SeriesFest Unveils Pilot Competition Lineup With Projects Featuring Mary Steenburgen, Harvey Guillén, Omar Epps & Roy Wood Jr.

DEADLINE – Mar. 20, 2025

SeriesFest, the event held in Denver, Colorado, has unveiled its latest pilot competition lineup.

The event, which runs April 29 to May 4, has revealed its Independent Pilot Competition, which features projects across drama, comedy, unscripted digital shorts and late-night.

How We Create: Collaboration

The Scene Calgary - Jan. 20, 2025

I can vividly recall the moment I realized I’d been lying to myself for my whole career.

I was sitting in Calgary’s West Village Theatre working on a sound and theatrical production with artists I knew and respected. And I was ablaze with discomfort.

The director, Eric Rose, was thoughtfully and meticulously leading us through the beginnings of a collaborative process when it hit me.

The prickly fire of revelation crept up through my belly and throat, into my face as I realized it — though I had prided myself on being a “good collaborator,” I had instead only allowed others to contribute to my work alongside me. Indeed, I was not a good collaborator. I hadn’t actually been collaborating at all.

Ghost River Theatre brings a unique experience to Calgary’s High-Performance Rodeo

Wind Speaker News - Jan. 15, 2025

Echoes of the Land is one of the latest productions in the 39 annual High-Performance Rodeo taking place during Chinook Blast that invites audiences to reflect on their relationship to the land.

That journey is guided through a sound bath of rhythm and song while combining the unique drumming styles of the Nakoda and Blackfoot with a hint of the country twang of the Prairies.

For drummer and vocalist Cedric Lightning of Goodstoney Nakoda says that mixing musical styles is not just creative but, a form of reconciliation.

Echoes of the Land promises to be a connection to theatre and land and music.

Jenna Shummoogum [Theatre, Dance, & Art Critic] - Jan. 15, 2025

Ghost River Theatre and One Yellow Rabbit are inviting audiences to Echoes of the Land as part of the High Performance Rodeo. It’s an invitation to immerse themselves in a sound bath led by traditional drummers Cedric Lightning and Skip Wolf Leg. It also features musician and spoken word artists Kris Demeanor, Kenna Burima and Alanna Bluebird Onespot.

What to Expect at Echoes of the Land

The Scene - Jan. 15, 2025

As Calgary’s longest-running festival of its kind, the High Performance Rodeo continues to redefine the boundaries of live performance with its fearless embrace of the unconventional. The festival invites audiences to step outside their comfort zones and experience works that are raw, surprising, and thought-provoking. From deeply personal solo performances to bold interdisciplinary collaborations, the festival fosters a spirit of creative risk-taking that celebrates diverse stories and perspectives.

New High Performance Rodeo production takes audience on immersive sound journeY

CTV News Calgary – Jan. 14, 2025

Calgarians are invited to immerse themselves in a transcendent sound journey as part of a new production at Ghost River Theatre.

Echoes of the Land is a presentation from the production company and One Yellow Rabbit as part of the 39 annual High Performance Rodeo.

It’s inspired by the healing power of sound baths, and encourages audience members to reflect on their relationship with the land.

The Room Sculpture Experience invites audiences to be creative, without the pressure of having to create

LiveWire Calgary - Sep. 27, 2024

When audience members enter Ghost River Theatre’s The Room Sculpture Experience, it’ll be an interactive exercise in creating art in a way that is wholly unlike any other theatre performance currently taking place in Calgary.

Surrounded by objects of all types and sizes, fully lit by the magic of lighting designer Tauran, audience members will be guided into creating a sculpture.

All before being asked to deconstruct it piece by piece by the end of the experience.

Unique theatre experience in Calgary combines art and accessibility

Global News Calgary – Oct. 1, 2024

When Ebony Gooden moved to Calgary, she knew she wanted to teach people to listen to something other than just a voice.

“When I came here, I realized I had to fight for things to be accessible,” says Gooden, the only Black Deaf artist living in Calgary.

She’s now determined to make artistic experiences accessible to all. One of those experiences is The Room Sculpture Experience, a unique, hands-on event created by Ghost River Theatre artistic director Eric Rose.

