Theatre in Canada

The contemporary theatre scene in Canada revolves around companies and summer festivals based at facilities in Canadian cities.

Western Canada

* Victoria has a major regional theatre, the Belfry Theatre

* Vancouver is home to the Playhouse Theatre Company, the Vancouver Fringe Festival, the Arts Club Theatre Company, Carousel Theatre, Bard on the Beach, Theatre Under the Stars, the Metropolitan Cooperative Theatre Society, and Studio 58.

* Edmonton is best known for the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, the first and largest fringe theatre festival in North America. The major live venue is the Citadel Theatre. The neighborhood of Old Strathcona contains the Theatre District, holding Catalyst Theatre, Walterdale Playhouse, and the Varscona Theatre (home several companies:Teatro la Quindicina, Shadow Theatre. Rapid Fire Theatre, Die-Nasty, and Oh Susanna!).

* Calgary is home to Theatre Calgary, a mainstream regional theatre; Alberta Theatre Projects,a major centre for new play development in Canada; and One Yellow Rabbit, an innovative touring company, as well as the expert marionetteer, Ronnie Burkett. Calgary is also the base of operations of Loose Moose Theatre, a pioneer in the art of improvisational theatre.

* Rosebud, Alberta, located one hour east of Calgary, is home to Rosebud Theatre, Alberta's only rural professional theare.

* Regina features Saskatchewan's largest professional theatre, and Canada's only permanent arena theatre, the Globe Theatre.

* Saskatoon is home to Persephone Theatre, as well as Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan.

* Winnipeg is the home of Le Cercle Molière (the oldest continuosly running theatre company in Canada), the Manitoba Theatre Centre (Canada's oldest English-language regional theatre), the [http://www.pantagesplayhouse.com Pantages Playhouse] , Prairie Theatre Exchange,Rainbow Stage, Theatre Projects Manitoba, the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, and the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

* There is also a number of successful summer theatre companies in Western Canada, uncluding Theatre Under the Stars (Vancouver), Theatre Royal (Barkerville, British Columbia), Okanagan Stage Ltd. (Penticton, British Columbia), The Gold Fever Follies (Rossland, British Columbia), Wild Horse Theatre (Fort Steele/Cranbrook, British Columbia), Kimberley Summer Theatre (Kimberley, British Columbia), Carriage House Theatre Co. (Cardston, Alberta), Shakespeare in the Park (Calgary) and many others.

Central Canada

* Thunder Bay has Magnus Theatre - The Dr. S. Penny Petrone Centre for the Performing Arts., a regional professional theatre company.

* Sudbury has the regional theatre companies Sudbury Theatre Centre and Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario.

* London is home to the Grand Theatre.

* Stratford is best known for the Stratford Festival of Canada.

* Niagara-on-the-Lake is best known for the Shaw Festival.

* Toronto has a large and vibrant theatre scene, with many different companies, some producing large-scale Broadway-style productions (produced by companies like Mirvish Productions), and others producing plays by Canadian and other playwrights. Some of the major theatre companies of Toronto include: CanStage aka The Canadian Stage Company, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe-Muraille, the Factory Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre Company, and Buddies in Bad Times. Toronto has several theatre festivals during the year, including Summerworks and the Toronto Fringe Festival. Important smaller companies include Native Earth, Nightwood Theatre,Necessary Angel, Crow's Theatre, DNA Company, Da Da Kamera, Lonely Cake and Volcano.

* Kingston has several amateur theatre groups. The only professional company in the city is Theatre Kingston. However, in nearby Gananoque during the summer, the Thousand Islands Playhouse is a large summer theatre operating in two venues.

* Ottawa is home to the multi-venue National Arts Centre and the smaller Great Canadian Theatre Company, and holds the Ottawa Fringe Festival.

* Montreal's theatre scene is split between French and English-language theatre. The National Theatre School of Canada is based there, and the Montreal Fringe Festival is held there every June.

* Quebec City is the home of Robert Lepage's company Ex Machina.

* Yellowknife is home to the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, a small theatre with just over 300 seats.

*Blyth, Ontario is the home of the Blyth Festival Theatre

Eastern Canada

* Wolfville is home to the Atlantic Theatre Festival.

* Halifax has the Neptune Theatre, Shakespeare by the Sea, as well as the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium.

* Glace Bay has the Savoy Theatre, a cultural centre for Cape Breton Island.

* Charlottetown has the Confederation Centre of the Arts with its 1,100 seat mainstage theatre being one of Atlantic Canada's pre-eminent performing arts facilities.

* Moncton has the restored Capitol Theatre, one of only eight theatres of the ca. 1922 Pantages/Vaudeville design in the nation.

* Saint John has the restored Imperial Theatre, an historic ca. 1913 modern adaptation of the Italian Renaissance.

* Fredericton is host to The Playhouse, a gift to the people of New Brunswick by Lord Beaverbrook in 1964.

* St. John's has the RCA (Resource Centre for the Arts), an artist-run company that is home at the LSPU Hall. It also has the St. John's Arts and Culture Centre with a 1,000 seat main theatre.
* [http://www.tnb.nb.ca Theatre New Brunswick] is a provincial theatre company.

ummer Festivals

Major summer theatre festivals include:
* Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
* The Stratford Festival of Canada, based in Stratford, Ontario.
* The Shaw Festival, based in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
* The Thousand Islands Playhouse, based in Gananoque, Ontario.
* The Charlottetown Festival, based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
* The Atlantic Theatre Festival based in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
* Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre based in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
* Shakespeare by the Sea based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
* The Magnetic North Theatre Festival, based in Ottawa, Ontario and held annually, alternating between Ottawa and another Canadian city.

Canada also has more fringe theatre festivals than any other country, forming a summer fringe circuit running from the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe in June and heading westward to the Vancouver Fringe Festival in September. The circuit includes the two largest fringe festivals in North America, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and the Edmonton International Fringe Festival. Other fringe theatre festivals include:
* The Calgary Fringe Festival
* The London Fringe Theatre Festival (Ontario)
* The Toronto Fringe Festival

ee also

* List of Canadian playwrights
* List of Canadian plays
* National Theatre School of Canada
* Charlottetown Festival
* Studio 58
* Theatre Under the Stars
* Vancouver Playhouse

External links

* [http://www.canstage.com/ The Canadian Stage Company]
* [http://www.artsalive.ca/en/thf/ ArtsAlive.ca|Théâtre Français]
* [http://www.revuejeu.org/jeu/bienvenue/intro.html Cahiers de Théâtre Jeu]
* [http://www.playwrightscanada.com/ Playwrights Canada Press]
* [http://www.canadiantheatre.com/ Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia]
* [http://ctr.tpl.toronto.on.ca/ The Canadian Theatre Record]
* [http://www.mytheatre.ca/ My Theatre Company Society]
* [http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/resources/archives/theatre/index.html L.W. Conolly Theatre Archives] at University of Guelph, Archival and Special Collections, holds more than 120 archival collections related to Canadian theatre
* [http://www.sibmas.org/idpac/north-america/capq.html SIBMAS: International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions]
* [http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/ The Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project]