Theatre Kingston is a theatre company located in Kingston,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Founded in 1990 as Theatre Beyond by Paul Gelineau, the company became The People's Theatre Kingston in 1992 and had two more Artistic Directors under that name—Kathryn MacKay (1993–94) and Kathleen LeRoux (1994–97). In late 1997, Craig Walker, was appointed as artistic director. In early 1998 the company shortened its name to Theatre Kingston and moved into the Baby Grand Studio in downtown Kingston, where it began offering a full season of four or more productions a year. Under the name Theatre Kingston, the company began to gain a reputation not only for the high quality but the unusual nature of its productions. These include two co-productions with the local French theatre company, Les Treteaux de Kingston, of bilingual plays:

David Fennario David William Fennario, (born David Wiper, 26 April 1947) is a Canadian playwright best known for '' Balconville'' (1979), his bilingual dramatization of life in working-class Montreal, for which he won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award. A ...

's ''Balconville'' and

Marianne Ackerman Marianne Letitia Ackerman (born 1952) is a Canadian novelist, playwright, and journalist. ''Mankind and Other Stories of Women'', her fifth work of prose fiction, was published by Guernica Editions in 2016. Her play ''Triplex Nervosa'' premiered a ...

's ''L'Affaire Tartuffe''; the second professional productions of Ann-Marie MacDonald's '' The Arab's Mouth'' and

Judith Thompson Judith Clare Thompson, OC (born September 20, 1954) is a Canadian playwright who lives in Toronto, Ontario. She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the recipient of many other awards including the Order of Canad ...

's ''Perfect Pie''; uncommon approaches to more familiar plays: such as Judith Thompson's ''Lion in the Streets''—which was presented in the round on a sand-floor in a setting which resembled a cross between a public park and a bull-ring; an eerie version of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

' ghost story, ''

The Turn of the Screw ''The Turn of the Screw'' is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in '' Collier's Weekly'' (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in ''The Two Magics'', published by Macmil ...

'' in the adaptation by

Jeffrey Hatcher Jeffrey Hatcher is an American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the stage play ''Compleat Female Stage Beauty'', which he later adapted into a screenplay, shortened to just ''Stage Beauty'' (2004). He also co-wrote the stage adaptation o ...

, which took place in a long dark hallway with the two performers—the Governess and a man who played all the other roles—picked out by spots of light; and

Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

's ''Pygmalion''—which was set as if in the playwright's own study, Shaw himself narrating, dressing the stage, playing the minor characters and filling out the story with short scenes drawn from his own screenplay. The company has also presented several world premieres, including most notably ''Meltdown'', John Lazarus's astonishing retelling of the myth of

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, a ...

, Icarus and the Minotaur; the collectively created community play about Kingston's social stratification, ''Princess Street: The Great Divide''; Fred Euringer's ''Night Noises'', about a nineteenth-century nutritionist who connived at the starvation deaths of his own children, and Craig Walker's ''Chantecler'', a musical based loosely on the play by Edmond Rostand and his ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

: a dream play'', an innovative adaptation from the novel by

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

which enjoyed a successful run not only in Kingston, but at the

Tarragon Theatre The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country.

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' declared this a "brilliant" production which showed "amazing theatrical panache". In 2004, Theatre Kingston took Walker's production of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some crit ...

'' to

Harbourfront Harbourfront may refer to: * Harbourfront (Toronto), a neighbourhood in Toronto ** 509 Harbourfront, Toronto streetcar route **Harbourfront Centre, cultural organization on the waterfront of Toronto * HarbourFront (Singapore), waterfront site in Si ...

in Toronto. ''EYE Magazine'' called it a "moving and insightful production" that "ma ethe work shine like new." In 2001, in association with Queen's University, the company created a children's theatre troupe, The Barefoot Players, which tours the parks and libraries of the Kingston region every summer.

Artistic directors

* Paul Gelineau (1990-1993) * Kathryn MacKay (1993-1994) * Kathleen leRoux (1994-1997) * Craig Walker (1997-2007) *

Kim Renders Kim Renders (January 14, 1955 – July 17, 2018) was a Canadian writer, director, actor and designer and a founding member of Nightwood Theatre, the oldest professional feminist theatre company in Canada. Early life Renders was born in Toronto ...

(2007-2011) * Brett Christopher (2011-2017) * Rosemary Doyle (2018-pres.)

References

External links

Official Site of Theatre Kingston
- Joint venture between Queen's University and Theatre Kingston. {{authority control Theatre companies in Ontario Culture of Kingston, Ontario