Calgary theatre production makes jump to film in indie production

LiveWire Calgary - Dec. 17, 2023

The story of Ghost River Theatre’s artistic director’s life-altering moment of being struck by lightning is taking the jump from the theatre stage to the silver screen.

Struck, which premiered at the West Village Theatre at the end of January, was already heavily using special effects and video elements to bring Eric Rose’s experience to life.

So natural was that fit between the theatre production and the live video work that it became obvious to Rose to make the jump to a full indie film production.

To see or not to see: Edinburgh fringe’s startling plays about perception

The Guardian UK - Aug. 12, 2023

Seeing is believing, right? That is a phrase used repeatedly by Mamoru Iriguchi and co-star Gavin Pringle in What You See When Your Eyes Are Closed/What You Don’t See When Your Eyes Are Open (★★★★☆). It is an amusingly hand-stitched investigation into ways of seeing, performed in one of Summerhall’s small basement rooms at the Edinburgh fringe. The production treats the challenges faced by people who are blind or visually impaired as a creative resource. The costumes are bold, the lines distinct, the faces larger than life and, in the most idiosyncratic way, everything is captioned and described. It is surreal and, despite its deliberate repetitions, never predictable.

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: TOMORROW'S CHILD, Assembly Checkpoint

Broadway World - Aug. 11, 2023

When Ray Bradbury wrote Tomorrow’s Child, the 80s seemed so far away. From the perspective of the readers, who were just coming out of the second global conflict of the century, 40 years in the future must have felt like an eternity. Published in 1948 in a collection of other pieces by the author, it sees Peter and Polly’s baby being born into an alternate dimension. Stuck with a boy who will never be human in their reality, they have to make a tough choice.

TOMORROW’S CHILD [Edinburgh Fringe]

Starburst Magazine - Aug. 2023

Ghost River Theatre’s solution is to turn the story into a soundscape experience. When you arrive at the performance, attendants in lab coats ask you to wear a blindfold and then carefully lead you to your seat. There is a critical point during the performance when you are meant to remove the blindfold. Safety is paramount, but you do need the blindfold to enjoy the show properly.

The performance is essentially an incredibly elaborate audio drama. A lot of clever technical audio work has gone into producing a dense and multi-layered experience, but this is mostly an audio-only experience. However, combined with the way it’s staged, this really works. 

Makambe Speaks interrogates and celebrates what it means to Albertan, Calgarian

LiveWire Calgary– Apr. 14, 2023

Makambe K. Simamba describes the surprise that audiences are in for when they watch her new play, with a bit of a wry and dry sense of humour.

“Yeah, poor them,” Simamba said.

There’s nothing poor, however, about what attendees will get, as Simamba combines standup comedy, musical theatre, and maybe a touch of the absurd to create something unique for the stage.

World Premiere Of MAKAMBE SPEAKS Comes to the Ghost River Theatre

Broadway World - Apr. 6, 2023

Ghost River Theatre and Handsome Alice Theatre are coming together for the World Premiere of Makambe Speaks, co-created and performed by Makambe K. Simamba, multiple-award winning playwright and actor. Fragments of stand-up comedy, musical theatre and a few other surprises combine in this fantasia of rage, cultural commentary and star-crossed love. Makambe Speaks runs from April 25 to May 6, 2023 at West Village Theatre.

Calgary director uses his own lightning strike survival as the core of Struck

Calgary Citizen - Jan. 25, 2023

“What I’ve realized in entering into midlife is that it is a different perspective to think, ‘Here I am standing with one foot in the wreckage of my past and one foot looking forward into the future,’” Rose says.

“The past offers a ton of information in relation to what the future might hold and I think that without some real reflection and examination, it’s quite difficult to imagine that future.”

Rose hopes his play will reach even more audiences in the future.

Death and mortality inspire ultimately life-affirming play Struck

Calgary Herald– Jan. 24, 2023

When Ghost River Theatre’s artistic director Eric Rose says he once had an electrifying experience, take him at his word. When Rose was 21 and on a camping trip with three friends at Long Lake near Sudbury, Ont., he was struck by lightning.

Rose says the first act of Struck, which is heavily technical, is “like creating a live film on stage for the audience but, for the second act, we strip everything away to make it as simple as possible. It should prove to be an incredible experience for audiences.”

