Meet the Capital Critics

Patrick Langston was the theatre critic for the Ottawa Citizen from 2009 to 2016. He currently covers professional theatre in the National Capital Region for www.artsfile.ca. Patrick also writes for Ottawa Magazine, Diplomat Magazine, and Penguin Eggs – Canada’s folk, roots and world music magazine. He recently taught a course in theatre criticism at the University of Ottawa. Patrick lives in Navan, Ontario.

Natasha Lomonossof  studied theatre criticism at University of Ottawa,s Theatre Department under Patrick Langston. She is curently  doing her MA in English at Queens University this year (2018-19) and reviewing theatre in the Kingston Area. She also contributes to 1000 Islands playhouse in Gananoque

 Jim Murchison studied theatre at John Abbott College. He was a founding member of the Group of Four Theatre and director of the Enterprise theater troupe in Dollard des Ormeaux. He worked as an actor in film, theatre and television until 1998. In Theatre he performed with Harlequin theatre in Dorset Vermont and performed with theatre companies in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa including The Centaur Theatre and the National Arts Centre in 1983 and 1984 seasons. Jim started writing theatre reviews for the Charlebois Post in 2011. 

Ryan Pepper  Former arts editor at the Fulcrum the University of Ottawa students’ paper is currently reviewing for the CCC.

Jamie  Portman  has distinguished himself as one of the finest theatre critics in the country. He is presently a free lance critic , periodically  writing  reviews for theatre in Canada  and in England for the Capitalcriticscircle and  Postmedia-News (formerly CanWest). Jamie makes his home in Kanata.

Alvina Ruprecht is professor emeritus from Carleton University. She is presently adjunct professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Ottawa and she was  regular theatre critic on Ottawa Morning CBC  for 30 years.  Apart from her books and  many research publications on Caribbean theatres  and the theatres of the South Pacific, she contributes regularly to theatre criticism  sites in France, Canada and countries of the Caribbean. She also writes regularly for the on line theatre journal of the Internationation Association of Theatre critics:  www.critical-stages.org, the French site    www.theatredublog.unblog.frwww.madinin-art.net and the and the Toronto based  www.scenechanges.com.  Alvina  lives in Ottawa.

Maja Stefanovska was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina to a political journalist father and arts critic mother (Rajka Stevanovska) , Maja has been immersed in the performing arts since she was very young. She has a Master’s in Communication (U. of Ottawa). She has  written extensively for  The Fulcrum, The Leveller and Apt613.  Maja lives in Ottawa.

Rajka Stefanovska  was a radio journalist and arts reviewer in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as on Radio Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Serbia for 20 years. When the war in former Yugoslavia started she moved to Ottawa, where she joined the Parliamentary Press Gallery as a correspondent for several media, and was a contributor to the Canadian news agency “Issues Network.” At the moment, she works as a federal public servant and still lives in Ottawa.

Iris Winston has been a writer, editor, reporter and theatre reviewer for more than 45 years. She has won national and provincial awards for her fiction, non-fiction and reviews. A retired federal public servant, she has seven books and nine plays  in print and writes regularly for regional, national and international newspapers and magazines.  Iris lives in  Almonte.

Jane Baldwin,  a longtime faculty member of the Boston Conservatory, taught Modern Drama, Acting, and Humanities. Her books include Michel Saint-Denis and the Shaping of the Modern Actor (Greenwood Press), Theatre: The Rediscovery of Style and Other Writings, which she edited (Routledge Press), and Vie et morts de la création collective/Lives and Deaths of Collective Creation, co-edited with Jean-Marc Larrue and Christiane Page (Vox Theatri).  She has published a number of articles and chapters on Michel Saint-Denis, Jean Gascon, Suzanne Bing, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and is presently writing a chapter on the experimental U.S. company The Rude Mechs.  Although most of her reviews are from the Boston area, she has followed the Stratford Festival in Ontario and theatre in Montréal for many years.

Laurie Fyffe is a playwright, actor, dramaturge, and Artistic Director of the Ottawa-based Evolution Theatre. She has acted in Ottawa, has had her plays produced at the Ottawa Fringe, at the  Tarragon Theatre, at Factory Theatre, at the Blyth Festival, and Theatre Kingston. Her short play In Kabul premiered at New Theatre of Ottawa’s 2012 Short Play Festival and was subsequently produced at the Short & Sweet Festival in Sydney, Australia. From 2014 to 2017.  Laurie received her MA in Theatre from the University of Ottawa (2010) . She makes her home in Ottawa.

 Yana Meerzon was trained as a professional theatre critic in Moscow, Russia, at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS).  After a twenty years career as a university professor in theatre studies, she is returning to her passion: writing theatre reviews. In Moscow, she published in the journal Theatre Life/Teatral’naya Zhizn’ and worked for television. In Canada, she contributes to the  Capital Critics Circle, Alt.Theatre and The Theatre Times site. Recently, she started teaching theatre criticism for the Department of Theatre, University of Ottawa. A website with the information on her academic work, teaching and research is here.  She is currently an editor for the site www.critical-stages.org   https://arts.uottawa.ca/theatre/en/people/meerzon-yana