Hot Thespian Action! Ten Premiere Plays from Walterdale Playhouse

This selected anthology of new plays produced by Edmonton's Walterdale Theatre Associates documents one influential aspect of that company's ongoing artistic contribution to Edmonton and to Canadian culture.It is the result of an undertaking to recover a number of important plays, written at various stages of their authors' lives, which in some cases might otherwise have been lost to desk drawers and storage boxes.It may signal the beginning of a sustained effort to trace the influence of contemporary amateur theatre companies and their impact on their communities and on theatre practices today.It is common to view nonprofessionalized theatre practice as a phenomenon of the past.This view assumes that "amateur" is "preprofessional" and therefore outdated.It holds that Canada's "little theatres" evolved into professional theatres half a century ago (if they were any good), converted to producing decades-late off-Broadway hits, or simply folded.Certainly the former is true in specific cases in which an amateur theatre has professionalized: for example, the Winnipeg Little Theatre amalgamated with Theatre 77 to form Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1958, Calgary's Workshop 14 merged with the Musicians and Actors Club of Calgary to form MAC 14 in 1966 (becoming Theatre Calgary in 1968), and the London Little Theatre in Ontario professionalized to became the Grand Theatre in the 1970s.For these companies, professionalization was a sign of cultural progress in a Centennial-fevered national (and nationalizing) context.However, many nonprofessionalized theatres remain and thrive in the professional era.This era had its direct origins in the 1950s with the release of the Royal Commission Report in 1951 (Canada), the opening of the Stratford Festival (1953-), and the opening of the Manitoba Theatre Centre (1958-), Canada's first state-sponsored "regional" theatre.A study of the changing practices of nonprofessionalized theatres during the professional era will help to clarify the function and relevance of theatre practice in contemporary society.Other amateur theatres not to be overlooked in this pursuit are Ottawa Little Theatre (1913-), Toronto's Alumnae Theatre Company (1919-), Regina Little Theatre (1926-), and the Victoria Theatre Guild at Langham Court Theatre (1929-).They are the country's longest continuously running theatre companies.They have also contributed in no small degree to new play production and, in some cases, new play development.That they have done so during the professional era is a testament to their often overlooked, and frequently renewed, artistic and administrative visions. 1 Within this latter set of amateur theatres, Walterdale Theatre Associates holds a significant place in terms of sustained new play production, having produced over sixty new plays in fifty years.That Walterdale has done so consistently in one of Canada's most fertile new-play regions is remarkable.It is no secret that Edmonton has been an incubator of playwriting talent since the city's "coming of age in the performing arts" (Westgate) during the 1960s.Today, many professional theatre companies offer new play development and production opportunities.These include Workshop West Theatre's Kaboom Festival, Loud 'N Queer Cabaret, Springboards, Playwrights' Garage, and Playwrights Unit; Theatre Network's Nextfest; and Northern Light Theatre's UrbanThe Theatre Associates' first location at the John Walter School House at Walterdale Flats (1961-66).Today, this is the location of the Kinsmen Field House.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.