Struck takes audiences on emotional journey of life’s lightning moments

LiveWire Calgary - Jan. 18, 2023

When Eric Rose was 21, he was struck by lightning while camping in Ontario.

The experience, which profoundly changed his life, formed the basis of a 2005 one-act play that he performed during the Solocentric Festival.

Years later, after his father died suddenly while he was in his early 40s, he was once again struck with another profound and life-changing moment.

Experimental Calgary theatre performance explores the meaning of extinction

LiveWire Calgary - Jun. 24, 2022

It’s not a stretch to say the deadline for completing a trio of plays about the meaning of extinction, death, and humanity’s relationship to the natural world was mere hours before performances started.

A trio of plays came out of this year’s three week National Devised Theatre Intensive, put on by Ghost River Theatre’s artistic director Eric Rose, and award-winning artistic director from the United Kingdom, Nel Crouch.

The goal of the theatre workshop was to help established and emerging performers work though an intensive period of hands-on creation.

Ghost River looks to heal pandemic wounds through sound

CTV Calgary– Apr. 11, 2022

Ghost River Theatre thinks it's time for a colllective ear cleanse.

"The Great Alberta Sound Bath Experience invites participants to a sonically-driven meditative ritual to cleanse and shed the profound impacts of COVID while creating space to reconnect and immerse oneself in nature," the company said in a release. "It is a means to help envision a hopeful future."

"From a First Nations drum to a flute, violin, piano, and pedal-steel guitar, the harmonies will blend to help cleanse any mental distress individuals experienced over the pandemic," they added. "The sensory experience also aids in healing and expressing other emotions."

10 A Case Study on Ghost River Theatre’s Food Performance

Canadian Culinary Imaginations – March 30, 2022

Based in Calgary, Alberta, Ghost River focuses on “performance creation,” and Taste is part of the “Six Senses” performance series.3 Eric Rose, artistic director of Ghost River Theatre Company, and Bruce Barton, director of the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary and artistic director of Vertical City Performance, co-created the concept for Taste. Ghost River is the only Canadian theatre company that has created a series of performances based on the senses that not only expands the field of performance but also highlights the importance of food sustainability.

Soundscapes: Ghost River Theatre to take patrons on sonic journey

LiveWire Calgary - Mar. 15, 2022

This won’t be your weekday yoga class sound bath. Ghost River Theatre is planning on taking patrons on a sonic journey that promises to be larger, deeper, and more immersive.

The goal for the Great Alberta Sound Bath Experience is the same. It will allow listeners to experience a connection to others. To heal the body and mind. And to let go of unhealthy emotion.

Musicians and sound designers will be creating complex layers of sound with the intent to immerse the audience. They’ll partner with local musician Kris Demeanor.

Intimate Audio-Materialities: Reinventing Audio Drama for Community-Engaged Crisis Response in Ghost River Theatre’s SensoryBox

Canadian Theatre Review - Oct. 28, 2021

Artist responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown ahve varied widely in genre and medium, though we have collectively witnessed a callback to, and transformation of, older forms of media within the domain of performance. The resurgence of podcast and audio drama as an alternative to other Zoom play has allowed audiences to professionally produce material across dispersed time and space. In Toronto based theatres alone, initiatives such as CBC’s PlayMe podcast, Tarragon Acoustic, and Factory Theatre’s “You Can’t Get There From Here” have revived the medium for contemporary pandemic-time spectators.

Ghost River Theatre's Sensory Box unwraps the unknown

Calgary Herald– Sep. 19, 2020

Ghost River Theatre has prepared hundreds of secured boxes that can be unwrapped in person at the West Village Theatre or in the comfort of one’s own home.

Ghost River’s artistic producer Eric Rose, who conceived this unique experience with playwright Christopher Duthie, says Sensory Box “was always meant to be a hybrid in every way.

“We wanted to find a way to reach out to every kind of theatregoer in these restrictive times. There are those people who are content and eager to watch theatre on screens, but there are also those who are hungry for the live theatre experience.

Calgary theatre companies launch seasons with virtual productions

CTV Calgary– Aug. 30, 2020

Meanwhile, Ghost River Theatre is offering Sensory Box, created by Eric Rose and Christopher Duthie, which they describe as socially distanced theatre that promises to "explore the electric connection between our senses and the imagination."

