8 Theatre Companies
Theatre Companies
Many theater companies fail simply because they don’t take the time to lay down the ground work that ensures they’ll have the resources and guidance they need to survive. It takes at least a year to recruit a decent board of directors, raise enough funds to launch the company, and file the correct documents with state and local officials – all things that must be accomplished before you even begin to work on your first production.
– How To Start Your Own Theater Company by Reginald Nelson (p. 32)
It is important to understand the current ecology of theatre companies, even if you plan to freelance or don’t like the system as it exists. I’ll acknowledge that the above quote is a very old school theatre model and we do see many ad hoc companies producing shows without the legal infrastructure. The main thing is that size of company really effects a lot, including hiring. So, as stated before, knowing about the companies that exist can help you to know what they are going to be able to offer in terms of scale (both pay and scope of production support). Knowing more about the theatre companies in your region lets you focus your energy on those you want to work with based on size, where you align aesthetically as an artist, and also ethically.
There are certain terms you might hear when describing theatre companies in Canada as noted within theatre structures.
There are commercial theatres. In Canada, Mirvish Productions is the largest example. There are also some for-profit dinner theatres and companies that make money doing corporate entertainment or murder mysteries.
There are regionals, these are the larger theatres in each region of the country that were established as part of a push for Canadian arts and culture after the Massey Commission (see below). They are PACT (Professional Association of Canadian Theatre) members, have their own space, program a season of works, have subscribers, and generally employ a complement of staff. There are large regionals and also mid-size. Many of the mid-size theatres started in the 1970s as experimental and with a focus on new Canadian plays, but they have now become part of the mainstream. In addition to these regionals, there are also a range of stable and established companies formed with specific mandates such as Black Theatre Workshop, Native Earth Performing Arts, Nightwood Theatre, or The Frank Theatre all serving a specific community.
FYI regionals in the U.S. are known as LORTs (League of Resident Theatres).
Just a side note here that when we talk about a season, this refers to multiple productions planned throughout the company’s year of operations. Many seasons run from September to May, although summer theatres have a summer season. A season is announced usually 6 to 7 months in advance so the theatres can start promoting their offerings and selling a subscription. A subscription is where patrons pay one packaged price in advance to see all the shows in the season. For more info on how theatre companies program their seasons go to the Arts Management track.
Then there are independent companies. They are smaller, usually do not have a space so rent venues, have a couple staff or rely on contract workers, and often find it hard to offer a full season of works due to the precarious nature of their funding. Some may be on multi-year funding but most work from project to project. There is a large range of independent theatres, and some have been around so long that they are stable. Some are more experimental, some come and go quickly, and some have mandates to serve particular communities.
There are also TYA or Theatre for Young Audiences companies, most structured similar to regional theatres but with a youth and educational focus. They also will often tour work to schools. In addition, many also run theatre schools simultaneous to programming a season.
As well, we see ad hoc companies formed by a collective of collaborators to produce a specific show, or started by a single artist in order to self-produce. Many of these take shape in order to do a Fringe or festival show. Some will be true collectives whereby they have joint decision-making, split the workload, and rather than a set fee for their work they split the box office revenue.
There is also community theatre. This is not to be confused with theatre that serves or works in community. Here the term community theatre refers to it not being professional. The main difference is simply that those doing this type of community theatre do not get paid. It is all volunteer and often done by those with day jobs but who still love to do theatre. Most regions have several community theatres, many who have existed for decades. Some may have a specific mandate like the circuit of Irish Players across North America. Others formed in a rural community where professional theatre did not exist. They can be great for those wanting to gain some experience and also for those who want to continue doing theatre despite choosing a different career path as their day job. Many of them also have their own festivals to gather and celebrate their love of theatre. I’ve had the honour of adjudicating for the Association of Community Theatres Manitoba festival a few times and it is always a joy.
Finally, theatre companies also exist under a larger banner of Applied Theatre. Applied theatre is focused on theatre for social change generally by using performance tools to explore issues affecting a specific community. This includes companies or groups doing theatre in prisons, schools, healthcare, and even on the streets as both an empowerment and educational tool.
Activity: Can you find examples in your geographic area of the various types of theatre companies (i.e. a regional theatre, independent theatre, community theatre, any applied theatre taking place…etc.).
History
It can be helpful to understand at least an overview of the history that led to establishing the mainstream companies as they exist in English Canada. This is the colonial history of the dominant theatre industry and not meant to disregard the many community and oral traditions previous to the establishment of so-called Canada.
