MEDIA RELEASE: Crow’s Theatre announces inaugural programming & name for new venue: Streetcar Crowsnest
Nov 1, 2016
TORONTO (November 2, 2016) – With great pride, Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director Chris Abraham and Crow’s Managing Director Monica Esteves made a number of major announcements today - core artistic programming for Crow’s 2017 Winter/Spring Season, the name for its permanent home in Leslieville, the confirmation of an on-site restaurant, and four major new funding commitments.
New Vision
After 34 years as a nomadic theatre company, the Winter/Spring Crow’s Theatre Season inaugurates its highly anticipated east end premises when the doors open to the public in January 2017. Programming will feature an eclectic line-up of theatre, music, dance, opera, comedy, cabaret, and classes for kids.
“When I took over a decade ago, I knew I wanted to do something transformational for the company and the neighbourhood I had come to call home.” says Artistic Director, Chris Abraham, “The new space, the new neighbourhood, the eclectic spirit of our programming, and new artistic partnerships reflect this ambition. We want to build a bigger tent. We want to give our growing neighbourhood a whole host of reasons to come through our doors. Audiences will be able to expect thrilling, provocative, and entertaining theatre productions, but also a range of other activities including must-see touring productions, concerts, monthly cabaret and comedy events, and classes for kids.”
Crow’s ambitious Winter/Spring launch season maintains and expands upon the company’s historic focus on new Canadian work through a series of new artistic partnerships, guest productions, a late-night performance series, and new works-in-development. The season includes premieres by award-winning Canadian playwrights; an adaptation of a beloved memoir by a renowned journalist; an immersive music experience from one of the country’s most treasured composers; remounts of critically-acclaimed projects in theatre and new opera; the premiere of a documentary folk-musical; the stage debut of an iconic musician and provocateur; and the directing debut of an award-winning playwright.
Abraham adds, “We are thrilled to be featuring beloved Toronto artists who have been so important to the company and to me in my first decade as Artistic Director - artists including Kristen Thomson and Anton Piatigorsky. We are equally thrilled to introduce pieces from writers Emil Sher and Ian Brown, new Associate Artistic Director Andrew Kushnir and musican Khari Wendell McClelland, playwright and performer Ngozi Paul, and the always-provocative Torquil Campbell in his return to the stage in his playwriting debut. We will welcome companies Theatrefront, Volcano, Shakesperience, Nightwood Theatre, SideMart Theatrical Grocery, Toronto Masque Theatre, Project: Humanity, Talk Is Free Theatre, and Soundstreams as artistic partners and guest companies. As Canada celebrates its 150th year, Crow’s will showcase the diversity of voice and artistic bravery present in this country, remaining true to the core values of Crow’s Theatre - presenting unforgettable, provocative, and daring theatre that examines and illuminates the pivotal narratives of our times.”
New Facility Name
In December 2015, Crow’s announced Streetcar Developments’ generous and game-changing $1.25 million lead gift to the new facility. Shoulder to shoulder with our major sponsor and friends at Streetcar Developments, Crow’s is honoured to announce the name of its new home at Dundas & Carlaw: Streetcar Crowsnest.
In tandem with Streetcar’s multiple projects in 2017, both Crow’s and Streetcar Developments see great things in store for an invigorated nightlife in the city’s east end.
"Crow's Theatre is a leader in the east end community and partnering with them was an easy decision. Providing a permanent home for Crow's Theatre has given us the platform to champion the positive growth of arts and culture programming in our neighbourhood - something that is very important to us," said Les Mallins, President, Streetcar Developments. "We especially look forward to the opening of Streetcar Crowsnest in January 2017."
Crow’s Theatre Managing Director Monica Esteves added, “The realization of this facility has been a six-year journey. Very early in our planning, Les Mallins and his team at Streetcar Developments took an extraordinary leap of faith, working with us on what would become – quite literally - the building blocks for Crow’s first home. Years later, Streetcar again stepped up – this time in a leadership-sponsorship role. Furthermore, Streetcar Developments share a passion for the east end that emphasizes community building and makes space for arts and culture. We are honoured and joyful in celebrating our dear friends at Streetcar through this naming. Their support means the world to us.”
New Funding
Joining lead, facility-naming sponsors Streetcar Developments, the main theatre’s naming sponsors Donald and Irene Guloien, Canadian Heritage’s Cultural Spaces Fund, and existing foundational support from the City of Toronto, Crow’s is thrilled to announce four major new investments.
Scotiabank has joined Crow’s Theatre as a major partner in the organization’s Scotiabank Creative Youth Program, recognized with the naming of Crow’s Scotiabank Community Studio.