The twist in this production is that audiences have a choice in how they consume it: they can be one of 20 socially-distanced audience members at performances scheduled for Sept. 23-26 and Oct. 1-3 - or, like some kind of theatrical Skip the Dishes treat, they can have the performance props delivered to their home, to accompany them as they watch the performance online.

How are you Adapting? Ep 8: Eric Rose (Ghost River Theatre)

Business Arts (Podcast) - June 9, 2020

In this episode, we will chat about the theatre’s latest production which takes away the visual and engages the other senses. We will talk about the technology being used, why theatres and performance-based art should be evolving, and the importance of charging for your productions.

This episode will run a little long, but it’s well worth listening to the end. Eric is such a passionate and innovative advocate for theatre arts.

Review: Ghost River has massive success with GIANT

Calgary Herald – Mar. 19, 2019

From concept to execution, Ghost River Theatre’s Giant is an awe-inspiring achievement.

David Van Belle and Eric Rose have crafted a show that dazzles with its inventiveness, originality and theatricality.

All-female ensemble tells Andre the Giant's story through wrestling and puppets

CBC Calgary - Mar. 12, 2019

Andre Rene Roussimoff was better known as iconic professional wrestler Andre the Giant and an actor in the 1987 hit motion picture The Princess Bride. A new play involving puppets, live actors and lots of wrestling sets out to tell his story through the eyes of the daughter he left behind.

Actor and puppeteer Jamie Konchak told The Homestretch about the challenges of bringing this kind of production to life.

Female performers play ‘hyper-masculine dudes’ in Calgary show about famous wrestler Andre the Giant

Global News Calgary - Mar.6, 2019

Calgary performer Jamie Tognazzini might seem like an unusual choice to play the role of Andre the Giant, the champion wrestler also known for his role in the classic movie The Princess Bride.

“I’m like 100 pounds and five feet tall — to play the biggest guy in the world, it’s a huge opportunity,” Tognazzini said.

She’s getting that chance in Ghost River Theatre’s new show, Giant.

Calgary troupe explores 'sixth sense' with immersive theatre experience

CBC Calgary - Sep. 18, 2018

The feeling of intuition is not something that can necessarily be pinned down. But one Calgary theatre troupe is exploring the idea of the sixth sense in hopes of understanding what it means to different people. 

The show, called The Intuition Project, is being put on by Ghost River Theatre as a part of Beakerhead, Calgary's annual arts and science festival. 

Eric Rose, artistic director for Ghost River Theatre, told The Homestretch the project is an immersive, sensory experience where they investigate the sense of intuition.

“Nature Exposed to Our Line of Questioning”: Tomorrow’s Child as Quantum Theatre

Canadian Theatre Review Vol. 175 - June 18, 2018

This article evaluates Ghost River Theatre’s Tomorrow’s Child through theories of subjectivity and reality founded on early quantum mechanics. When scientists first faced uncertainty, discontinuity, granularity of space, and other phenomena that affronted Newtonian and Kantian assumptions, they developed an approach to scientific discovery that respected an unassailable and primary subjectivity yet maintained a realism open to renegotiation. By blinding its spectators, Ghost River Theatre’s Tomorrow’s Child emphasizes the subjective orientation of basic cognition. Spectators must choose where to listen, an activity highlighted by their central spatial location. Yet the sounds from other possible orientations linger, reminding spectators of an amorphous, inaccessible, but actual and shared reality outside their orientation. When our orientations participate in that underlying world, Tomorrow’s Child shows us how our truths are both ours and participants in a shared world.

Calgary’s Ghost River Theatre begins production on André the Giant biography with unique creativity

The Gauntlet - April 26, 2018

Stu Hart, the Family Dungeon, Stampede Wrestling and The Hitman himself.

Calgary, Alberta is internationally recognized as hallowed ground for professional wrestling. In the 1950s, the Saskatchewan-born Stu Hart put Cowtown on the professional wrestling map indefinitely with his Calgary-based promotion, Stampede Wrestling. In addition to Stampede wrestling, which was responsible for shaping stars that would later shine in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF — now World Wrestling Entertainment), Stu purchased a mansion in Patterson Heights that became known as the Hart Family Dungeon. The Dungeon was the training grounds for wrestling’s biggest stars — The British Bulldog, Edge, Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Stu’s own son, Bret “The Hitman” Hart, became the formative personalities of pro-wrestling thanks to a basement in southwest Calgary.

