Four actors, three productions, two outdoor shows and an indoor performance shape ARC’s season to come.
The Atlantic Repertory Theatre (ARC) has announced its fourth season lineup. Following a season shaped by cancelations and adaptive programming, Saint John Theatre Company’s professional theatre branch reaffirms its plans to focus on developing artists “with ties to Atlantic Canada” for the coming season.
“As ARC continues to evolve, we are continuing to grow the model,” said Stephen Tobias, Executive Director of both the Saint John Theatre Company and the Atlantic Repertory Company as well as one of this year’s featured playwrights and directors. “Given that ARC is a New Brunswick based organization, it is important to me that we continue to create opportunities that allow for a greater component of New Brunswick based artists to appear on our stages. Also, as the long-term goal is to create a permanent resident company of artists, we will start working to create longer-term engagements giving the artists the time to settle in and become comfortable in the community in which they work.”
With more and more theatre companies and music festivals choosing to support local, this movement has begun to provide artists from across Atlantic Canada with a wealth of new opportunities despite onstage diversity and cultural representation remaining a challenge for many presenting and producing organizations.
ARC’s 2021-2022 resident performers each have ties to Atlantic Canada. Caroline Bell (Saint John, NB), Kenzie Delo (Halifax, NS), Melissa MacGougan (Halifax, NS), and Patrick Jeffrey (Long Creek, PEI) makeup the heart of this season’s ARC cast, with local theatre maker and performer Cameron Secord (Saint John, NB), joining the cast for the opening production of the season.
The company’s season will open with the original Thomas Hodd script No Man Is An Island (August 4-7). This production will be performed in an outdoor tented venue in the back parking lot of the BMO Studio Theatre on Horsfield Street. The performers will then create a special Loyalist Burial Ground Project which will take place at the Loyalist Burial Ground from August 25-28. Executive Director Stephen Tobias will also create and direct a modern adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler which will be staged at BMO Studio Theatre September 22-25.
A series of workshops are also currently in development for the coming season. Learn more at atlanticrep.ca.
