I remember a vivid hallucination of artists hovering above the audience, traveling across the ceiling, flowing in straight lines, spinning out of white cloth and crawling up the proscenium arch. It was a sample of the iconoclastic work I was to witness over the next five years. My desire to experience something extra-ordinary kept leading me back. The powerful experiences were as varied as the artist’s involved; Susanna Hood’s “rat in the kitchen” expressed through raw emotional physicality and vocals still haunts me, Darren O’Donnell’s phone call to an unsuspecting subject in a live theatre experiment bubbling in the basement, the writhing Russian band – who were those guys? and Jennifer Tarver’s History Play. All were inspiring in different ways.
I remember David Duclos’s invitation to present work at the Theatre Centre. I looked around at the familiar mix of dance-theatre, live video feed, non-narrative text and idiosyncratic crowd in the audience and it made me feel I had found my Toronto tribe.

This story was first published in our April 2007 Newsletter. Please send your First Time Stories to cathy@theatrecentre.org

Posted: October 4th, 2008 under First Time Stories, Uncategorized.
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hi cathy, so… i would find inflight movie (e.e.’s 72 hour installation/ scratch) the most memorable for me. we bunked out at the theatre centre for three days, slept in sleeping bags, lived with the ghosts and the noises, explored the swimming pool, drank alcohol, stayed up late every night, left the door open or waited for the bell to ring at 4 am. well, it DID ring at eight am with viv moore. we woke to that. i ran to the door in my boxers to let her in, acted as though we were up all night and turned all of our equipment on. she was so apologetic in that viv way. so sweet. kevin hopped in the shower, and then started to interview her. this was followed by other people coming in to check out the installation… turned out to be a busy day. that evening, david oiye, with flask in hand, and hennebury baked out in the ‘goin to california’ room while others played darts, made confessions in the outhouse, or sat in the plane’s economy cabin to watch dr. zhivago. good times. we lost some weight that week.

This story was first published in our February 2007 Newsletter. Please send your First Time Stories to cathy@theatrecentre.org

Posted: October 4th, 2008 under First Time Stories, Uncategorized.
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My story about getting hooked up to the Theatre Centre is a pretty simple one.. I was working the Summerworks festival with Robert Armstrong (my predecessor at the Theatre Centre) when I found out that he had put his notice in. I had been casting about for a full time gig for a little while when this opportunity came up, I interviewed with Rick and David, and I inherited the dank, dusty dark Theatre Centre… And I loved it.
I loved my brief time at the Theatre Centre, and while I have many fond memories, I found I got the biggest charge out of the non-traditional theatre events we had; Poetry readings, parties etc… It was great to see this building, which I think we all took a lot of pride in, filled with happy, excited people. It made me feel as if the purpose of the facility was not just to provide an affordable venue for progressive performance, but it was also a place for like minded people to connect.

This story was originally published in our January 2007 newsletter. Please send your First Time Stories to cathy@theatrecentre.org

Posted: October 4th, 2008 under First Time Stories, Uncategorized.
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We only slipped out to photocopy various body parts when the Kinko clerks were turned, to pick up a Judy from a friend, or sit by the tennis courts of 1001 Queen West talking about what it was we were doing. Otherwise one or both of us was there, night and day. July 2002: Jan Komarek and I were in residency at The Theatre Centre, readying ourselves for Toronto performances of Das Martyrium, a collaboration begun a few months before in the Czech Republic. The Theatre Centre, then, had a fresh covering of brown paper, like a big present wrapped from the inside out. For a dancer/choreographer used to a teching in a few hours, doing a dress and Opening, all within 2 or maybe 3 days, it was a real introduction to how work could be made. Interacting with Jan in this creation, as the piece and character grew within the isolated land of the little rooms and windows the light made, gave me experience that changed my ideas about what was/is possible. So did learning how to turn the dimmers on, recording voiceovers between movement sequences, answering the box office phone on breaks, running cable, sweeping the floor, cleaning kitchen sink (Jan did the bathrooms), falling asleep on the carpet in the dressing room then rehearsing again with a textured cheek, and finding myself in a heap at the end of the day when, sharing an icy shot of Becherovka with Mr. Komarek we discussed just how the sharpening table we bought second-hand had shuffled wildly across the room until it unplugged itself. We agreed it had a certain presence, but wound the cord up.It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of time, which we in a large part owed to David Duclos who invited us. [To add to it all, at the reception in the lobby after opening, I received the first rose from my, now, husband.]

