The preparation for our Toronto The Tide of Blood Launch Party just over two weeks ago was covered by Canada’s top “geek” program, InnerSPACE. The producer, the incredibly talented and knowledgeable Mark Askwith, visited us as we set up for the gallery show and interviewed Andy as well as myself (Conor was in Seattle that day for Emerald City Comic-Con).
You can watched the segment by clicking on the photo below.
Tonight and tomorrow night come check out the show that had Emerald City buzzing!
Today is the day Seattle!
The Kill Shakespeare Dramatic Reading starts its two night run this evening at 8 PM at the Balagan Theatre (1524 Harvard Ave)
Tickets are available through the Balagan website and as a special gift to fans of Kill Shakespeare you can use the code ‘ECCC’ to get a $5 discount.
Or, if you were at Emerald City Comic Con, you can use your badge, or the yellow flyer we were handing out at the booth, to get your discount as well.
Enjoy the show, and let us know what you think!
Conor
Emerald City is this weekend!
This weekend the intrepid duo of Kill Shakespeare will be forced to split up.
Anthony stays in Toronto to oversee our big gallery show at the Comic Book Lounge (587A College St.) on Saturday evening, which if you are in Toronto you REALLY need to go to, while I head out to the left coast to hit Emerald City Comic Con.
I’ve never been to the Seattle show but am excited for many reasons:
If your drummer has Wolverine-style claws, you might be in a Nerd Rock band...
1) Show founder Jim Demonakos is an amazing guy AND married to the lovely Canadian comics fanatic Andrea Demonakos (nee Ball)! So any chance to see their smiling faces is one you HAVE to take.
2) Jim, and Kyle Stevens, the dynamic duo behind the awesome Nerd Rock band, Kirby Krackle, will be performing on their home turf as part of Kracklefest 3!
The Kill Shakespeare Dramatic Reading is coming to Seattle!
3) The Kill Shakespeare Dramatic Reading is going to hit the ECCC stage on Saturday at 5 P.M. I can’t WAIT to see what the amazing people at Balagan Theatre will do with our baby when it hits hall 2AB
and
4) I get to host two different panels. One on writing at 3 PM on Friday in room #401 the other is on the business of creation on Sunday at 5 PM, also in room #401
So if you are attending Emerald City please swing by artist alley, table J-02, to say ‘hello’ and pick up your copy of Tide of Blood Issue #1!
Hugs, Conor
One of the most exciting and, for me, nerve-wracking projects for Kill Shakespeare in 2013 is the on-going roll-out of the stageshow.
It’s exciting because the stageshow allows us to reach an entirely different audience and get new people interested in stepping into the Kill Shakespeare world. It’s nerve-wracking though for that same reason: new people means new opportunities for misunderstanding the “point” of Kill Shakespeare. We’re here to praise the Bard, not to bury him, as those who’ve attended a convention with us have probably heard us say, but not everyone gets that.
Moving to the stage is also a bit intimidating because theatre audiences can have a reputation for… well, let’s put ths kindly, bone-shattering snobbery.
This is the sort of guy that sends Conor crawling for the exits.
And theatre critics? Oh, man they can be the WORST: with a glass of chardonnay in one hand, a wheel of camembert in the other, and cheekbones that could cut glass, they scare the hell out of me by just SAYING the name Brecht.
Add to all THAT, the reality that in about a week the most ambitious undertaking of the dramatic reading EVER attempted is hitting the stage in Chicago, and you can tell why my already poor sleep habits might take a further nose dive.
Imagine my relief when Anderson Lawfer, the head-cheese over at Strawdog Theatre, the folks who are going to put Kill Shakespeare on stage for an unprecedented THREE WEEK run, called me to tell me that Time Out Chicago wanted to do an article on the show. It seems like those arbitrers of all that is cool in the Windy City think Kill Shakespeare fits the bill.
And indeed they have, and they seem quite excited about the whole thing.
