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1Following Just For Laughs’ cancellation of its 2024 festivals in Montreal and Toronto, which Canadian arts festival said it’s also struggling to stay afloat?
a. The Edmonton Fringe Festival
b. The Vancouver Fringe Festival
c. The Toronto Fringe Festival
d. All of the above

d. All of the above. Edmonton Fringe said that it has still not caught up with the loss of an expected $3-million of income after cancelling its 2020 edition during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave, while Toronto is reducing its shows from last year. Just last week, the Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society e-mailed supporters to say that its future is “uncertain.”

2Speaking of festivals, the Stratford Festival released its attendance numbers for the 2023 season, which included productions of Rent, King Lear, and Casey and Diana. How did the festival do compared to the previous year?
a. Attendance went down 35 per cent
b. Attendance went down 15 per cent
c. Attendance stayed the same
d. Attendance went up 35 per cent

d. Attendance went up 35 per cent. At its annual general meeting on Wednesday, the Ontario theatre festival reported that its 2023 season saw total attendance of more than 443,000, and ended with a financial surplus of $404,000. Though inflation caused their costs to balloon to almost $80-million, they were able to stay profitable thanks to more than $26-million in donations.

3Juno-nominated director and production designer Ethan Tobman has worked with Eminem and Ariana Grande. But which star hasn't he worked with yet?
a. Adele
b. Allison Russell
c. Beyoncé
d. Taylor Swift

a. Adele. Tobman — who’s also worked with artists such as Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem — made his music video directorial debut on Russell’s Demons, which is nominated at this weekend's Juno Awards.

4After a hugely successful extended run this season, Toronto’s Mirvish Productions announced electro-pop musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is returning next year in a larger theatre. Which classic novel is the musical inspired by?
a. Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo
b. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment
c. Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace
d. Jane Austen’s Emma

c. Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The musical is inspired by a segment of Tolstoy’s famous work. The Toronto production has broken records for co-producers Crow’s Theatre and The Musical Stage Company since it opened at the 194-seat Streetcar Crowsnest in December, and will be remounted at the 1,244-seat Royal Alexandra theatre in August, 2025.

5Artists such as Feist, Snoop Dogg, and Olivia Rodrigo are flocking to which new tool to up the game on their records?
a. An AI that identifies the most TikTok-able part of a track
b. The return of the Roland TR-808 drum machine
c. Immersive audio mixing
d. In-studio VR recordings

c. Immersive audio mixing. Offered through surround-sound companies like Dolby and Sony, immersive audio mixing allows listeners to hear music as though it’s coming at them in three dimensions — even on simpler hardware such as headphones and earbuds.

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