Last Monday, I nervously twitched my way through an hour of traffic as Homer Simpson's quotable, "Oh my God, I'm missing the chili cook-off! I'm missing the cook-off, it's going on right now, and I'm missing it!" ran its whiny loop through my mind. MainLine Theatre's chili cook-off press conference was unfolding at Les Katacombes and come Hell, high water or a turtle pace commute, I was not going to miss it.

LEITMOTIV, a French play put on by Decourse Théâtre opened last night to a full audience at Théâtre La Chapelle. The Decourse team is composed of Andréanne Bernard, �milie Cormier and Anaïe Dufresne, three up-and-coming extremely imaginative graduates of l'�cole de Théâtre de l'UQAM.

"This is my home," sais Maria Msondo, "Welcome." Maria expresses her gratitude in a mix of English, Swahili and Nyanwezi and gushes that she has cooked her guests a delectable filet mignon supper. She is being evicted and wants to celebrate her last night in her home.

ANA, a bilingual play directed by Serge Denoncourt opened at Theatre Espace Go last night and had my expectations running high. I was enchanted by the idea of Québécois and Scottish authors Clare Duffy and Pierre Yves Lemieux teaming up to create something full of pan-linguistic and cultural colour.

Call & Response is a series of Q&As with bands, artists and random people we dig that live in Montreal, visit here, or have some dubious connection to the city.

We all know what happened when Little Red Riding Hood went into the woods, and Jack's foray into his fantasy beanstalk world isn't news to most people. But put them all together - with a bit of song, dance, and a few more forest creatures - and you get the acclaimed musical, Into the Woods. Of course, even that's a bit of a simplistic explanation of the show, so Midnight Poutine invited some of the cast of Music Theatre Montreal's upcoming production of Into the Woods to chat about the show, themselves, and the grand world of musical theatre in this Call & Response.

Paul F. Tompkins is a man of many talents (and suits). The dapper comedian and actor has been involved with HBO's beloved Mr. Show with Bob and David, The Daily Show, and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny amongst other credits. He is also a frequent guest on Tom Scharpling's oft-hilarious radio show The Best Show on WFMU (a personal favourite) and on numerous podcasts, such as Comedy Bang Bang.