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

Western Canada

• There are also many successful summer stock companies in Western Canada, including Theatre Under the Stars (Vancouver), Wild Horse Theatre (Fort Steele) and the Chemainus Festival (Vancouver Island).

British Columbia

• 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.

Alberta

• 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 of several companies: Teatro la Quindicina, Shadow Theatre, Rapid Fire Theatre, Die-Nasty, and Oh Susanna!). Other well-known companies, many of which specialize in new plays or adventurous work, include Workshop West Theatre, Northern Light, and Theatre Network.

• 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. Other well-known companies, many of which specialize in new plays or adventurous work, include Sage Theatre, Downstage Theatre, and Lunchbox Theatre.

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

Saskatchewan

• 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.

Manitoba

• Winnipeg is the home of Le Cercle Molière (the oldest continuously running theatre company in Canada), the Manitoba Theatre Centre (Canada's oldest English-language regional theatre), the Pantages Playhouse, Fantasy Theatre for Children (Manitoba's oldest children's theatre), Merlyn Productions, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Rainbow Stage, Theatre Projects Manitoba, the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, and the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

Central Canada

Ontario

• 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.

• Blyth is the home of the Blyth Festival Theatre and Centre for the Arts.

• London is home to the Grand Theatre.

• Stratford is best known for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

• 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 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, 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, Lonely Cake and Volcano.

• 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 nearby Gananoque, the Thousand Islands Playhouse features professional productions 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. The Ottawa Little Theatre, founded in 1913, is the longest-running community theatre company in Canada

Quebec

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

• Québec City is the home of Robert Lepage's company Ex Machina.

Northwest Territories

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

Eastern Canada

New Brunswick

• 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.

• Theatre New Brunswick is a provincial theatre company.

Prince Edward Island

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

Nova Scotia

• Halifax has the Neptune Theatre, Shakespeare by the Sea and Canada's longest continuously running community theatre The Theatre Arts Guild, as well as the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. See Culture of the Halifax Regional Municipality#Theatre.

• Wolfville was home to the Atlantic Theatre Festival.

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

Newfoundland and Labrador

• 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).

Summer Festivals

Major summer theatre festivals include:

• Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
• The Blyth Festival Theatre, based in Blyth, Ontario
• 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.
• 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 Montréal 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 and the Atlantic Fringe Festival.

See 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

• Canadian Stage Company
• ArtsAlive.ca|Théâtre Français
• [1]
• Cahiers de Théâtre Jeu
• Playwrights Canada Press
• Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
• The Canadian Theatre Record
• My Theatre Company Society
• L.W. Conolly Theatre Archives at University of Guelph, Archival and Special Collections, holds more than 120 archival collections related to Canadian theatre
• SIBMAS: International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions
• The Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project

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