Manitoba Theatre Centre
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Manitoba Theatre Centre (MTC) is Canada's oldest English-language regional theatre. Next to the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, MTC has a higher annual attendance than any other theatre in the country. MTC was founded in 1958 by John Hirsch and Tom Hendry as an amalgamation of the Winnipeg Little Theatre and Theatre 77.
Manitoba Theatre Centre operates two theatre venues in the heart of greater Winnipeg, Manitoba. Each year MTC produces six Mainstage productions, four second stage or MTC Warehouse Theatre Productions, an annual 10-day Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, a mid-winter festival honoring master playwrights and a regional tour. MTC's play list includes classical, contemporary, and musical productions by established and new, upcoming playwrights providing the Winnipeg community with quality and balance in MTC's programming.
Placing the Mainstage, Warehouse and Fringe Festival productions end-to-end, MTC's performances would span 300 days a year.
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[edit] Theatre for Young Audiences
Each season MTC provides, exclusively for student audiences, preview performances of plays that relate to the high school curriculum. Students travel not only from schools through Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba, but also from Northwestern Ontario, North Dakota, and Minnesota. Past student matinee productions have included Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Miracle Worker and Of Mice & Men.
[edit] The History of Manitoba from the Beginning of Time to the Present in 45 Minutes
Aimed at Winnipeg high school students, the short educational drama reenacts the history of Manitoba through stories, drama, music and humor. It tours high schools throughout Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba.
[edit] Backstage Pass
Each year, the Backstage Pass program gives 25 high school students (grades 11-12) across Manitoba an inside look at theatre. Students get to meet like-minded peers, explore the backstage areas of MTC, as well as meet with professionals from all areas of the business. There is a Backstage Pass session for each mainstage show (6 in total). Activities during the sessions can include improvisation, playwriting, mask work, and auditions. There is also information given on theatre careers, schools, and scholarships. Participants attend all mainstage shows as a group, and can choose to see all the warehouse shows individually.
[edit] Scholarships
MTC gives out two scholarships to students attending a post-secondary theatre program full time, aspiring for a theatre career in Manitoba. The scholarships are funded purely from donations received during a run of a particular show each season. The scholarships given are the Jean Murray - Moray Sinclair scholarship, and the Naomi Levin Scholarship.
[edit] Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival
Each summer, MTC produces the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, the second-largest Fringe festival in North America. The only income MTC receives from the festival comes from program sales; 100% of ticket sales go to the performers.
[edit] Some artists who have appeared at MTC
- Len Cariou, Tony Award-winning actor (Broadway productions of Sweeney Todd, Proof)
- Precious Chong, actress
- Gordon Clapp, actor NYPD Blue, appeared in Death of a Salesman in 1979
- Susan Clark, actress Porky's, appeared in Warehouse production The Retreat from Moscow in 2006
- Cliff DeYoung, actor (Glory), appeared in Driving Miss Daisy (Mainstage, 2005/2006 Season)
- Karen Grassle, actress (Little House on the Prairie), appeared in Driving Miss Daisy (Mainstage, 2005/2006 Season)
- Graham Greene, actor (Dances with Wolves, The Green Mile)
- Paul Gross, actor (Due South), appeared in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1990
- Martha Henry, actress and director
- Judd Hirsch, actor (Broadway productions of I’m Not Rappaport, Sixteen Wounded)
- William Hurt, actor (The Kiss of the Spiderwoman), appeared in Richard III (Mainstage, 2004/2005 Season)
- Jean LeClerc, actor (Jeremy Hunter on All My Children)
- Tom Jackson, actor North of 60 , appeared in Royalty is Royalty in 1987
- Gordon Pinsent, actor
- Keanu Reeves, actor (The Matrix Trilogy), appeared in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Mainstage, 1994/1995 Season)
- R.H. Thomson, actor (Road to Avonlea), appeared in Arcadia in 1996
- Kathleen Turner, actress
- Efrem Zimbalist Jr., actor ( Babylon 5, Murder She Wrote, 77 Sunset Strip)
- Stephanie Zimbalist, actress (Laura Holt, Remington Steele)
