Union Theatre (Peterborough)

The Union Theatre was a theatre in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada that existed from 1989 to 1996.

The theatre was established by local theatre artists in 1989. It served as an arts collective serving local and regional theatre, visual arts and musical artists with a focus on helping emerging artists find a place to showcase their talents. The space was primarily a performance space "black box" style theatre but often played host to a variety of performance and installation works.

As a "collective" the space was run by a revolving membership of artists, some of whom have gone on to open larger, more mainstream theatres in Canada, including Robert Winslow, one of the space's founding members who in 1991 started Fourth Line Theatre in Millbrook, Ontario.

History

The Union Theatre was located at 188½ Hunter Street West in a space rumoured to have been an old undertakers facility (this was the inspiration for the weekly semi-improvised show ''The Coffin Factory''). A group of local theatre artists, including Robert Winslow, Trent University professor Ian McLachlan and members of Theatre Trent, along with other performance artists banded together to continue the work they had done in various Peterborough performance endeavors. One stated aim was finding a permanent home for Winslow's company ''East City Productions'' which originally made its home in Peterborough's Market Hall Theatre, the home of the Artspace art gallery. In a ''Peterborough Examiner'' article in July 2005, Winslow reminisced about the Union Theatre calling it "poverty theatre". Winslow went on to state, "Nobody was making anything, everyone was poor," he says. "We made all the decisions collectively, which was a real challenge, and basically ran the space." In the same article McLachlan said about the Union Theatre: "It may have been a constant struggle to survive, but the productions that came out of the Union were some of the most innovative this community has seen. "There were very exciting productions done on a minuscule budget."

The space closed its doors on Hunter Street in 1995 and moved to a new home in Peterborough in 1996 where they only remained for one year. In 2006 a group of local artists from the Union Collective began work on opening a new theatre space with the same artist-run focus. The Theatre Users Group formed in the summer of 2006 under the acronym "T.H.U.G." and later in 2007 finding a new space called ''The New Theatre'', hoping to emulate much of the spirit and ideal of the Union Theatre in its heyday.

In 2000 independent film-maker, An Kosurko, a past collective member, created a 27-minute documentary about the Union Theatre called "Re:UNION" which featured interviews with past collective members, space users, and local arts activists. The film also included footage of the space, images of past show posters, and music recorded by bands who had played at the Union Theatre in its heyday. The film takes a non-apologetic look at the ups and downs of working as a collective, paying bills, working with creative spirits and the space's meaning to the Peterborough Arts community.

Music at The Union

The space could also be booked as a space for bands to perform. For a time these were about once a month, but in the last year they were more frequent. Some bands were from local highschools. Others were part of the underground network of DIY punk rock shows. Bands that played included Shotmaker, Antischism, and a local pop punk band, Candywheel.

Interesting facts

* Peterborough New Dance staged some of its early shows, including early runs of its ''Emergency'' new dance shows.
* Space's first show ''Can You See Me Yet'' by Canadian playwright, Timothy Findley