Kill Shakespeare: The Dramtic Reading will hit the boards on March 4th and goes until the 26th in Strawdog’s cabaret space (the warm-and-fuzzily named Hugen Hall – grab tickets here).
You spell theatrical visionary: A-n-d-e-r-s-o-n L-a-w-f-e-r
Aside from talking up the show, Time Out goes in-depth about
Anderson and the rest of the Strawdog team and their penchant for staging some of the most interesting and innovative theatre in the city.
I certainly hope that fans of ours in and around Chicago will be able to attend the show — from what Anderson tells us it is going to be an experience unlike anything else that you have seen.
And if Ms. Snooty-critic with the killer cheekbones and the gluten-free diet doesn’t like it? Well fine… I’ll sleep soundly regardless.
(plus, I’d just show her this)
Conor
The first review is in… and it’s a positive one! The comics blog Part-Time Fanboy, overseen by a former Aint It Cool News reviewer, posted a review of the first issue of The Tide of Blood earlier this week and praises it for how we’ve been able to take our characters in new directions. What is really cool is this section:
“I want to give major kudos to Andy Belanger as he continues to do a fantastic job on the illustration chores. Belanger has changed his style somewhat from the art of the original series. I don’t know what it is…it seems as if the art in Tide of Blood is a bit rawer and less refined. I actually like this sort of newfound revision to Belanger’s technique. It adds to the feel of a rag-tag group of characters trying to pull a new society together. It gives the whole thing a sort of a “survivalist Shakespeare” vibe that I loved. Also different is the palette of the whole book. From what I remember of the original series it consisted of a lot of reds and browns that added a nice warmth to the book. The colors in this first issue of Tide of Blood are decidedly different. The hues and shades are somewhat brighter than the previous series and that gives TOB very much a feeling of being an all-new chapter in an ongoing saga. It’d be very easy for colorist Shari Chankhamma to stick to the look of the first series since it was such a success. This very slight change in the visuals of the book struck me as a bit of a bold move on her part which made me feel that the people behind Kill Shakespeare were going to be as courageous with their choices in this mini-series as they were with their first outing.”
Click on the image below to read the entire review.
Conor and I were asked this week to appear on Global TV’s The Morning Show to talk about our favourite (and least-favourite) films of 2012. Joining us was the uber-astute moviegoer Daniel Reynolds (a really great guy – and very smart viewer) in a roundtable format.
Our picks? You can check out the clip below to watch and find out. However, I’ll hint a couple things – we talk about Sarah Polley’s good and bad efforts, Ben Affleck’s chest, and Ridley Scott’s scripts…
We were able to get a very early sneak preview of our Issue #1 of The Tide of Blood series to the folks at Diamond’s Previews World magazine a couple weeks ago… and they liked it so much that they named it a Staff Pick for the month of February!
Kate Henning writes: “If you’re looking for a solid story with complex characters and a little bit of magic, believe me when I say you’d do well to join them.” (Click on the image to read the preview.)
We’re excited to see what others think of the issue (and series) when it’s released in February. Stay tuned for more information on the new series over the next little while.
For those that don’t know, Boing Boing is one of the top websites for geeks and overall culture influencers. They put together late last month the items on their 2012 Gift Guide and we are listed on it!
Their pop culture columnist Jamie Frevele, who we met at New York Comic-Con last month, highlights our series and recommends it, “for the Shakespeare lover in your life.”
Check out the complete list by clicking on the Boing Boing logo above.
(Thanks to Alison Gibbins for being the first to let us know about this!)
The reviews are rolling in from Halifax for the Kill Shakespeare show and they are GOOD!
Daniel Gervais as Hamlet
First, Kate Watson, of legendary weekly The Coast, gave the production a very strong review saying:
I see over a 100 plays a year, and I’m predicting that Kill Shakespeare will stand out as one of the most memorable and entertaining of 2012.
