Amanda Campbell is an independent theatre critic, and the founder of The Way I See It Theatre & Music Blog. She has been reviewing theatre and writing about live music shows on TWISI since September, 2007.
TWISI got its start in Toronto (Tkaronto), and has been based in Amanda’s hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia (Kjipuktuk), since 2011. Its primary mandate is to help foster and celebrate Canadian Theatre, especially Atlantic Canadian Theatre, through thoughtful reviews, engaging conversations with artists, and providing a platform for artists to share their own ideas and thoughts about the dynamic state of the theatre in our communities. Amanda is also interested in encouraging the theatre critics of the future through her TWISI Jr. program.
Amanda writes about Halifax’s local music scene, and sometimes dips her toes into the world of the American and British theatre (and beyond), as well as Canadian film and television.
Amanda was born and raised in Halifax and is an alumna of Sacred Heart School of Halifax. She holds an Honours BA in Theatre Studies from Dalhousie University and a MA in Drama Studies from the University of Toronto. She frequently works as a TA at the Fountain School of Performing Arts.
Her love of the theatre dates back to her days in the Sacred Heart School Elementary School Choir. She spent her teenage years performing in musicals and plays at school, at Neptune Theatre School, and with Elsinore Theatre. She started writing plays in university: Cross Your Heart premiered at the Halifax Fringe Festival, and two other plays came about during The Bus Stop Theatre’s 24 Hour Theatre Thing. Amanda made her professional acting debut in IMPACT Theatre’s Victim of Circumstance at the Bathurst Street Theatre in 2010. She might be the only person who has ever taken an acting job to help fund her theatre reviewing ambitions! She also wrote new plays weekly for her students to perform every summer at Neptune Theatre School between 2006 and 2009.
While in Graduate School Amanda interned with renowned dramaturge Iris Turcott at the Canadian Stage Company, helped with dramaturgy for Frost/Nixon directed by Ted Dykstra and starring Len Cariou and David Storch, took part in Canadian Stage’s A Play in A Day Program, and interviewed American Broadway actor Idina Menzel for both the newspaper and TWISI.
As a theatre critic she has also written for Canadian Theatre Review, the newspaper (at U of T), and The Coast, and has been featured on CTV Morning Live Atlantic.
Since 2015 Amanda has also worked as a social media manager for Heather Rankin.
Elle parle Français Intermédiaire agus tha beagan Gàidhlig aice.
Amanda feels extremely lucky to live and work in Mi’kma’ki amongst such an inspiring, resilient, and enterprising community of artists and musicians.
