Interviews

Here’s how some of Ottawa’s escape room businesses have adapted to operate both during and after the pandemic.

From trading cards, figurines, board games and other pop culture merchandise, hobby shops are an ideal place for people to pick up new hobbies, show off their skills in official card game tournaments, or even help collectors expand their collections. Like many other businesses, the gaming ones had to make some changes to adapt to […]

Lemonade stands. DIY Halloween costumes. Haute couture. Sustainable art. Ottawa-local entrepreneur Karissa Besharah has done all of it. Apt613 met with Karissa to learn more about her creative drive, to shed light on the local fashion scene, and to see how art prints can be eco-friendly.

Alyssa Beltempo is your chic gal next door with a bubbly personality. She creates online content on slow fashion and mindful style from right here in Ottawa. After a career in finance, she transitioned to fashion and styling, where she noticed a disconnect between her clients’ satisfaction and the size of their wardrobe. She started […]

This is the first Artist Interview from our new #ottmusic weekly series. In this series, we dig deeper into one of the selections for the #ottmusic Spotify playlist and question local musicians about their new releases and inspirations. Townes’s new song “Maury Povich” will be added to the @apt613 Spotify playlist this week.

Apartment613 sits down with Ottawa Fringe’s director Patrick Gauthier to talk about this summer’s Fringe Fest—which will be Gauthier’s last as Director.

A conversation with GCTC online playwright-in-residence Vishesh Abeyratne.

In this interview, Alvaro de Minaya talks about the group’s formation in Ottawa, and how the local music community has grown in the past 25 years.

Louis Mercier is an ambassador of traditional French-Canadian music. His family is from Maniwaki and has passed on their traditions to him throughout his childhood, providing his foundation of square dance, traditional percussion and music, toe dancing, playing the bones, washboards, spoons and the comb.

Today, when she’s not performing, Kellylee teaches and speaks about her journey to recovery by sharing her inspiring story.

The Box of Life is a vermicomposting social enterprise started by Akil Mesiwala. The Ottawa business is popularizing urban vermicomposting with attractive “Worm Studios” that make composting accessible to everyone.

Leslie McCurdy has numerous stage, film, and TV credits but is best known for the one-woman plays that she wrote and has performed for over 20 years. The Spirit of Harriet Tubman, her first play, was a finalist for a Canadian Chalmers Award for Best New Play for Young Audiences.

Lola Ryan is one of Canada’s foremost practitioners of dance and movement improvisation. A former champion athlete, she began a career in dance in her twenties, founding and co-founding several dance/theatre companies and touring nationally. Her work with children and adults is an abiding interest, and encourages links between youthful play and the world of dance. 

Kseniya Tsoy  is a new Canadian community-engaged artist, originally from Uzbekistan. In her murals and workshops, she is passionate about introducing this part of the world through iconic patterns and traditional applied art techniques with a contemporary twist.