Canada's contemporary theatre reflects a rich diversity of regional and cultural identities.[1][dead link] Since the late 1960s, there has been a concerted effort to develop the voice of the 'Canadian playwright', which is reflected in the nationally focused programming of many of the country's theatres.[2][3] Within this 'Canadian voice' are a plurality of perspectives - that of the First Nations, new immigrants, French Canadians, sexual minorities, etc. - and a multitude of theatre companies have been created to specifically service and support these voices.[4]
TheAnnapolis Basin inNova Scotia served as the cradle for both French and English language theatre in Canada.[5]Théâtre de Neptune, performed in 1606, was the first European theatre production in North America.
The tradition of English theatre in Canada also started atAnnapolis Royal. In Fort Anne, Nova Scotia, plays were produced forPrince of Wales' birthday.[6]George Farquhar'sThe Recruiting Officer was produced on Saturday, 20 January 1733 to celebrate the birthday ofFrederick, Prince of Wales.[6] When he was a Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, Paul Mascarene translated Molière's French playThe Misanthrope in to English and produced several plays in 1743 and 1744.[6] An unknown play was also staged on 20 January 1748 for the Prince's birthday, and it was restaged on 2 February 1748.[6]
Theatre was banned in French Canada by the Catholic clergy in 1694,[7] but after Canada became British in 1763, theatrical activity begun to flourish, foremost among the British garrisons and within amateur theatre.
Antoine Foucher (1717-1801), ofTerrebonne (father ofLouis-Charles Foucher), was the owner of the firstFrancophonetheatre inCanada. In 1774, with variousBritishofficers, he staged the first production ofMolière at his home in Montreal.[8][9][10] OtherGarrison performances were private shows put on for troops, publicly performed by officers, which helped bridge theatre and war during its initial stages of development. It was welcomed by the populaces and distracted soldiers from war and routine military protocol.[11]
The first professional theatre company wasAllen's Company of Comedians, which made its first performance in Montreal in 1786, and was followed by the all male French language amateur societyLes Jeunes Messieurs Canadiens in Quebec City in 1789.[12] From 1790 to 1840, amateur theatre was regularly performed at the Haymarket Theatre in Quebec City.[13]
Officially opened on June 24, 1893 inMontreal, theMonument National is located at the historical interface between the Francophone neighbourhoods (to the east) and the Anglophone areas (to the west), it also found itself in the heart of the Jewish and Chinese sections on the most multiethnic street in the city.[14]
In 1913, the Ottawa Drama League was formed. An amateur society, it continues today asOttawa Little Theatre, performing Canadian and international plays with a fully volunteer cast and staff.[17]
In the West, theGrand Theatre was built in 1912 in Calgary by the visionary Sir James Lougheed.[18] The Grand was the initial home of many arts organizations in Calgary; the first theatre, opera, ballet, symphony concerts, and movies were seen here. This theatre was the centre of social, cultural, and political life in Calgary until the early 1960s. The Grand Theatre has been saved from demolition in 2004 by the company Theatre Junction and its director Mark Lawes.[18]
From 1929,Martha Allan founded the Montreal Repertory Theatre and later co-founded theDominion Drama Festival.[19] She loathedamateur theatre, but her energies spearheaded the CanadianLittle Theatre Movement at a time when live theatre in Montreal and across Canada was being threatened by the rapid expansion of the American-influencedmovie theatre. She almost single-handedly laid the groundwork for the development of the professional modern Canadian theatre scene.
With Canada's centennial in 1967 came a growing awareness of the need to cultivate a national cultural identity. Thus, the 1970s were marked by the establishment of multiple theatre institutions dedicated to the development and presentation of Canadian playwrights, such asFactory Theatre,[3]Tarragon Theatre,[23] and theGreat Canadian Theatre Company.[24]Theatre Passe Muraille, underPaul Thompson's directorship in the 1970s, gained a national reputation for its distinctive style of collective creation with plays such asThe Farm Show, 1837: The Farmer's Revolt andI Love You, Baby Blue.[25]
In 1971 a group of Canadian playwrights issued theGaspé Manifesto as a call for at least one-half of the programing at publicly subsidized theatres to be Canadian content. The numerical goal was not achieved, but the following years saw an increase in Canadian content stage productions.[26][27]
The 1980s and 1990s saw a flourish of experimental theatre companies cropping up across Canada, many of whom were exploring site-specific and immersive staging techniques, such as Toronto's DNA Theatre[28] and Vancouver's Radix Theatre.[29]
The 2000s saw the creation of several theatre companies with specific cultural mandates including Obsidian Theatre, a company supporting 'the Black voice',[30] fu-GEN, a company dedicated to work by Asian Canadians,[31] and Aluna Theatre, a company with a focus on Latin Canadian artists.[32]
This decade also was a particularly significant for the rise of devised performance practices across the country, particularly in Vancouver through artists graduating from Simon Fraser University and the creation of thePuSh International Performing Arts Festival in 2006, as well as in Halifax with the founding of Zuppa Theatre. Devised and creation-based models of theatre-making continued to be underrepresented in the larger regional theatre system of the country.[citation needed]
The heritage village ofFort Steele includes the Wild Horse Theatre, which produces a historic revue starring professional actors during the summer months.
Gabriola Island is home to the Gabriola Theatre Festival, which produces twelve shows over one weekend in August.
Victoria has a major regional theatre, theBelfry Theatre, as well as professional companies Theatre SKAM, SNAFU Dance Theatre Society, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, William Head on Stage, Theatre Inconnu, Atomic Vaudeville, Impulse Theatre,Puente Theatre Society, Suddenly Dance Theatre, and Wonderheads Theatre.[33] Kaleidoscope[34] is the resident Professional TYA company.Intrepid Theatre is a local alternative company and organizes both the Uno Festival and the Victoria Fringe Festival.