She raved about the cast provided by Lion’s Den and Vile Passeist and then concluded by saying the show was “not to be missed”.
To read the full review click here.
After that we got another great shout out from The Chronicle Herald. This is Halifax’s largest daily newspaper. The Chronicle ended up giving us a feature length review. Not just on the theatre show (which Elissa Barnard called “marvellous”), but also on the whole concept.
The Chronicle was also amazed at the work of Andy B.:
Belanger’s illustrations are a beautiful and sometimes extraordinary art, especially when Hamlet must face his own demons in the hall of mirrors sequence.
To read more of what the Chronicle, uh, chronicled click here.
And remember, Haligonians, there are still three shows left to catch tonight and tomorrow night at 8 PM as well as a 2 PM matinee on Sunday.
Thanks to everyone who has gone out to see the show so far, we really appreciate your support.
There are tons of memories and photos to share from the Halifax ComicCon, and I promise I’ll get right on that but, first, I wanted to make sure our friends and fans in Nova Scotia know they can come and support Kill Shakespeare by attending our….
FIRST EVER PRESENTATION OF THE KILL SHAKESPEARE STAGE SHOW ON A “MAINSTREAM” STAGE!!!!
The Kill Shakespeare stage show is a 90 minute (including intermission) theatre extravaganza that takes all of Andy’s amazing art and uses it as backdrop for a team of actors to stage a radio-play style performance complete with live foley and music.
Our awesome actors at work at HalCon.
We’ve teamed up with the amazing people from Lion’s Den Theatre and Vile Passeist Theatre to put the show on for a whole week from Tuesday October 30th, to Sunday November 4th. We’d love for you to come join us. And if you can’t make it please think of sharing the news on Facebook and Twitter.
Kill Shakespeare at Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax):
Tickets $20, $15 for students and anyone with a HalCon pass.
October 30th – 8 PM. Opening Night: stay for drinks and snacks with the cast, director and co-writer!
October 31st – 8 PM Halloween Madness: Costumed guests pay student rate. Free lootbags!
November 1st - 8 PM
November 2nd - 8 PM
November 3rd – 8 PM
November 4th – 2 PM Matinee, 8 PM Closing Night/Trivia: Free K.S. swag for winners!
See you at the show!
The entire cast - cute bunch, eh?
Conor’s Con Pix Galore! (And a ANDY B. retrospective: “A Man and his Beard”)
May 14, 2013 – 11:59 am
Images from Ottawa
May 13, 2013 – 12:59 pm
HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY, TCAF!
May 10, 2013 – 4:36 pm
Anthony in the (Canadian) Nation’s Capital this weekend!
May 7, 2013 – 12:16 pm
Pics from Calgary!
May 3, 2013 – 1:40 pm
Great first day in Calgary!
April 27, 2013 – 2:24 am
Issue #3 is released today!
April 24, 2013 – 4:27 pm
We’re in both Calgary and Chicago this weekend!
April 24, 2013 – 4:15 pm
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM!
April 23, 2013 – 10:29 am
Caption Contest! Win an autographed copy of Issue #3!
April 22, 2013 – 3:31 pm
Anthony and Andy discuss The Tide of Blood (video)
December 11, 2012 – 11:01 am
Auditions begin for our LIVE STAGE READING in Dubai!
January 4, 2013 – 10:51 am
Issue 5 Preview Pages
September 7, 2010 – 12:25 pm
An interesting sequel to Macbeth
March 14, 2010 – 7:21 pm
Anthony Talks About Libraries!
June 10, 2012 – 1:44 pm
Celebrate the (Imminent) Release of Issue #12 with Andy B!
August 7, 2011 – 1:48 pm
Issue #12 released August 17th!
July 28, 2011 – 9:21 am
Snail Trail!
August 24, 2012 – 12:36 pm
Issue #3 is released today!
July 7, 2010 – 11:01 am
We turn a heretic into a believer!
August 23, 2010 – 2:58 pm
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