Event Details

The Theatre Centre is a nationally-recognized arts incubator, serving as a research and development hub for the cultural sector by providing space, subsidy and mentorship to new generations of arts leaders.

The Theatre Centre’s mission is to nurture artists, invest in ideas and champion new work and new ways of working. The company fosters a culture of innovation by embracing risk and questioning traditional notions of failure and success.

This application is for the “Theatre Centre’s 10-Year Building Anniversary Programming”, taking place March 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. The Theatre Centre is organizing a year of special celebration programming to highlight the multiplicity of the building, reflecting on the past and looking forward to the future. Combining both artistic and community-based activities, the Centre’s objective is to program exciting year of both ticketed and free happenings including performances, community events, and talks/panels. Programming details include:

(1) Theatre Centre birthday party (March 21, 2024): a party event that takes over the full building with artist activations, food vendors, birthday-themed games, and cake! Hosted by comedians (TBD). This event will offer tiered ticket prices, including heavily discounted/free tickets to artists and arts workers;

(2) Outdoor Community Meal (June/July, 2024): Carrying on the tradition of The Theatre Centre’s bimonthly Community Meals, the Centre will host a giant, free BBQ with live music on Lisgar Street;

(3) “Comedy is Art Festival” (October 2024): Curated by Liza Paul, the ‘pay-what-you-can’ Festival will take over the entire building with performances and ancillary events in the Centre’s two theatres, Gallery, and café/bar. Programming plans currently include a “best of” programming stream featuring the greatest hits of Festivals past and panel discussions and free masterclasses with working comedians. Past artists have included Kirsten Rasmussen, Jean Paul, Jay Martin, Nour Hadidi, Nkasi Ogbonnah, and Nelu Handa;

(4) “Cabaret brise-jour” by L’orchestre D’hommes-orchestres (November 2024): First presented in the building’s inaugural year in 2014, the Cabaret is centred around the music of Kurt Weill and features eight musicians in a surrealist high-society salon singing about the best and worst of the human condition;

(5) “Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster” (March 2025): the Centre will present the Canadian premiere of critically-acclaimed UK production. The award winning show from Battersea Arts Centre and the BAC Beatbox Academy features six young artists’ retelling of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ through hip hop, beatbox, spoken word, and music; and

(6) a number of free community events including: (i) an indoor community yard sale hosted in the Franco Boni Theatre; (ii) town hall/debate series on the housing crisis featuring local experts and artists; (iii) the “City of Craft” art fair; and (iv) a community holiday party in December 2024.