Theatre Ontario
Theatre Ontario is an association of community, educational and professional theatre organisations and individuals who are dedicated to the development and maintenance of high quality theatre in all parts of the province that is accessible to and reflects all segments of our society. They serve as the centre of the province's information network for people in theatre. They help to develop and promote artistic, technical and management learning and training opportunities for individuals and theatre companies across the province. Theatre Ontario members Celebrates excellence in theatre through festivals, showcases and award programs. It also gives access to the arts and culture in communities and schools across Ontario Actively supports networks of dedicated theatre people who promote cultural tourism, training, festivals, arts education, information sharing, health & safety issues and audience development.
Theatre Ontario came into existence in 1971, as the result of a meeting of theatre leaders at the Ontario Theatre Conference at Lake Couchiching. From the beginning it was determined that Theatre Ontario would be a unique service organisation with membership, programs and services for all the sectors that make up theatre in the province - community, educational, youth and professional. Incorporated in August 1971, Theatre Ontario immediately filled the gap created by the demise of the Dominion Drama Festival. Theatre Ontario's first employee was the late Maggie Bassett who pioneered dynamic training programs that benefited the entire province.
The Dominion Drama Festival was a bilingual drama festival, which ran from 1932-78 and was a breeding ground for many of the artists who laid the foundation for the modern Canadian theatre. It was founded as a pan-Canada amateur competition that would bring the regional winners together to compete for a variety of prizes given by a British and French judges. The prizes would include awards for acting, design, direction, original writing and best production. The beginning of Quebec nationalism, and accusations - arguably false - of federalist or Central Canada bias in the judging and policy-making signalled the beginning of the end of the DDF. The competitions ended in 1970 when DDF became Théâtre Canada and a showcase for regional theatre. By 1978 the Ottawa headquarters for the festival had closed. Theatre Ontario was founded about the same time of the closing of this national festival.
Throughout the late 1920's an important theatrical movement developed: The Workers' Theatre Movement. In the end, it diminished around the middle of the 1930's, and one of the developments aiding the decline of the Workers' Theatre Movement, was the creation of the Federal Theatre Project. The Federal Theatre Project was the largest and most motivated effort mounted by the Federal Government to organize and produce theater events. Once the government took on the duty of putting people to work, it was able to consider the movement. The Federal Theatre Project’s purpose was “to provide relief work for theatrical artists that utilized their talents and to make their work widely available to ordinary Americans, thus democratizing high culture.” (www.answers.com) Furthermore the FTP tried to present theatre that was relevant socially, politically, and had popular prices, such as free shows. The majority of its famous productions, although not all of them, came out of New York City. New York had many units, such as, a classical unit, Negro unit, units performing vaudeville, children’s plays, puppet shows, caravan productions, and the new plays unit. The Federal Theatre Project was “the only fully government-sponsored theatre ever in the United States”. (Witham 16)
Theatres and How We Had Fun." Little, Brown, and Company. (Boston, Toronto, London); 1991. P. 139, 144.
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre A History. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Print.
... look out for high profile contacts and good image building activities especially due to the on going outsourcing concern. As community theatre boards include executive level staff these consulting companies could get high visibility and a sophisticated image by pairing up with something as ?cultured? as theatre. These companies can be requested by the boards of community theaters to sponsor the building and maintenance of the theatre websites in exchange for good PR and contacts.
middle of paper ... ... Over the next decade, attempts to revive performances were made but this edict practically closed theaters, marking the end of Elizabethan drama. Bibliography:..
Elizabethan times in the 1600s was a progression for the world of the theater. A period named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, it is from this period that modern day society has its foundation for the entertainment industry. From the violence that was prevalent because of the Black Death, people turned to the theater for its poetry and romance. During this time period, there were two types of theatrical performances that were available for the people’s viewing, comedies or tragedies. These two genres were never really intertwined until the time of William Shakespeare. His play, Romeo and Juliet, is an example of both a comedy and a tragedy. It starts off as a comedy with Romeo weeping like a baby because of his love Rosaline, who did not love him back and ends as a tragedy when Romeo and Juliet, a pair of star crossed lovers, commit suicide because the lost of each other. It was also during Shakespeare’s time that writer were finally acknowledged by the people. Before this time, writers were not considered upper classman. Another group of people that began to rise into a higher social class were the actors. Actresses were not present back then because women were not allowed on stage. It was considered unladylike to have a female actor. Men played all the parts. Theater owners were dependent on actors to make them a profit. Rehearsals for the plays were fairly short, only lasting for about a week. The performances themselves would only show for three to four days.
