Royal 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. It was founded in 1958 by John Hirsch and Tom Hendry as an amalgamation of the Winnipeg Little Theatre and Theatre 77. In 2010, the theatre was honoured to receive royal designation from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and officially became the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
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The Royal 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 12-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.
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 throughout 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.
MTC gives out scholarships to students attending post-secondary theatre programs full time, aspiring for a theatre career in Manitoba, as well as apprentice opportunities. The Jean Murray - Moray Sinclair Theatre Scholarship is funded purely from donations received during a run of a particular show each season. The Naomi Levin Theatre Scholarship was established in memory of Naomi Levin, a theatre technician associated with MTC for a number of years.
Each summer, MTC produces the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, the second-largest Fringe festival in North America.
Manitoba Theatre Centre received Royal designation on October 26, 2010. The name is now Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.[1]
The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre was designed in the Brutalist style by Winnipeg's Number Ten Architectural Group with input from artistic director Eddie Gilbert. With its exposed concrete sculptural form, an informal interior theatre space and a foyer originally conceived to balance large gatherings and smaller intimate groups in the same space, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre is one of Canada's most important small-scale Brutalist designs.
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