The Massey Commission in 1949-1951 basically highlighted the need and the pathway to creating domestic theatre rather than continuing the historical focus on British and American work. As a result:
- Stratford Festival founded in 1953
- Canada Council for the Arts in 1957
- Manitoba Theatre Centre (MTC) was established in 1958, it became the first regional theatre and remains today Canada’s oldest English-language regional theatre although a Royal designation has been added (RMTC)
- 1950s and 1960s regional theatres established in major urban centres
- Alternative and experimental theatres sprung up in the late 50s into the 1970s
- In the 1970s small theatres with a mandate to develop and produce Canadian plays were established in most provinces
- Edmonton Fringe Festival is the first Canadian Fringe in 1982
Check out the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia for more details.
PACT
The Professional Association of Canadian Theatres is the national arts service organization for theatre companies and provides great resources and context – PACT.CA. It has over 160 member companies, of various sizes, and negotiates with CAEA, ADC, and PGC to form labour agreements (standard contracts). They offer valuable programing and professional development for staff of theatre companies (both artistic and administrative). In addition, they are very active in federal advocacy bringing member concerns to both the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts.
There is a list of members on their website so this is a great way to get a snapshot of companies in Canada. Going to each company’s website will provide you with details on their mandate and also allow you to see the work that they do. Most will also note who to contact and if/how they receive submissions from those interested in working with them.
Canadian Theatre Agreement
What theatres pay in terms of fees for actors, directors, choreographers, stage managers, fight directors, and intimacy directors is outlined in the agreement between PACT and CAEA – the CTA (Canadian Theatre Agreement). It is based on House Categories. This is calculated from number of seats, tickets price, and potential sales. You can see a breakdown of the house categories and associated fees at 2021-2024-CTA-ProposedFeeBooklet.pdf (caea.com).
Stratford Festival is by far the largest entity operating currently and has a huge staff to support the festival. This means they have their own agreements with associations to fit their unique needs.
Many companies are also exploring new ways to engage and do community outreach. This includes new ticket pricing structures to reduce economic barriers. Soulpepper is a good example of this practice – Soulpepper Theatre – Plays, Concerts & Musicals. Some smaller companies have even established sliding scale prices, similar to a pay what you can. That can complicate house category calculations, but increases access. In talking to companies engaging in this practice, they’ve shared that generally the box office income has remained the same with those who can pay more for tickets balancing out those who cannot afford much.
In terms of smaller companies, there are many independents in most regions. Since they do not generally have their own space or program a full season, it can be harder to know what they are doing. However, it is often exciting and unique work that is connected to a specific mission. Some will be members of PACT, but others do not work within that model. In certain places the smaller companies work together creating an umbrella for independent theatre, for example Winnipeg Independent Theatre (WIT) and Live Five in Saskatoon. Toronto Fringe also recently launched Indie Arts Network | Toronto Fringe Festival.
As alluded to under Theatre Structures, there are many challenges with the current model, and changes have occurred and continue to slowly occur based on the changing world around us. It does take a while to adjust course for a large ship though, such as the big theatre companies who are large institutions, but there has certainly been an increase in responsiveness to change in the last five years.
I am very fortunate to run a large institution in a mid-size town. Winnipeg’s not a tiny community, but there aren’t a lot of other $10 million theatre companies around. We have a deep privilege and a deep amount of power, and we have to be really cognizant of that. We also work all the hours god made and we’re not sitting here, you know, cashing our cheques and trying to figure out what kind of premium gas to put in our cars. My Artistic Director and I are really dedicated, and our teams are working very hard to making sure that we are doing the right thing in the right way for as many people as possible. And the challenges are many, right? I’m dealing with complicated relationships with volunteers. I’m dealing with balancing the needs of a community, with the needs of an audience, with the needs to grow a new audience, all of these pieces are part of the equation. And it’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of emails, it’s a lot of hours. We fundamentally got into this business because we love the art form and we want to put artists on stage engaging with as many audience members as possible. We really do. We’re not in it for the power.