Our Town: Ghost River Theatre has made 'low-fi theatrical magic' for 25 years

Calgary Herald - April 12, 2018

Ghost River Theatre has taken audiences on some strange trips.

There was the fretful drive to Arizona in Mesa; the dusty arrival in a tense frontier town in Something to Do with Death; a journey to the edge of space in Highest Step in the World; and the epic sonic excursion of the audio-only adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Tomorrow’s Child. Equally unusual has been the recent series of visits to more familiar locales such as the Kensington Wine Market, the Aveda Institute and the River Café for blindfolded sensory adventures. Next up is a dive into the psyche of a super-sized professional wrestler. Twenty-five years in, GRT remains steadfastly, wonderfully weird.

Calgary’s surrealist theatre celebrates 25 years

Calgary Gauntlet - Apr. 10, 2018

Ghost River Theatre (GRT) is celebrating its quarter-century mark on April 13 at the West Village Theatre. Founded by Doug Curtis as an ad-hoc theatre troupe in 1992, GRT became a syndicated group in 1999. In the years following, the troupe toured around the world thanks to the raving acclaim they received for the mind-bending nature of their art. GRT has produced 39 original productions since ’92 and, under eight years of Curtis’s leadership, established itself as a progressive, surrealist alternative to traditional theatre.

Hearing is believing: Tomorrow's Child takes blindfolded audience on a sonic journey

CBC News - Oct. 28, 2017

You should experience Ghost River Theatre's Tomorrow's Child. You should not, however, see it.

That's because this production from the Calgary theatre company — which they first performed in 2014, and which is being introduced to Winnipeg audiences by Theatre Projects Manitoba — is meant to be heard, and not seen, by an audience deprived of sight by blindfolds.

The result is trippy, immersive and engrossing.

Beakerhead's scent-specific extravaganza smells like a hit

CBC Calgary - Sep. 15, 2017

Sometimes, the right smell can make you travel back through time. That was what happened with The Eyeopener's Paul Karchut when he dropped in on Scent Bar, a scent-specific piece of original theatre that's being staged at an empty restaurant in downtown Calgary.

It's all part of Beakerhead, the unique festival that bills itself as "a smashup of arts, science and engineering." Scent Bar is the work of Ghost River Theatre, one of the city's most popular and innovative theatre companies. The show is the latest in a series of plays that Ghost River, led by artistic director Eric Rose, has dedicated to exploring the role that our senses play in articulating our reality.

Here's a whiff of Ghost River Theatre's newest show, Scent

The Calgary Herald - Sept. 6, 2017

For Ghost River Theatre, lightning just keeps on striking. The first three entries in Ghost River’s Six Senses Series were runaway successes.

Tomorrow’s Child, the tribute to the sense of hearing, has proven so popular it has been necessary for Ghost River to mount it several times in Calgary since its premiere. It will tour to Winnipeg this fall and then to Burnaby and Victoria next year.

Taste, the culinary experience at River Cafe and Touch, last year’s tactile experience at Aveda Institute, both sold out.

Ghost River Theatre comes to your senses with Touch

The Calgary Herald - Sep. 2, 2016

One of Ghost River Theatre’s mandates is to change the rules of theatre and this goal has never been more evident than in the company’s The Six Senses Series.

Ghost River started with Tomorrow’s Child, a sci-fi excursion that was entirely sound-based as participants entered an unknown space blindfolded and then were bombarded with sounds, music and dialogue.

Then came Taste, a gourmet experience that was a collaboration with River Cafe.  Again they removed participants’ reliance on sight, possibly the most overused of our senses.

Now comes Touch, which is a collaboration with the Aveda Institute of Calgary.

Local play takes away audience’s sense of sight

The Gauntlet - Apr. 5, 2016

Tomorrow’s Child is Ghost River Theatre’s latest play — but unlike most of the theatre’s productions, viewers won’t be able to see the action unfold. Audience members are blindfolded upon entry and led to their seats, where the story is told entirely through audio.

