In short: collaborators, language, sex, violence, poetry, adapters, prolific, Central England, underappreciated.

The arguments presented in Fuck Christmas Theatre are absolutist, naive and terribly flawed. I’m cracking my knuckles in anticipation of knocking them into oblivion.

Every theatre company in North America trots out a tired yuletide play at this time of year with one goal in mind: fleece the rubes!

What they do is difficult, and underappreciated.

C.R. Avery is a musician, spoken word artist, beat boxer, poet and much else. His Mt. Rushmore includes Tennessee Williams, Patti Smith, Sam Shepard, the blues and hip hop.

If you had a personal Mt. Rushmore, who or what would be on it? Why those things? And do those things say about you?

Some works of art lay everything out for you. Some acknowledge the audience, and pull them out of their chairs, into the arena.

Why does the hero need to be pushed to the point of near defeat for the victory to mean so much?

Many cities have a locally owned and operated movie theatre that appeals with character, history and individuality. Vancouver's got the Rio. And you could help save it.

Mark Meer is an Edmonton based actor, writer and improvisor. His totems are Jim Henson, John Cleese, Alan Moore, Doctor Doom, and Tom Waits.

Kahlil Ashanti turned his painful childhood experiences into a one man show. He leads at risk youths in workshops that show them how to do the same thing with their lives.

Kahlil Ashanti is a writer and performer. In this interview he talks about who would be on his Mt. Rushmore: Richard Pryor, Don Knotts, Eminem, and various formative experiences and friendships.

Living in the information age has most of us doing mental juggling routines as a matter of course. Can we handle it? Are we getting more distracted and fragmented? Or is this good exercise for us? Have we long had an underfed capacity for complexity that’s only now being regularly fertilized?

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