It is a privilege. It is absolutely a privilege. And here’s another thing. The people running theatre companies are on term contracts. You know, we all report to a board. We all have an end date on our contracts. And I don’t think enough people know that. So, you know, change is possible and opportunities are possible because at the end of the day, the leaders are not permanent employees. – Camilla Holland, Executive Director, RMTC, Winnipeg, MB
But the fundamental was that it was born out of a necessity for a group of people to come together to share work. It wasn’t about the business side that emerged kind of on my own, but it was about the political side of what it means to be part of a company, to be committed to a group of individuals, to train, to tell stories like that. That’s a political act. And so, that was a lot of the motivation of really like why. And I remember when I was early days, 21 years old, I was in a workshop with Anne Bogart and she told the story of how she met Ariane Mnouchkine. You know, these two heroes of mine meeting in this fictional story being told by Anne, and Anne said, Anne was trying to figure out, she was just getting the opportunity to make SITI Company and Mnouchkine said something to the effect of like, Why? You know, why wouldn’t you want a company? Why? What can anyone do without a company? You need a group of people. The revolution doesn’t happen without, by one person. And it’s like, it’s heartbreaking and tragic and it breaks your heart every day, but it’s the only way to get anything done. So very early, that was impressed upon me. And then I went to the Lecoq School in France eventually. And that is a real. It’s a place where ensemble and company is fundamentally core to the work. And just so many companies are formed out of the school. You want to work with other people, you want to work with other ideas, other cultures. It was the heart of everything, because no one does anything alone. – Ravi Jain, Artistic Director, Why Not Theatre, Toronto, ON
If you are thinking of starting your own company or self-producing read the Theatre Maker track. Also, there are great resources on the Artist Producer Resource. It is a big undertaking, but the small independent companies have often been integral forces for change and relied upon as training grounds. They are often embedded in community and offer an accessible entry point.
I would say art has been always first. I think the art has been centre, you know, that spirit of what are we doing and what status quo we’re challenging? What story are we telling to be part of a conversation that is larger than the one we’re having? That’s been the core. I think that’s been the thing that sustained us and then that bridged out to wanting to make bigger change on a bigger scale. And so that art making and that change making really helped solidify, let’s say, a kind of reputation. And then the business side is like fundamental. Like in Canada, learning how to navigate the granting system is, you know, really important. And, you know, there’s been a lot of growth for me in that because there’s other levels of granting things that you can hit. An access to, you know, philanthropic side, banks, corporate, all that garbage, you know, like that came very late for me when the company, you know, I’d say in year ten, did we really start maximizing what all that was. So, before all that, you know, was what we were doing, what the spirit and the energy of the work was doing. And in order to do it, we had to like build a lot of partnerships and be a good partner and get other people to pay for the thing we wanted to do. – Ravi Jain, Artistic Director, Why Not Theatre, Toronto, ON
“…actors form theater companies simply so they can work. That is indeed true, but there must also be passion, a burning desire to tell stories that must be told. You must possess in your heart the absolute will to execute productions that no other troupe can perform, and the plays you produce should always be relevant in some shape or form, to current, 21st century society.”
– How To Start Your Own Theater Company by Reginald Nelson (p. 11)
Producing Versus Presenting
It can also be important to clarify the difference between a Producer or Producing Company versus a Presenter.
- Producer is a person or company responsible for coordinating the resources necessary to make the play. In other words, they are the ones putting the show together, hiring the artists, and managing it right up until it is ready to perform or tour.
- Presenter is a person or company who actually promotes it and sells it to the public. They will take a show that is ready to perform and host it, but have not been involved with the creation. Often these are those who run venues (road houses) that shows tour to or they are festivals that present performance-ready work by artists.
- Also, Co-Productions have become popular in the last 20 years, whereby two theatre companies will work together to produce a single play. They will have to agree on things like the artistic team, particularly if they want representation from both of their catchments (geographic region, artistic community). They would also decide who will be the point of origin hosting the first performances and therefore who will build the set and manage production up to opening if the two companies are in different cities. Other times two small companies will work together in the same city to pool resources to do a show they are both excited about, but couldn’t afford to take on themselves.
- In all these instances, a clear contract is needed spelling out who is responsible for what, how expenses will be managed, and how revenue will be split.
Activity: As an artist what would be the pros or cons of a co-production?
It is great for companies to share resources, access different funding, and introduce artists to different regions. It is also great for the playwright whose work is being done and for the cast who will likely get to have more performances, a longer engagement and pay period. However, the criticism has been that it means fewer plays being done. For example, if a theatre in Calgary co-produces with a theatre in Vancouver, that is a slot in each of these company’s seasons taken up but only one playwright and one cast.
Ultimately, there is such a wide range of companies, producing models, and entities in the theatre ecology. The best thing to do is dive in to learn about the companies in your geographic region if that is where you want to work. Or, more broadly if your main priority is working within a particular mission statement or set of values, explore the companies that align. Get on the mailing lists for theatre companies so you can stay in the loop and get to know them better. As is reiterated many times in various chapters, going to see shows is the best way to learn, and can provide insights on the type of work a company does and if they are a fit for you.