Prolific author Ray Bradbury — best known for the dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451 — wrote Tomorrow’s Child. The story follows Peter and Polly, parents who have to cope with having their child born in another dimension.

Theatre review: Reimagined Little Red ramps up intensity

The Calgary Herald - June 7, 2017

In the case of Major Matt Mason Collective’s ensemble piece Little Red, a year really did make a difference.

This reworked version that runs in the West Village Theatre (2007 10th Avenue S.W.) until June 10 is much leaner, focused and tighter.

The collective, under the leadership of Ghost River Theatre’s Eric Rose, has not only retained what was exhilarating the first time around, but has intensified and heightened those moments while editing what they considered extraneous.

Little Red takes modern look at enduring myth

Calgary Herald - May 25, 2017

It all started four years ago when Ghost River Theatre’s artistic director Eric Rose approached the members of the Major Matt Mason Collective.

“Eric wanted to explore the Little Red Riding Hood myth. He’s seen our work and thought this project would be a good fit for us,” says playwright Geoffrey Simon Brown, one of the founders of Major Matt Mason.

“Our trademark is to create gritty work that explores social issues and sparks conversation and commentary.”

Production of Little Red Riding Hood looks at taboos, rape culture and assault

The Calgary Herald - June 8, 2016

The Major Matt Mason Collective and Ghost River Theatre sinking their collective dentures into the Little Red Riding Hood myth seemed like the height of incongruity.

Then I connected with Ghost River’s artistic director Eric Rose, Major Matt Mason’s award-winning playwright-in-residence Geoffrey Simon Brown and actor Charlie Gould, who’ll be playing Red in a workshop production of Little Red that runs in the West Village Theatre June 9 through 11, and it didn’t seem to be all that much of a stretch.

Five facts about Window: Ghost River Theatre goes back to school

Calgary Herald - May 14, 2016

Ghost River Theatre goes back to school for their referential non-linear play developed with U of C students.

Homework Ghost River Theatre artistic director Eric Rose brought the basic concept of Window to a class of drama students at the University of Calgary, then fleshed it out with their ideas. Ghost River is the first “theatre company in residence” for the U of C, which has given the students a way to directly apply the skills they learn to the professional production of a play.

Ghost River explores the rabbit hole of technology through Window

The Calgary Herald - March 10, 2016

Hello Alice!

Contemporary technology has created a whole new rabbit hole and Ghost River’s Eric Rose invites you to explore it.

According to Rose, the whole new Wonderland that technology has created is a fascinating maze more akin to the labyrinth constructed to hold the Minotaur than the mind-expanding world Alice explored courtesy of Lewis Carroll.

Ghost River returns with the internal spectacle of Tomorrow's Child

Calgary Herald - Jan. 13, 2016

Spectacle is what Hollywood hopes to deliver, every single summer.

You know the drill – one explosion bigger than the next, in the hopes of generating an experience no one will ever forget.

Theatre people, tasked with telling stories on stages at a fraction of the cost of those Hollywood blockbusters, have to find their spectacles in other ways.

To the credit of Calgary’s Ghost River Theatre, which are bringing back their sound-specific retro-futuristic drama Tomorrow’s Child, to the High Performance Rodeo, theatrical spectacle  has not only been re-invented, but redefined by the company’s artistic director Eric Rose.

Ghost River sets its sights on the journey of scotch

The Calgary Herald - Nov. 18, 2015

Friday night at The Bourbon Room inside the National on 10th Avenue, Ghost River Theatre artistic director Eric Rose is conducting an artistic experiment disguised as a culinary one.

Rose, with a little help from some of the members of his innovative, award-winning independent theatre company, will join with Kensington Wine Market owner Andrew Ferguson to present a multi-sensory scotch tasting.

Bettys honour city's outstanding theatrical moments

The Calgary Herald - Aug. 25, 2015

For Alberta Theatre Projects, Monday was a voyage they’ll never forget. That was the take-away Monday night, when Calgary’s theatre community gathered at the Vertigo Theatre to hand out the Betty Mitchell Awards, honouring the finest productions of the 2014-15 Calgary theatre season.

