Hart House Theatre
Encyclopedia
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in the Hart House Student Centre. Hart House Theatre has been the University of Toronto Performing Arts Leader Since 1919.
The Theatre serves the University and the Toronto Community at large.
Hart House Theatre opened in November 1919. Construction was financed by the Massey Foundation
Massey Foundation
The Massey Foundation was incorporated in 1918. It is responsible for the construction of many Toronto landmarks. It was the first trust of its kind in Canada.-History:...
. The Art Deco theatre has been a starting ground for many well-known actors, directors, playwrights, and designers including: Raymond Massey
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian/American actor.-Early life:Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna , who was born in Illinois, and Chester Daniel Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Massey's family could trace their ancestry back to the American...
, Dora Mavor Moore, Lloyd Bochner
Lloyd Bochner
Lloyd Wolfe Bochner was a Canadian actor, usually playing the role of suave, rich leading men.- Career :...
, Lawren Harris
Lawren Harris
Lawren Stewart Harris, CC was a Canadian painter. He was born in Brantford, Ontario and is best known as a member the Group of Seven who pioneered a distinctly Canadian painting style in the early twentieth century. A. Y. Jackson has been quoted as saying that Harris provided the stimulus for the...
, Arthur Lismer
Arthur Lismer
Arthur Lismer, CC was an English-born Canadian painter and member of the Group of Seven.-Early life:At age 13 he apprenticed at a photo-engraving company. He was awarded a scholarship, and used this time to take evening classes at the Sheffield School of Arts from 1898 until 1905...
, Wayne and Shuster
Wayne and Shuster
Wayne and Shuster were a Canadian comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. They were active professionally from the early 1940s until the late 1980s....
, and Merrill Denison
Merrill Denison
Merrill Denison was a Canadian playwright.Born in Detroit and raised in Ontario, Denison's mother was American , and his father was of American Revolutionary stock....
.
The Artistic Director of Hart House Theatre is Jeremy Hutton.
History
Hart House Theatre is often referred to as the cradle of Canadian Theatre. Opening in November 1919 the Art Deco theatre on the University of Toronto campus quickly became a leader in the Canadian “Little Theatre” movement of the 1920s and 1930s.After the war, Hart House Theatre, under the direction of Robert Gill, became an extracurricular student theatre and for twenty years turned out a new generation of stage professionals. William Hutt, Don Harron, Kate Reid, David Gardner, Arthur Hiller, William B. Davis
William B. Davis
William Bruce Davis is a Canadian actor, known for his role as The Smoking Man on The X-Files. He has also appeared in Stargate SG-1 as Damaris, a Prior of the Ori and as Mayor Tate on Smallville...
, Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
, Norman Jewison
Norman Jewison
Norman Frederick Jewison, CC, O.Ont is a Canadian film director, producer, actor and founder of the Canadian Film Centre. Highlights of his directing career include In the Heat of the Night , The Thomas Crown Affair , Fiddler on the Roof , Jesus Christ Superstar , Moonstruck , The Hurricane and The...
and Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...
all got their start treading the boards on the Hart House stage.
By the mid 1960s the theatre joined the world of academia with the creation of the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama. A new generation of students combined dramatic literature with practical theatre experience and learned from and contributed to the vibrant Toronto theatre scene of the 1970s.
Today Hart House Theatre is the focal point for the performing arts at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. With over a thousand students participating each year in its extra-curricular season of drama, dance, music and film, Hart House Theatre continues to influence each new generation.
External links
- Hart House Theatre
- The Canadian Encyclopedia
- UofTtix To purchase tickets