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Trip2
In January, the Friday after break, STAC took a spontaneous trip into the city to see "The Event of a Thread" by Ann Hamilton at the Park armoury. After a few hours, we separated and explored the city until 7:30 where we met up at the Crane theatre (which is quickly becoming a STAC haunt) to see HorseTrade Radiotheatre's production of King Kong.
Park armoury:
My favorite trip. I loved the exhibit! The gentle movement of people swinging back and forth, and the curtain flowing by the mechanical breeze was quite calming. Many people were taking a nap under the giant curtain!
The constant movement and the large crowd made the exhibit very photogenic, too. I took a lot of pictures/video: Link (Note: Facebook albumn only friends can see)

Exploring:
I was in a group with Ellen, Danny, little Katz, Lex, Emily, Jessica, Ishna, and Scott. After we exited the armoury, we walked down 5th and looked at the post-christmas decorations, including the tree.
-couple of pics-
Then we took a train down to The Village, where Ellen showed us an authentic Ukranian restaurant (I've seen it before -the building across from 16 Handles- but I never knew it was a restaurant.) I ordered perogis and they were delicious!
After that we walked around and settled on 16 handles for dessert. By then, it was time to head to the Krane theatre to see the show!
King Kong production:
We've been to the Krane theatre to see a few shows from The Futurists, and from those experiences we were all eager to see how this show would be.
The show did have excellent voice acting, but...it was a bit too dry to taste that night. It was clever how the actors used a huge picture of King Kong, and let a lot of the scenes up to the viewers imagination, but I think we were all looking for something more...exciting.
All in all, it was a relaxing trip. A nice come back from break (I love doing spontaneous things...)

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Slings and Arrows

So, over winter break I started -and finished- this wonderful show "Slings and Arrows."
The show covers a Canadian, Shakespearian, theatre company and the troubles it faces from the beginning of production to premiere. The main character and artistic director, Geoffery Tennant, is haunted by a ghost with an ego who takes it upon himself to be involved in /helping/ Geoffery's production process  (I can't say of who, since that's a spoiler.)
Being a theatre company, many of the problemsthat arise relate to either funding or deep-seated artistic issues. Funnily enough, the main theme of the show addresses what we constantly are reminded of in STAC: You must make a decision.
I love this show. Sadly, it's only 3 seasons, but they made my winter vacation!

Here's what I like about it
-Humor: The dialouge is biting, but used effectively so people are actually being funny, not clever.

-Complex characters/great acting: The characters are exaggerated, yet believable. For example, old actor hated Jeffery, and made this very clear, but he sided with Jeffery against this other actor who was being thick headed because the older actor cared so much about the production. Also, it seems like everyone has a lot of fun while in the show.

-Great storylines: The first episode is a bit slow, but after the ball gets rolling, I couldn't stop watching it! They gradually build up suspense, so it's really hard to stop at the episode before the season finale. Another interesting thing is,
*SPOILER ALERT* they let the first season end in success, then after that they manage to keep the show going by having the characters react to success and all the things that come with it. They explore artistic issues, such as topping previous successes, and real-life issues, such as getting funding for productions. Everything about this show is well-done. While writing about it, I'm remembering the episodes and I want to watch it again!