Profiles and Interviews
Playback Online - Spindle Films Foundation selects nine for mentorship program | Full article here.
Livewire Calgary - Life affirming We’re Gonna Die returns to Calgary stage | Full article here.
Broadway World - Verb Theatre Presents We’re Gonna Die this Spring | Full article here.
Stir Magazine - Mashing forms and exploring identity, as rEvolver Festival returns with live performances | Full article here.
12thnight.ca - I Don’t Even Miss You: love and legacy in a new multi-disciplinary ‘musical’ from Tiny Bear Jaws | Full article here.
Climate Change Theatre Action - Production history of Elena Belyea’s play affirmations | Full write-up here.
The Sprawl - Elena Eli Belyea: Making theatre more accessible | Full article here.
Montreal Rampage - Making Miss Katelyn | Full article here.
Selected Press for Elena Eli Belyea
“Belyea keeps the jokes coming at a lightning-fast pace, mining … deeply personal experiences for rich laughs". ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ .5” - Edmonton Journal | Full review here.
“Basil, played by the talented Elena Belyea, who also wrote the piece, recounts all 30-something years of their life. … I was blown away by the synth-infused opening number, “Tonight,” and each of the subsequent pop performance…Words cannot describe how much I Don’t Even Miss You touched my heart.” - Intermission Magazine | Full review here.
“From the moment we first meet non-binary computer programmer, Basil (Belyea), it is impossible to not be immersed in their plight for connection and finding beauty in their eerily silent world. Through quirky song and dance numbers to heart-rending soliloquies to humorous banter with Orchid (voiced by Vanessa Sabourin), Basil's emotional journey is utterly compelling.” - Broadway World| Full review here."
“Elena Belyea won the Betty for outstanding lead performance in a musical for her tour de force solo turn in Verb Theatre’s We’re Gonna Die.” - Calgary Herald | Full article here.
“In the very competitive indie and new play categories, the Tiny Bear Jaws two-cast production of Smoke, directed by Jenna Rodgers, took home the Sterling in the former. Elena Belyea’s challenging play, set in the smouldering ruins of a relationship, explores the aftermath of sexual assault without being definitive about cause and blame. A heterosexual couple alternated nightly with a queer one.” Liz Nichols (12thnight.ca) | Full article here.
“I was in the company of genius for 105 minutes at the Big Secret Theatre. Belyea is a brilliant dialogue writer.” - Calgary Herald | Full review here.
“Voici une proposition théâtrale audacieuse, singulière, criante d’actualité, poignante, ingénieuse, comique et sans fausse note. … La pièce d’Elena Belyea, traduite par Olivier Sylvestre, s’avère extrêmement bien construite. ” - La Bible Urbaine | Full review here.
“Une comédie noire, grinçante à souhait, un solo qui cristallise ingénieusement le régime de terreur qui prend chaque jour un peu plus d’emprise sur nos vies.” - Le Devoir | Full review here.
“Texte admirablement construit et structuré.” - Huffpost | Full review here.
"This show earns its transformation from laughs to tears as it sinks its teeth into weighty subject matter. By the end, Belyea has made us laugh, terrified us, and tugged at our heartstrings. An A+ show. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆" - Vue Weekly | Publication no longer exists.
“As the Tiny Bear Jaws canon confirms, Belyea is a deft hand at funny, staccato, overlapping dialogue.” - Liz Nicholls (12thnight.ca) | Full review here.
“When Elena Belyea … [takes] the stage, they are not only highly entertaining but [an] unflappable and unstoppable [force] of nature.” - Calgary Herald | Full review here.
"I thought, "You cannot pull this off." But she totally does. It's incredible." - 9 to 5 dot cc Podcast | Full review here.
"Belyea skillfully works the room, eliciting plenty of laughs but also a deep sense of anger and sadness." - Montreal Gazette | Full review here.
"Elena Belyea and Ben Stevens present exceptional performances... A beautiful debut production by promising local talents." - Vue Weekly | Publication no longer exists.
"And no, I have not forgotten Shakespeare’s clowns, Dogberry (Elena Belyea) and Verges (Oscar Derkx). I was just leaving my praise for them for a final hurrah. From their difference in heights to their unabashed clowning, Belyea and Derkx are the scene stealers Shakespeare intended." - Calgary Herald | Full review here.
"The playwrights, Elena Belyea and Colin Matty, are enormously talented. It's commonplace to warn us about the end of the world, and nearly impossible to discover ways to dramatize the planet's last days. Belyea and Matty are careful to leave out the clichés and focus on dynamic scenes - sad, funny, beautiful, incomprehensible." - Edmonton Journal | Review no longer online.
”Expert playwright, Belyea pairs tricky topics with side-splitting humour. … A cathartic experience.” - The Gateway | Full review here.
Selected Press for Gender? I Hardly Know Them
“Confiding in us, they create a very intimate bond with their audience. This vulnerability gives their sketches—which feel quick and scattershot—significant emotional weight. … Valuable assets to the comedy scene.” - Istan Dugalin | Full review here.
"An ingenious low-fi delight… Alternately thoughtful, pointed, and joyous and almost uniformly hilarious … a celebration of and a testament to queer creativity, adaptability, and resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.” - Parton and Pearl | Full review here.
”Producing a show crafted with care, Elena Eli Belyea and Sydney Campbell offer side-splitting last rites to societal norms, love languages, truck-window pickup lines, Pride-pandering banks, gender prison. … The duo demonstrates loads of chemistry, playing off each other with rapid-fire absurdity and clever wordplay. … If every funeral was this laugh-out-loud funny we’d dig up the dead three times a week just to bury the bastards again. See this show. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆” - Edmonton Journal | Full review here.
”The sketches in Gender? I Hardly Know Them are fast-paced and quick-witted. Belyea and Campbell switch characters at a moment’s notice. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆” - Daze Magazine | Publication no longer exists.
“The duo [Belyea and Campbell] are practiced comedians and present a barrage of sketches that are frequently funny, often hilarious, and edged with an incisive cleverness.” - Mel Priestley | Publication no longer exists.