The big winner was The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, Alberta Theatre Project’s co-production, (along with Ghost River Theatre), which won six Bettys all by itself — for Play (David van Belle and Eric Rose), New Play (same two guys), Direction (Rose, again, for the third time), Actor (Braden Griffiths), Projection or Video Design (Wladimiro A, Woyno R, Matthew Waddell and Laura Anzola), and Lighting Design (Kerem Cetinel).

Review: Sailing goes multi-media in Donald Crowhurst saga

Calgary Herald - Mar. 2, 2015

Someone tried to turn Titanic into a musical. Why not turn a solo sailing misadventure into a play?

That’s the challenge facing the talented guys from Ghost River Theatre, David van Belle and Eric Rose (with a lot of help from video designer Matt Waddell), whose latest epic drama, The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, had its world première Friday at the Martha Cohen Theatre.

Four years in the making, Donald Crowhurst was a challenge right from the get-go, said director Eric Rose prior to the show, speaking to a sold-out house positively reverberating with adrenalin.

Ghost River Theatre

CBC: The Homestretch - Mar. 18, 2014

A new play has adventurous theatre goers in the audience blindfolded. Guest host Frank Rackow talks to Eric Rose co-artistic director og Ghost River Theatre and Matthew Waddel the sound designer.

 Tomorrow's Child by Ghost River Theatre runs through to Saturday March 22nd at Ghost River Theatre's New Home - formerly Dancers' Studio West-- in Sunalta.

A millennium with an enemy Ghost River Theatre examines tolerance, free speech and fundamentalism in production inspired by real life murder

The Calgary Journal - Dec. 4, 2012

Outspoken Dutch filmmaker and staunch criticizer of Islam, Theo van Gogh, was murdered in broad daylight in the streets of Amsterdam on Nov. 2, 2004. He was left with a five-page manifesto threatening western-style governments pinned to his body.His killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, a Muslim extremist born and raised in the Netherland’s capital, now serves life without parole in Nieuw Vosseveld Prison located in the southern Netherlands.

Eight years later, on Dec. 12, Calgary’s Ghost River Theatre will unveil Everything is Terribly Nice Here.

Aspiring playwrights learn what it takes

Red Deer Advocate - Nov. 12, 2012

Red Deer’s aspiring playwrights learned what it takes to be in the biz from a Calgary professional on Sunday.

David van Belle, co-artistic director of Ghost River Theatre, instructed 20 individuals during a workshop entitled, Putting it to Paper: Splash Writing for New Playwrights.

Van Belle said he initially trained as a director so it’s only been within the last 10 years that he’s been playwrighting. He now creates shows with fellow artistic director Eric Rose.

Step Up!

Edmonton Journal - Jan. 24, 2012

I’m not actually writing to hawk our magazine, though. This actually a roundabout way to talk about a really exciting theatre production that’s coming to the Greater Edmonton Area this week: Ghost River Theatre’s The Highest Step in the World playing at the Arden Theatre in St. Albert. It’s only here for two nights: January 27 & 28 (that’s this Friday and Saturday).

Calgary theatre awards honour reimagined tales

CBC News - Aug. 9, 2011

Theatre works that offer a fresh take on established stories earned kudos at the 2011 Betty Mitchell Awards, Calgary's annual celebration of theatrical excellence.

Several acclaimed works won multiple honours at the Mitchell gala in Calgary Monday evening.

Ghost River Theatre's ONE — a modern, gender-reversed update of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice — was triumphant in a trio of categories, including the coveted outstanding production of a play.

Haunting play wins 3 Calgary theatre awards

CBC Arts - Aug. 24, 2009

NiX, the innovative production created on an ice rink by ATP, Ghost River Theatre and Only Animal theatre troupe, won awards for best set and best lighting.

Set designer Carl Schlichting created a post-apocalyptic world of ice and snow for the production, with lighting by William Hales.

Inside the dome in Calgary, a post-apocalyptic world made of snow

CBC Calgary - Jan. 22, 2009

A play created for a set of snow and ice by innovative Vancouver playwright Kendra Fanconi is among four works being staged in Calgary's annual festival of new Canadian plays.

Crews are working this week to build a surreal set of ice, snow and blown glass that is meant to be a post-apocalyptic world for the play Nix.It's all going up inside a geodesic dome over the skating rink on Olympic Plaza in Calgary.

Nix was created by Fanconi in response to a request from ATP for a new work to be staged on a public site.