Calgary is home toTheatre Calgary, a mainstream regional theatre;Alberta Theatre Projects, a major centre for new play development in Canada; theCalgary Animated Objects Society; Vertigo Theatre, the premiere theatre in North America for the intrigue genre;Theatre Junction a multidisciplinary collective directed by Mark Lawes;One Yellow Rabbit, a touring company; andUrban Curvz, a feminist theatre company rebranded as Handsome Alice Theatre in 2016. Calgary is also home for expert marionetteer,Ronnie Burkett. Calgary is the base of operations ofLoose Moose Theatre, which performsimprovisational theatre. Other companies, some of which specialize in new plays, include Sage Theatre, Downstage Theatre, Ground Zero Theatre, The Shakespeare Company, StoryBook Theatre and Lunchbox Theatre.
Lethbridge is the home of New West Theatre, a professional theatre company.Theatre Outré also operates out of Lethbridge and presents theatrical content, subject matter, styles and forms that are alternative to what is currently offered in the community.
Regina features Saskatchewan's only permanent arena theatre, theGlobe Theatre, as well asOn Cue Performance Hub, a professional shared platform for independent performing artists.
Drayton Entertainment has seven stages at six theatres across Ontario including the Drayton Festival Theatre inDrayton, Hamilton Family Theatre Cambridge inCambridge, Huron Country Playhouse inGrand Bend, King's Wharf Theatre inPenetanguishene, and St. Jacobs Country Playhouse and Schoolhouse Theatre inSt. Jacobs.
Kitchener is home to actOUT! The Kitchener Waterloo Children's Drama Workshop, which for over a quarter century has produced theatre by & for the children of the Waterloo Region.[37]
Kingston is home to its own professional company,Theatre Kingston, the Vagabond Repertory Theatre Company, as well as many amateur and student theatre groups. In nearbyGananoque,The Thousand Islands Playhouse features professional productions in two venues.
Mississauga is home to Crane Creations Theatre Company[38] that manages the Maja Prentice Theatre and presents Puppet Festival Mississauga[39] each year in March.
Oshawa is home to Oshawa Little Theatre[40] founded in 1928 and running continuously since 1950; offers four productions a year as well as a youth group production. It runs out of its own facility on Russet Ave. since 1983.
Toronto has a large and vibrant theatre scene, centred around theToronto Theatre District, with many different companies. Some produce large-scale Broadway-style productions (produced by companies likeMirvish Productions), and others produce smaller-scale plays by Canadian and other playwrights. Some of the major theatre companies of Toronto include:Canadian Stage Company,Tarragon Theatre,Theatre Passe-Muraille, theFactory Theatre,Soulpepper Theatre Company, the Lower Ossington Theatre andBuddies in Bad Times. TheHarbourfront Centre's World Stage festival presents innovative contemporary performance from national and international companies. Toronto has several theatre festivals throughout the year, including The Next Stage Festival in January,Toronto Fringe Festival in June, and SummerWorks in August. Important smaller companies includeNative Earth,Nightwood Theatre, Necessary Angel, Crow's Theatre, Obsidian Theatre, Acting Upstage, and Volcano. 2012 saw a surge of storefront theatres opening in the city includingVideofag and The Storefront Theatre.[43]
St. John's has the RCA (Resource Centre for the Arts), an artist-run company that is based at the LSPU Hall. It also has the St. John's Arts and Culture Centre, with a 1,000 seat main theatre.
Clarenville, Newfoundland is the home to The New Curtain Theatre Company, which operates as a year-round professional theatre based out of The Loft Theatre at the White Hills Ski Resort in Clarenville (2 hours west of St. John's).
Cupids, Newfoundland is home to The New World Theatre Project, which aims to do work from and inspired by the year 1610, when Cupids was settled as Canada's first English colony.
Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland, features the annual Stephenville Theatre Festival, a summer festival that began in the mid-1970s.
InCorner Brook, theGrenfell Campus of Memorial University offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre, with productions staged every semester.
^David Gardner's thesis, "An Analytic History of the Theatre in Canada: the European Beginnings to 1760," and his article "British Garrison Theatre in Canada during the French Regime"
^"History".ottawalittletheatre.com. Ottawa Little Theatre. RetrievedJanuary 13, 2026.
^abDonald B. Smith (2005).Calgary's Grand Story: The Making of a Prairie Metropolis from the Viewpoint of Two Heritage Buildings. University of Calgary Press.
^Roderick MacLeod and Eric John Abrahamson (2010).Spirited Commitment: The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 163.
Benson, Eugene; Conolly, L.W., eds. (1989).The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.ISBN0195406729.
Bhabha, Homi.Editor's Introduction: Minority Maneuvers and Unsettled Negotiations.
"Cosmopolitanisms." Public Culture 12.3. 2000. pp. 577–89.
Critical Inquiry 23.3. 1997. pp. 431–50.
Robinson, Amy (1994)."'It Takes One to Know One': Passing and Communities of Common Interest." Critical Inquiry 20. pp. 715–36.
"Summary," In Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade/Ministère des affairs étrangères et du commerce international.Canada in the World. 1999. Rpt. Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade/Ministère des affairs étrangères et du commerce international Home Page. 2001.
Wagner, Anton, ed.Contemporary Canadian Theatre: New World Visions, a Collection of Essays Prepared by the Canadian Theatre Critics Association. Toronto: Simon & Pierre, 1985. 411 p.ISBN0-88924-159-7
Young, Robert (2001).Postcolonialism: an Historical Introduction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
.svg)
