Stage Door News
Ottawa: Burning Passions Theatre plans to relaunch the Classic Theatre Festival
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
As we come to the end of 2024, we write to let you know what we’ve been up to and about some of our exciting plans for 2025. As you know, we were not able to hold the Classic Theatre Festival in 2024, but we have been involved in a series of negotiations with new partners that we hope will see that trusted brand of professional entertainment returned to an Ottawa stage in 2025.
Our parent company Burning Passions Theatre’s new strategic direction over the past year saw us engaged on many theatrical fronts, from organizing a series of acting, audition, and scene study classes to working in partnership with the Ottawa Acting Studio and the Ottawa School of Theatre to provide training and development workshops for professional and aspiring theatre artists. We also partnered with the Rideau Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre (RRCRC) to produce and stage A Circle of Care, a play that played to sell-out crowds in June. Inspired by and featuring seniors, the play's presentation and follow-up discussions were a powerful reminder of the challenges many of our community elders (the fastest growing demographic in Ottawa) face in silence.
This past fall, we were thrilled to host a professional Playwrights Circle, working with four talented Ottawa writers to dramaturge their creations and assist with suggestions to edge their work closer to becoming production-ready. In 2025, we plan a series of workshops and staged readings of these works that you will be the first to see and comment on.
We also have exciting news about the relaunch of the Classic Theatre Festival! Under the Festival's banner, we are looking to stage two new plays: one is focused on the life of an important Ontario historical figure whose name and legacy you will instantly recognize, while the other is a uniquely compelling Cold War-era spy thriller. The Festival will now operate under an expanded mandate to include works written and set during the golden age of theatre, featuring both new works and classic plays of the era. We remain committed to producing well-made plays with finely-honed storytelling, memorable characters, compelling themes, and the ability to make us both laugh and have our hearts tugged.
With gratitude,
Laurel Smith, Artistic Producer, and Matthew Behrens, Associate Producer
Visit bptheatre.ca.