Shadowland Repertory Company was founded in 1982 by Whitney Smith and Victor Coleman with a mandate of producing musicals using shadow puppetry and other alternative theatrical media. The first production, Radio Ghost, a musical about the fictional meeting of Canadian radio inventor Reginald Fessenden and radio diva Jessica Dragonette, was co-written by Smith and Coleman and toured artist-run centres across Canada. During the World Stage in 1982, the British company Welfare State International worked in collaboration with the Toronto Island community to produce the Tempest on Snake Island. Inspired by this production, Island residents Smith and Sarah Miller raised funds for a second Shadowland production, along the same lines, to be part of the city's 1984 sesquicentennial celebrations. Welfare State principals Boris and Maggie Howarth were hired to assist and the result was "Island Follies", a historical fantasia. In 1985, Smith and Coleman handed over the company to the key group of Toronto Island artists who worked on the show – Kathleen Doody, Leida Englar, Jerry Englar, Brad Harley and Sarah Miller – and it was renamed Shadowland Theatre. Shadowland's early development was significantly influenced by Welfare State's format of professional artists engaging communities in collective performance, and this method has become the backbone of Shadowland's way of working ever since. Other major influences are Bread and Puppet Theater, Peter Minshall and Trinidad Carnival and ongoing working relationships with many Caribbean artists. These influences have contributed to Shadowland's bold and visually distinctive form of theatre and performance events. In the past decade the theatre has created signature processional outdoor theatre performances and collaborated with a wide range of communities and artists from many disciplines.
Mandate and Mission
Shadowland Theatre Believes That
• Live theatre is a basic component in the well-being of our societies. • Experiences of spectacle, mystery, and magic are essential to a full cultural life. • The raw, transformative power of live theatre is vital in our increasingly technological age. • Theatre should be accessible to all members of society.
Shadowland Theatre
• Creates live theatre that is vital, entertaining, challenging, and has wide appeal. • Draws on ancient theatre traditions to create stories for our contemporary world. • Expresses collective aspirations through popular cultural forms. • Mixes the mythic and the mundane to create socially relevant, visually poetic theatre. • Works with communities and all generations to revitalize stories of place, time and the journey through life. • Invites non-professionals into the theatrical process as part of developing an articulate and expressive society.
Current projects
Annual Ward's IslandFire Parade Mystery Play Place at the Table Crude-mentary Tales It's Who We Are SarniaArt Walk Sarnia, Ontario
Productions
The Light That Stands Still Toronto Island The Traveling Medicine Show Toronto Island Stories of Our Island Toronto Island The Order of Good Cheer Toronto Island The Essence of Ambrose Ichor Toronto Island The Lost SupperTarragon Theatre, Annex Theatre Toronto The Bridge Toronto Island Right of Passage Toronto Island Quixsand
