularly feature sleight of hand in their spooky seasons of plays.
In lieu of a physical reunion bringing together past campers and staff,
Canada’s Magic is hosting a virtual reunion of sorts. We’ve reached
out to the Sorcerers Safari community with a dozen or so questions to help
bring us up to date on what everyone has been up to since our magic camp
days.
If you completed our survey, keep your eyes peeled for your segment!
If you would like to participate but haven’t filled out
the survey, there’s still time. The survey can be found here:
https://forms.gle/umg77yj9QxUzfpm76
Thank you to all that contributed!
Mike, Jen, Sorcerers Safari staff, and alumni, this series is for you.
These magicians will shape the future of magic. Be sure to check out the full list, the reasons they're on there, and the interviews. Should we keep our eyes on any performers for next year's list?
I have some news! Today was my first day jumping into one of the most exciting (and terrifying) journeys of my career so far as I join the Canadian premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Mirvish as the Illusions & Magic Assistant.
I’ve been in magic even longer than I’ve been in theatre, and it’s a literal dream to be able to combine these two parts of my artistic identity by joining the creative team behind this international smash hit play that uses magic, illusion, and sleight of hand as a key piece of its theatrical language.
I’ve never worked on something of such immense scale, and I’d be lying if I said I’m not overwhelmed. But I’m also beyond excited to work with this unbelievable company of artists, learn on my feet, and hit the ground running. Let’s GOOOOO.
So very excited to announce that I will officially be the Playwright-in-Residence at @ectheatre for 2021!
ECT means a lot to me - they programmed and produced the world premiere of my play The Team last year - and I'm beyond excited to spend the next year developing and workshopping a brand new play with them.
Thank you to ECT for having me, and thank you to the @ontarioartscouncil for supporting this residency. I can't wait!
I’m thrilled to be included as part of the @hamartscouncil Online Performance Series, for which I will be directing a special live-streamed performance of my play The Year and Two of Us Back Here starring the wonderful original cast of @hime.sarah and @stephenjamesingram!
The play was a hit when it premiered in 2018 and I’m so excited to reimagine it and restage it for a digital platform.
Don’t worry: we won’t just be reading the play for you over Facebook Live.
This is a chance to explore the exciting possibilities of staging a play on a virtual platform, and we can’t wait to try out some new ideas to bring this play to full life... even at a distance!
I’m VERY excited to officially announce that I’ll be the 2019/2020 Playwright-in-Residence at @roseneath!
I’ll be spending much of the next year developing my new play, The Boys, with Roseneath’s invaluable expertise and resources.
Endless thanks to Roseneath Theatre and Andrew Lamb for giving me and my play a home this season, and to the @ontarioartscouncil for their generous support of the residency. I can’t wait to get started!
Imagine being a teenager. Imagine being a teenager whose peculiar passion is prestidigitation. Imagine being the only young person in your neighbourhood who cares about it the way you do. Now, imagine 100 other teenagers just like you, pasty and idiosyncratic with wildly varying degrees of social aptitude, coming together in your own little speck of the world for a week, each one of you suddenly somewhere you all belong. That was magic camp.
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Also, my new play The Year and Two of Us Back Here is officially premiering at the @HamOntFringe in 2018 at @TheStaircase. It's really personal and also has the longest title at the Fringe this year probably. I can't wait to share it with you. pic.twitter.com/srieQJfaSu
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Deeply humbled and honoured that my play has been awarded the 2017 Voaden Prize. pic.twitter.com/8mCNuH9uN0
I get where they’re coming from; the buzz about my hometown hasn’t exactly been glowing in recent years. But Hamilton is going through a renaissance. We’re not “Steel Town” anymore. This little big city is a forty-five-minute drive down the 403 from Toronto; take that car another ten minutes off the highway and up James Street North, and a loud phrase painted across a stretch of sidewalk says it all: “Art is the new steel.”
