Professional theatre virtually disappeared in Canada in the 1930s. During this time, Canadians artists kept their theatre alive by creating a vibrant national network of high-quality community theatres run largely by women. After World War II, aspiring Canadian professionals created new companies from sea to sea. Their vision was to make it possible for Canadian theatre artists finally be able to make a theatrical living in their own country.
“In Their Own Words” is a chronicle of this rebirth of Canadian theatre, alongside the explosive growth of radio and television, from its amateur roots through to the 1960s. Through their own words, interviewed and recorded by John Richardson, 35 theatre pioneers take us on a journey across Canada and give us an inside glimpse of how our home-grown theatre culture earned universal recognition and built national pride in Canada’s performing arts.
