Soulpepper Theatre Company is a Toronto, Ontario-based theatre company dedicated to presenting classic plays.
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Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists who dreamed of a company that would produce lesser known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has since become an important part of Toronto's theatre scene. It often presents Canadian interpretations of works by such noted playwrights as Harold Pinter, Thornton Wilder, Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard and Anton Chekhov. The current artistic director is Albert Schultz.
László Marton, artistic director of the Vígszínház in Budapest, Hungary and one of the most important contemporary theatre directors, has had numerous productions over the years at Soulpepper: Molnár's The Play's the Thing (1999, 2003), Chekhov's Platonov (1999, 2000), Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (2001, 2002), Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear (2001), and Ibsen's The Wild Duck (2005).
Soulpepper's founding members are Martha Burns, Susan Coyne, Ted Dykstra, Michael Hanrahan, Stuart Hughes, Diana Leblanc, Diego Matamoros, Nancy Palk, Albert Schultz, Robyn Stevan, William Webster, Joseph Ziegler
In 2005, the Soulpepper Theatre Company moved into its permanent building, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. The joint project with the George Brown College theatre school was designed by local firm KPMB and is located in Toronto's historic Distillery District.
Soulpepper sells 2, 4, 7, and 10 ticket packages as subscriptions or as gift certificates for others. The rates are different for student subscribers, earlybird performances and regular run performances.
Soulpepper believes strongly that the connection between young people and the arts is best fostered through a direct relationship with the artists on our stages. At the centre of all of Soulpepper's education initiatives is the notion of mentorship: a direct and personal relationship between young people and our artists. For this reason, all education programs at Soulpepper are led by the artists of Soulpepper, actors/directors who are leading practitioners of their craft in Canada. Each participant of these programs will leave our home, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, with many meaningful and ongoing relationships with the artists of Soulpepper.
School Partnerships - Every year, Soulpepper commits to providing collaborative arts programs to a selection of schools in need of arts programming. Since 2001, Soulpepper has had the opportunity to work with a variety of schools including Queen Victoria Public School, Dundas Public School, Central Technical School, Earl Haig Secondary School and Market Lane Public School.
In Schools - Soulpepper In The Schools Program provides a bold model for arts education partnerships between public schools and the theatre. The goals of the Soulpepper program are: to encourage students to make connections between music, literature, performing arts and their own lives; to enrich their vocabulary and extend their means of expression; to become familiar with Shakespeare's stories and language; to experience, learn, and practice drama techniques.
ESL - Soulpepper believes that exploring classical text helps to release voice, encourages an interest in language and helps youth find power in speaking. To date Soulpepper has worked with English as a Second Language students in two Toronto high schools to develop and facilitate programs that introduce young people to classical text in a playful way.
In 2000 Soulpepper's Artistic Director Albert Schultz was approached by Paul Carder, then the Dean of Business and Creative Arts at George Brown College, with the suggestion that a partnership be struck between Soulpepper and the George Brown Theatre School to create a new performance/education facility.
In November 2001, the Distillery Historic District Project was announced and the partnership of George Brown College (GBC) and Soulpepper immediately began negotiations with the Cityscape Development group to take possession of Tank Houses 9 and 10 creating what would become the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.
The vision of this partnership was to create a performing arts, education and community outreach facility that would be home to Soulpepper Theatre Company with its three-tiered mandate of performance, artist training and youth outreach, George Brown Theatre School's celebrated three-year professional actor training program and Toronto's independent arts community. This facility, in which the performance and education of all performing disciplines would be undertaken, would be unique in the world.
In 2002, the architectural firm of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects was hired to design the centre with Thomas Payne as the principal architect. The design created four flexible, dedicated, indoor performance venues, four studios, two classrooms, a wardrobe production facility, a student lounge, artist garden, and administration offices for GBC and Soulpepper. At the centre of the building is a welcoming atrium which includes a café/bar and fireplace. The total cost of the facility was $14 million and GBC and Soulpepper Theatre Company equally shared the cost. The shared dream became a reality in 2003, when David Young through the Michael Young Family Foundation contributed a lead gift of $3 million to what is now known as the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. The facility officially opened to the public on January 15, 2006.
Since that time more than 250,000 people have attended performances at the Young Centre, which has received numerous architectural and design awards.
Soulpepper strives to play a significant role in the development of future generations of theatre artists through the Soulpepper Academy. This full-time, paid training program was launched in 2006. Selected through an exhaustive nation-wide search, 10 artists undertake a two year residency to further develop their skills under the guidance of leading theatre practitioners, further their careers through involvement in Soulpepper productions, teach in the classrooms of the local community, mentor youth and develop a collective creation. The Academy is composed of directors, playwrights, designers and performers and in many cases, artists are skilled in more than one area or discipline.
The Soulpepper Academy program is divided into two phases. The first year is strongly focused on training and pedagogy, while the second year shifts to performance/production with ongoing training. Mentorship and teaching activities run throughout the two-year program, as does collective creation. Artists participate in workshop showcases during the first year and in the second join the Soulpepper Company on the mainstage. A full-length, public production of an Academy Collective Creation is the culmination of the two-year residency.
After a nation-wide search, the 2009/10 Soulpepper Academy has been chosen and they are: Ins Choi, Tatjana Cornij, Raquel Duffy, Brendan Healy, Ken MacKenzie, Gregory Prest, Karen Rae, Jason Patrick Rothery, and Brendan Wall. The next round of selections will commence in 2011.
Dora Mavor Moore Awards
Other Awards