Shadowland Theatre
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 | |
| Company type | Non Profit |
|---|---|
| Industry | Entertainment: Community Art |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served |  Toronto |
Key people | Anne Barber and Brad Harley (artistic directors) |
| Website | www.shadowlandtheatre.ca |
Shadowland Theatre creates original theatre that entertains, engages, empowers, and inspires people to interact positively with each other and their environments. This theatre attempts to express our deepest imaginings and our highest hopes
Brief History
Shadowland Theatre is a community arts theatre founded in 1983 by a collective of visual and theatre artists on Toronto Island. It is a professional, not-for-profit theatre company and registered charity, incorporated in 1994.
The company came into existence after participating in Welfare State International’s Tempest on Snake Island for the 1982 World Stage on Toronto Island’s Snake Island. The UK company’s format of professional artists engaging communities in collective performance have formed the backbone of Shadowland’s work ever since. Other major influences have been Bread and Puppet Theater, Peter Minshall and Trinidad Carnival, which lead to many years of involvement in Caribana parades and ongoing working relationships with many Caribbean artists.
These influences have all contributed to a form of bold, visually distinctive theatre and performance events. In the past decade the theatre have created signature processional outdoor theatre performances and collaborated with wide-ranging communities and artists from many disciplines.
Mandate and Mission
Shadowland Theatre Believes That
• Live theatre is a basic component in the well-being of our societies. • Experiences of spectacle, mystery, and magic are essential to a full cultural life. • The raw, transformative power of live theatre is vital in our increasingly technological age. • Theatre should be accessible to all members of society.
Shadowland Theatre
• Creates live theatre that is vital, entertaining, challenging, and has wide appeal. • Draws on ancient theatre traditions to create stories for our contemporary world. • Expresses collective aspirations through popular cultural forms. • Mixes the mythic and the mundane to create socially relevant, visually poetic theatre. • Works with communities and all generations to revitalize stories of place, time and the journey through life. • Invites non-professionals into the theatrical process as part of developing an articulate and expressive society.
Current Projects
Annual Ward's Island Fire Parade
Mystery Play
Place at the Table
Crude-mentary Tales
Its Who We Are
Sarnia Art Walk Sarnia, Ontario
Productions
The Light That Stands Still Toronto Island
The Traveling Medicine Show Toronto Island
Stories of Our Island Toronto Island
The Order of Good Cheer Toronto Island
The Essence of Ambrose Ichor Toronto Island
The Lost Supper Tarragon Theatre, Annex Theatre (2004) Toronto
The Bridge Toronto Island (1980)
Right of Passage Toronto Island
Quixsand
Awards and honors
3 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Costume
2009 Voted ‘’Best Grass Roots Theatre’’ in Toronto by NOW magazine