Last night, Theatre Nova Scotia’s Merritt Awards celebrated the best in local live performance with its first ceremony since COVID-19’s arrival. With plays from 2020 and 2021 both in the running, the nominee list felt like a reminder of just how much boundary-breaking, life-affirming theatre has been made during the pandemic in this province. Eastern […]
Morgan Mullin
Morgan was the Arts & Entertainment Editor at The Coast, where she wrote about everything from what to see and do around Halifax to profiles of the city’s creative class to larger cultural pieces. She started with The Coast in 2016.
Posted inArts + Music
Stephanie Joline’s debut feature Night Blooms blossoms at Cineplex Park Lane this week
When watching Night Blooms, the debut feature film from Stephanie Joline, it’s impossible for a viewer’s stomach to remain unclenched. The knots start tying in reaction to the visceral immersion felt from the movie’s opening frames: That you’re stuck in the nowheresville of 1998 small town Nova Scotia, just like the film’s anti-hero main character, […]
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Art rocker Sister Swire could’ve recorded her debut anywhere. Here’s why she chose Dartmouth.
Sarah Swire is the sort of multi-hyphenate who breaks the character limits of social media bios: Between touring the world as a performance artist with band Belle & Sebastian and acting in a recurring bit on Murdoch Mysteries, she’s also produced music for the BBC. But these days, the best description for the artist, who […]
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Shakespeare By The Sea co-founder Elizabeth Murphy retiring
“I love living in Halifax. I’ve lived here since 1988. It’s my home. And I’m so happy to be able to say I did something nice for Halifax, for Nova Scotia” says Elizabeth Murphy, one of the three founders of Shakespeare By The Sea, speaking with The Coast by phone. Earlier today (Wednesday, April 6), […]
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Matt Mays announces trio of August Shore Club shows
A couple of indie Can-rock kings will descend on Hubbards’s Shore Club this August 25-27. Dartmouth hero Matt Mays has long marked the swan song of the season with a trio of always-packed, always-sold-out, always-worth-it shows at the venerable dance hall, and 2022 sees the tradition return to its pre-pandemic format, ditching the inflated prices of […]
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Halifax-based Ukrainian artist’s work included in art auction for Ukraine
Ukrainian artist Yana Movchan has a style of light-doused neo-realism that garners national acclaim, belying her quiet Halifax-based practice. Hers are the sort of instant-classic canvases that bring a magical realist feel with their quiet symbolism—and, she’s now donating a work to an art auction benefiting Ukrainian refugees. Curated by the Ukrainian Institute of Modern […]
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FIN Atlantic International Film Festival announces new executive director
Today is the last day of work for longtime FIN Atlantic International Film Festival executive director Wayne Carter, who came to the fest from New Brunswick by way of Toronto in 2012, after spending a decade gaining a foothold in the film industry working for the likes of Warner Home Video. Soon, his desk will […]
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No, Gus’ Pub isn’t closing
When The Coast called Gus’ Pub today to see if the rumours we spotted on Twitter of the venerable institution’s closure were true, the record was set straight very quickly: “NO, we’re not closing,” the manager who took the call said, almost as soon as they picked up the phone. “It’s the same rumour that […]
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The Merritt Awards return to celebrate Nova Scotian theatre
On some level, making theatre is always about risk-taking: That the audience will trust you to guide them into a world you’re building before their eyes; that the scaffolding of said world will support the story’s weight; that both audience and actors will meet the emotional tenor of the moment on-key. But Nova Scotian theatre […]
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Carbon Arc cinema returns to in-person screenings
Maybe you—like almost everyone else who tuned into last night’s 94th Annual Academy Awards—cannot stop thinking about film, fame and a certain incident that reminded us all that yes, anything can happen on live TV. But, for Halifax (who represented quite well at the ceremony, between Elliott Page reuniting with his Juno co-stars onstage and […]
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Macro Digitals is theatre that’s “less about theatre and more about ‘What’s exciting?’”
Macro Digitals: CONNECTIONS Friday-Sunday March 25-27, various times Alderney Landing Theatre, 2 Ochterloney Street $17-$42 in person, $11.50 online, buy tickets here Ask Kat McCormack, artistic director of Eastern Front Theatre, and they’ll tell you that “theatre is a mix of all of the art forms: It’s storytelling with each aspect. There’s dance, there’s music, […]
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Washington Black begins filming in Nova Scotia on March 28
If you’ve had enough of movies shot in Vancouver masquerading as New York, it seems you’re not alone: When it came time to shoot the limited-series Washington Black (adapted from Esi Edugyan’s hit, Giller-winning novel of the same name), show runners decided to head to the story’s real-life locale, filming the program right here in […]
