Alumnae Theatre celebrates the launch of Alumnae Theatre Company: Nonprofessionalizing Theatre in Canada by Robin C. Whittaker.

Delving into previously untapped archival resources, Alumnae Theatre Company traces the history and ongoing impact of North America’s longest-running women-led theatre group, Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre Company. The book illuminates the essential yet downplayed relationships between professional and nonprofessionalizing theatre practices, drawing on primary and secondary sources that have contributed to the practice and scholarship of theatre since the early twentieth century. It uses Alumnae as a case study for recognizing female leadership roles that support the development of theatre artists in Canada.

The book considers Alumnae’s historical influences on university philanthropy, intellectual modernism, and Toronto’s expanding theatre ecology. It revisits past eras to focus on four dominant perspectives: theatre spaces, festival competition, new play production, and nonprofessionalizing theatre’s relationship to an emerging profession. The book tethers Alumnae’s alterity to contemporary critical notions of the nonprofessionalizing theatre practitioner as counter-culture revolutionary. It urges scholars and practitioners alike to not take for granted the values and possibilities of contemporary nonprofessionalizing theatre practices. Alumnae Theatre Company also serves as a fascinating history of Toronto through the eyes of its oldest active theatre company.

Reviews:

“Robin Whittaker’s meticulously researched study of Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre is more than an exquisitely crafted love letter to North America’s oldest women-run theatre. Its extensive historical overview of Alumnae’s fortunes from 1918 through to 2018, as augmented by four additional chapters focusing on specific areas of its evolving operations, is a powerful plea for the need to constantly document and reassess the work of companies prone to ‘disappear’ from critical consideration because of shifting currents in social, aesthetic, and ideological thought and practice. Ultimately, Whittaker also makes a compelling case for scholars and practitioners alike to remain open to the ‘nonprofessionalizing practices of past, present, and future’ as another way of revolutionizing contemporary theatre theory and practice beyond Alumnae’s centenary of achievement.” – Moira Day, Professor Emerita of Drama, University of Saskatchewan

“In this lively and provocative study of Canada’s oldest theatre company, Robin Whittaker shows how and why Alumnae Theatre has survived as a hotbed of theatrical creativity for over a century. He has given us a benchmark work of brilliant archival research, in an engaging narrative voice. Whittaker’s focus on the centrality of what he reclaims as ‘nonprofessionalizing’ theatre overturns the narrative precepts of Canadian theatre historiography’s foundational focus on the development of a professional theatre industry and dramatic canon. A monumental work of theatre scholarship!” – Alan Filewod, Professor Emeritus of Theatre Studies, University of Guelph

“Comprehensive, thoughtful, always engaging, and superbly well-structured, Whittaker’s book allows the reader to feel the atmosphere and concerns of each era of Alumnae Theatre, and to appreciate the motivation and enthusiasm for generations of Toronto women to create high quality theatre experiences for themselves and for their audiences. Whittaker demonstrates how such a wide range of theatrical activity is intrinsically bound up with the conviction to remain nonprofessionalized, allowing this female-led company to remain both resistant and resilient. He does not shy away from the difficulties of constructing the history (and microhistories) of any theatre company, especially the loss of institutional and individual memory, and his book is a remedy against that loss.” – Shelley Scott, Professor of Drama, University of Lethbridge

Join us to celebrate the book that details 100 years of our history!

Where: Alumnae Theatre lobby (70 Berkeley Street, Toronto, M5A 2W6)

When: Monday, June 9, from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm

Program: Robin Whittaker, Associate Professor of Drama, St. Thomas University, Fredericton will share highlights from his latest book, Alumnae Theatre Company: Nonprofessionalizing Theatre in Canada. Robin will read excerpts from his book and share new stories and observations about “the ladies of the Alum.” There will be socializing, a book signing (with a 25% discount on books for this event only), light refreshments, cash bar, and building tours.

For free ticket visit alumnaetheatre.com.