“The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation,” says Stella Adler. Theater is unique and intriguing because it blends literary and visual arts to tell a story. Before Theater 10, I viewed theater on the surface level: cheesy plot lines with dramatic scenarios for entertainment purposes. Throughout the course, I have learned what it means to appreciate theater, such as understanding Brechtian and Chinese theatre; however, I believe understanding theater’s ability to convey crucial historical and social messages, such as in the production of RENT, is more relevant and important for theater appreciation.
are heavily influenced by theatre and Broadway therefore, people are more aware of live theatre and often attend plays. Cities such as Modesto, Turlock, Stockton, etc. have little knowledge and are less aware of live theatre. As a result, people in such cities prefer entertainment in movie theatres. The entertainment levels differ between live theatre and movies depending on how that particular entertainment is presented and how the audience recognizes it. The main goal of live theatre is to entertain the audience either through comedy, tragedy, romance, and action through the use of costumes, effects, props, and lighting to achieve the highest possible entertainment level for the people in order for them to come watch more theatre and drama. On the other hand, some people prefer movies to be more entertaining due to enhanced sound and edited picture. Movies are mainly offered everywhere meanwhile, live theatre is harder to find especially local. I would advise people to try out and attend live theatre plays and give it a try. It is a great experience for family and friends. I am glad that I took this course and had the chance to explore theatre and drama. I will definitely attend live theatre plays in the future. It is a different form of entertainment compared to movies. Theatre is composed of many emotions and will leave the audience feeling some type of way. In my opinion, theatre is a form of exceptional art. I had different empowering emotions and experience with these three events. Theatre is truly a memorable art of
The Theatre in Education or TIE was initially developed and established in around 1960 by actor Roger Chapman. Theatre in Education refers to a style of theatre which brings audiences of young people face to face with the actors in an interactive theatre piece designed around the exploration of a particular idea. However, its aim is to stimulate, educate and inform young people by doing performance followed by the workshop that can be done before or after and it depends on the theatre company. Whereby, working with young people using drama as a means of allowing them to express themselves freely and creatively and to deal with issues relevant to them encouraging them to participate through work in the role and through debate. Theatre in education can be used to create different kinds of productions: for example, there are plays designed for a young audience, that could be based on a traditional story and activities for very young children, linked to a story with the opportunities for involvement. Theatre in education is used to encourage effective learning in schools. It calls for careful consideration of the audience's age and requirements in order to engage them and get the message
“Theatre makes us think about power and the way our society works and it does this with a clear purpose, to make a change.”
Mainly the initial aims of these companies was to stimulate, educate and inform young people through encouraging them to participate in enjoyable and imaginary based theatre programmes. Despite early attempts in Britain in the mid 1930’s, where a Glasgow Director of education allowed the Bertha Waddell’s company to perform in junior schools within school time, the majority of the advances within the movement came after World War Two. Due to the nature and after-effects of the time, many post war Education Authorities felt the need to sponsor drama and live theatre companies to aid in their areas learning processes. One could perhaps say that due to the sheer devastation of the war many education authorities felt that through the use of drama therapy and role play style interaction that students would be able to address their true anxieties and would therefore have a more rewarding time in post war school. Around this time parallel groups were beginning to form in Birmingham and London.
Around 700 BC the Greeks had festivals that honored the gods; one of these festivals was called City Dionysian. People would sing and dance while tribes would compete against eachother to see who was the greatest of them all. In the early Greek festivals, the actors, directors, and dramatists were all the same person. Only three actors were allowed to be in a play and all had to be male. Later on, non-speaking roles as well as the chorus evolved in theatre to keep citizens more entertained. Well-known play wrights ...
Theatre will always survive in our changing society. It provides us with a mirror of the society within which we live, and where conflicts we experience are acted out on stage before us. It provides us with characters with which we identify with. The audience observes the emotions and actions as they happen and share the experience with the characters in real time.
For thousands of years, people have been arguing that theatre is a dying art form. Many people think theatre is all just cheesy singing and dancing or just boring old Shakespeare, but there is much more to theatre than those two extremes. Theatre is important to our society because it teaches us more about real life than recorded media. Theatre has been around for thousands of years and began as a religious ceremony that evolved into an art form that teaches about the true essence of life. Theatre can incorporate profound, and provocative, observations of the human condition that can transcend time; lessons found in Greek plays can still be relevant to the modern world. People argue that the very essence of theatre is being snuffed out by modern