Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Rhoma Spencer uses the Force in the new play, The Solitudes By Stephen Weir Take a bow, Rhoma Spencer, take a bow. You are the toast of Toronto’s theatre world for your current role in the new assembly play The Solitudes. Critical reviews. A quarter page colour picture of you in the Toronto Star. And there is an incredible TTC poster of you with hands on hips glaring and scaring all of us riding the Red Rocket this month. Rhoma Spencer is an actor, director, storyteller and broadcast journalist who began her career in her birth nation of Trinidad & Tobago. On stage, performing in TV shows, movies parts, and public events; heck, I have even seen her in costume at a high profile Scarborough funeral a few weeks ago. Now based for the most part here in Toronto, Spencer continues to be one of the busiest live performance actresses in the city. This week she is a brooding, scowling and sometimes hilarious presence on the Harbourfront stage with the Alunia T...

Phil says goodbye and Mumbi says hello The Obsidian Theatre, the country's  leading culturally diverse  theatre  company is now going through a major change.   After twenty years, the theatre’s founder and CEO has retired. He has been replaced by a young African Canadian director who will take over the running of the company in August. Philip Akin has been acting and directing for over 40 years. In 2000, he was a founding member of Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading black theatre company, and has served as its Artistic Director since 2006. Earlier this week Obsidian announced that   Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu is the new Artistic Director of the Obsidian Theatre.   In a press release issued by Obsidian Ms. Otu “was raised in Kenya and Victoria, BC. She is a critically acclaimed Toronto-based stage director with over a decade of professional experience and is the Founder/Artistic Director of the Dora Nominated experimental theatre compan...

Jamaican Canadian chef Noel Cunningham is leading the charge Toronto diners are always looking to catch the next wave. They have gone crazy over Italian pizza, Korean Pho and French every- thing. Mexican burritos and Japanese cheese cake. But when will it be Caribbean cuisine’s time in the bright lights of Canada’s biggest resto-crazy city? According to newly arrived chef Noel Cunningham, 2020 is the year that people start craving what we have known all along: Caribbean food rocks! “It’s going to the next big thing,” said the young Jamaican Canadian chef. “And we aren’t just talking jerk!” “You know the thing about our food is that we come at you with a vibe, with a swagger,” Cunningham told me by phone from Jamaica over the recent holidays. “When you eat our food you are also eating our music and our style. Toronto is so diverse; there is no way that this isn’t our time.” “For me as a Jamaican chef who is now on the International scene I don’t want ...

I don't write editorials for the Caribbean Camera. But I did this week.  Explanation: I have had clients who have earned Order of Canada medals, so I always take note when the Governor General announces her Christmas list of winners.  So, I wrote this editorial. The Caribbean Camera did edit it down a bit - and they removed the names of people who should never receive an OC -  you know who you are. Dear Readers (and we include Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette amongst our readers), please don’t close the book on the Canadian heroes of the last decade just yet. Just before year’s end, the Governor General (GG) released her list of the last 120 Canadians of the decade who have now earned the Order of Canada (OC).  In our mind there are a lot of names missing from the list. The Governor General’s website explains that the “Order of Canada is how our country honours people who make extraordinary contributions to the nation. Since its creation i...

How did this happen? The Christmas Rush is here   By Stephen Weir  IF your son or daughter has ever lined up all night on Yonge Street to buy a pair of designer sneakers, there is a book you might want to buy and sneak under the Christmas tree! Available only through on-line booksellers like Amazon.ca and Indigo, The Art of Sneakers written by Hollywood actor Ivan Dudynsky, is the book of choice for "sneaker heads" around the world. "The sneaker is quite simply a piece of art. And why shouldn't it be? Try to name anther item that combines sport, technology, innovation, design and fashion all mushed into one 12-inch piece of rubber, nylon and leather," writes Jeff Staple, one of more than a dozen world sneaker experts who wrote chapters for this millennial-friendly highly visual coffee table book.  Haven't heard of Staple? That means you are probably older than 30 and buy your sneakers at Wal-Mart.  He founded an un...