This story was originally published in the December 2006 Newsletter. Please send your First Time Stories to cathy@theatrecentre.org, and watch for them here on our blog. 

Posted: October 4th, 2008 under First Time Stories, Uncategorized.
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My first time at the Theatre Centre, it was located on Lippincott, I went to see a play on a whim. I had just started as GM of Crow’s Theatre and used to get invites to many theatre openings and since I wanted to familiarize myself with the Toronto theatre world, I decided I should go to all the openings. My very first play was a Phyzikal Theatre show, Hallowed Hal, with Philip Shepherd and Randi Helmers. I remember walking out thinking how clever and innovative the show was. Well, I ended up falling in love with many of the shows I saw at the Theatre Cente after that and discovered some of the best work I have seen in Toronto.
The Theatre Centre relocated to Queen Street West and when David Duclos became the Producer of the Centre and I was asked to join the Board of Directors. It really was a breeding gound and a support system for alternative artists (through the R+D program) and a world of performance fusion and one of the spaces where cultural diversity and innovation went hand in hand. I loved it and remember how I was blown away by Ayahuasca Dreams by Alejandro Ronceria and attending my first dance performance by Learie McNicholls. The Last Temptation of Christopher Robin by Michael O’Brien was another highlight from the Theatre Centre. The first production of Insomnia by Daniel Brooks; I could go on and on as the number of memorable shows that have come out of the Theatre Centre is just too large to list. I haven’t even brought up any of the recent shows that I have seen there.
Thinking about the last 20 years of the Theatre Centre brings back some of the best memories of Toronto theatre. It’s comforting to see that there will be many more in the next 20 years.

This story was originally published in the November 2006 Newsletter. We are now posting First Time Stories by Theatre Centre artists past and present here on our blog. To include your own please email cathy@theatrecentre.org

Posted: October 4th, 2008 under First Time Stories, Uncategorized.
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My memories of the Theatre Centre are of going to a venue where I would expect to see the Best and the Brightest in the Toronto/Canadian theatre scene. Highlights that flash back include but are NOT limited to: Nadia Ross and other stars sitting in chairs attached to the walls 8 feet in the air in Stephen Seabrook & Robin Fulford’s stunning epic Wagner series. Steve Lucas’ brilliant water tank show in which you watched a large literal “lake” of water ebb and flow and be lit many different ways. That was it. Stunning.

Daniel Brooks’ fabulous movement in the other Daniel’s The Lorca Play (he underplayed Lorca with a walking stick wonderfully) in which 6 women(including Nadia, the epic Tracy Wright (with whom I would kill to work!!) Kirsten and Sigrid Johnson and Carolyn Gillis (these actors are all stellar) paced up and down to music on a bare stage for at least half an hour, an expression of boredom and futility out-communicating the original Lorca play. Everything else by Daniel Brooks. Anything by the demented genius, Stephen Seabrook.
Sky Gilbert (any adjective would be puny) and Clinton Walker, (THE BEST)doing an hilarious song and dance showbiz number with “I don’t care if there’s poo in my pants!”!
I loooooovvvvvveeeee the theatre centre!
John Palmer

Starting in the September 2006 Newsletter we began publishing First Time Stories from Theatre Centre artists past and present. We will now be posting them, and others we’re collecting, here on the Blog. Send your First Time Story to Cathy (cathy@theatrecentre.org) and watch for them here!

Posted: October 4th, 2008 under First Time Stories, Uncategorized.
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