Can artists and critics work together? What do reviews mean for artists working in smaller communities? Join freelance theatre critic Aisling Murphy (New York Times, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail) for a conversation about arts criticism and possibilities for hyperlocal arts coverage moving forward.
Snacks provided!
BIO:
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Aisling is an award-winning journalist, critic, and occasional playwright. She primarily writes about Canadian theatre and pop culture.
Aisling is the senior editor of Intermission Magazine, and as a freelancer she has bylines at publications across North America, including the New York Times, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Postmedia, and CBC Arts. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT.
Aisling graduated Magna Cum Laude with her Honours BA in Theatre from the University of Ottawa in June 2021. She also has an MA in Theatre, Drama, and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto. She's guest lectured at universities across Canada, and in 2024 she taught a semester-long theatre criticism course at the University of Ottawa.
Aisling's first play, look away from me (formerly Feast), was developed with the Tarragon Theatre Young Playwrights Unit in Toronto. The play received following COVID-19 theatre closures, look away from me was granted an #ArtApart grant by the National Theatre School of Canada. look away from me was then developed at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Djanet Sears. The play is featured as a short case study in the Routledge anthology Undergraduate Research in Theatre and was presented as part of Tarragon Theatre's 2024 Play Reading Week.
Aisling was the 2023 runner-up for two Nathan Cohen Awards, including Outstanding Review and Outstanding Critical Essay. Her breaking news work was recognized in 2024 by RTDNA for her contributions to stories about the 2023 Toronto mayoral election and the ongoing Kenneth Law trial in Mississauga.
She's a Taurus (if that wasn't abundantly clear) and she has two cats named Fig and June. She lives in East York with her husband.