New company has the music in them

Star-studded arts collective readies debut season

Louise Pitre is just back from performing a two-month run of Mame at the Goodspeed Opera House in New Haven, Conn. — part of the cross-continental life of a Canadian musical theatre performer. With little work at home in the Toronto area, travel comes with the territory. But a new project dubbed Theatre 20 hopes to start the wheels in motion to foster a vibrant musical theatre tradition in the city. 

The first production, Bloodless: The Trial of Burke and Hare, opens Oct. 9 at the Panasonic Theatre.

Theatre 20 is a new collective of the top musical theatre artists in the country, including Pitre and artistic director Adam Brazier along with Juan Chioran and Brent Carver, to name just a few.

“We’ve all just marvelled at the fact that in this city there are very small and independent musical productions or great big multi-million-dollar touring companies from the States but nothing in between,” Pitre explains. 

“The vast array of musicals just don’t get done, you know. That’s what we want to do.”

According to Brazier, it comes down to “a lack of homegrown work being done by homegrown people.”

Not only does the company want to simply produce and perform top-notch musical theatre, part of Theatre 20’s mandate includes fostering Canadian talent from across Canada, including the students of musical theatre coming out of Sheridan College.

The company’s first production is a new musical written by Winnipeg playwright Joseph Aragon. Rounding out the three-work season are Raindogs — a Sheridan College co-production — as well as Stephen Sondheim’s Company.

“Our goal with the first season is to try, in the most efficient and exciting way, to show our mandate,” says Brazier.

What has helped the cause, he continues, is the assistance of Mirvish, a company that dominates the theatre scene in Toronto.

“They added us to their season as an add-on, and that is huge; a massive opportunity for us,” says Brazier.

“And, they didn’t help financially, but they were incredibly generous with rates [Mirvish owns and operates the Panasonic Theatre, home to Theatre 20’s first production]. And they’ve just been very helpful.”

Currently, Theatre 20 employs exactly one person and operates out of a donated office space in North York.

Pitre has been pegged to star in Company although contracts have yet to be signed. Beyond the already far-reaching mandate of Theatre 20, she says she has another secret goal for the company.

“I want people to stop saying, ‘My God, we have great talent right here in Canada,’ ” she says.

“They don’t say that in the States, they just assume.”

For more information on the 2012-13 Theatre 20 season, go to www.theatre20.com.

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