“At Scotiabank, investing in our communities has been a focus for over 180 years,” says Kyle McNamara, Executive Vice President and Co-Head, Information Technology, Business Systems, at Scotiabank. “We aim to support organizations that are committed to helping young people reach their full potential and we believe the Scotiabank Creative Youth Program at Crow’s will provide a unique outlet for creative discovery. We believe that supporting young people is an investment in the long-term security, stability and growth of both our communities and our business.”
The Province of Ontario and the Bank of Montreal have each contributed $500,000 for a total of $1 million. This makes the province the lead Entrepreneurship in the Arts supporter and BMO the Lead Season Sponsor. Their investments will support the company’s innovative social enterprise, its long-term financial sustainability, and a meaningful expansion of Crow’s artistic creation and programming.
Eleanor McMahon, Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, expressed, “I’m very pleased that our government is able to support Crow’s Theatre as it moves forward with new programming. The success of our province’s culture sector is built on a foundation of talented and skilled workers and I truly believe Crow’s Theatre’s new vision can help build on the sector’s long-term success. This investment will help strengthen our vibrant theatre landscape and support economic development.”
The company is also thrilled to welcome CIBC as a major partner in the capital campaign with a contribution of a $100,000 sponsorship supporting both the new facility and new play development.
“CIBC has a long history of supporting programs and initiatives that embrace and enrich Canadian culture. We believe arts and culture are an integral part of a thriving and healthy community – providing ideas and shared experiences that unite us as people and a country,” says Tracy Best, Senior Vice President and Region Head at CIBC, “And here, in Toronto, we are fortunate to live in a city that is home to Crow’s Theatre, home to strong artistic initiatives like the new Streetcar Crowsnest, which we are proud to support.”
Nancy Lockhart, Chair of Crow’s Board of Directors, remarked, “On behalf of the board of directors of Crow’s Theatre, I would like to thank our funding partners for their vision, commitment and support of this project. Their collective generosity has helped to make Crow’s new home a reality and will enrich the lives of so many.”
New Restaurant
Concurrent to the opening of the theatre will be a 65-seat brasserie inspired restaurant, with an additional 50-seat patio at the corner of Carlaw and Dundas. The yet to be named brasserie will be open 7 days a week, from early morning through to pre- and post-theatre dinner.
Spearheading this restaurant opening will be local restauranteurs, Erik Joyal and John Sinopoli. Sinopoli and Joyal are not new to the east end and have seen previous success with their other neighbourhood outlets over the past eight years: Table 17 (now closed), Ascari Enoteca and Hi-Lo Bar.
"John and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of Streetcar Crowsnest. Having been a part of the neighbourhood for close to a decade, this theatre opening really marks the arrival of the east end as a true cultural and entertainment destination,” said Erik Joyal. “For us to be contributors to the overall experience is very rewarding.”
New plays, musicals, concerts, dance, opera, and more
Opening the facility and the season in the Guloien Theatre is a new Canadian comedy, The Wedding Party, written by actress and playwright Kristen Thomson. Kristen’s first play was the beloved award-winning classic I, Claudia. Directed by Abraham, the production has toured nationally and internationally to great acclaim. The Wedding Party is a co-production with Talk Is Free Theatre in Barrie, Ontario and will land at Crow’s Theatre for its premiere. The production will feature six gifted co-creators and comedians (Kristen Thomson, Stratford’s Tom Rooney and Trish Lindström, Shaw Festival’s Moya O’Connell, Jason Cadieux and Virgilia Griffith) who, quite fittingly, hit the dance floor, drink too much and try to get along.
From Crow’s Associate Artistic Director Andrew Kushnir comes Freedom Singer. Produced in February 2017 by his company Project: Humanity in association with Crow’s Theatre and Vancouver’s Urban Ink, it will be the first show in Crow’s Scotiabank Community Studio. Inspired by a documentary that aired on CBC’s The National, and co-created by Kushnir and musician Khari Wendell McClelland, Freedom Singer has McClelland retracing the steps of his great-great-great-grandmother Kizzy who came to Canada through the Underground Railroad, and immerses audiences in the music that may have accompanied her escape from US slavery.
Based on the acclaimed memoir by Globe and Mail journalist Ian Brown, Abraham also directs the Toronto premiere of Emil Sher’s moving adaptation of The Boy in the Moon, about Brown and his wife Johanna Schneller’s experiences raising their son, Walker – born with a rare genetic disorder. This candid, heartbreaking, and funny play will feature Abraham’s frequent collaborator Liisa Repo-Martell, Gemini award-winning actress.
Crow’s presents long-time Crow’s artist Anton Piatigorsky’s Breath In Between - a surreal love story about a murderer and a woman he meets right after dispatching his victims. A celebrated Canadian playwright, most notably for his multi-Dora award-winning Eternal Hydra, Piatigorsky makes his directorial debut with this meditation on radical intimacy.
Crow’s is thrilled to present the stage debut of Canada’s favourite rocker and provocateur, Stars’ frontman Torquil Campbell. True Crime, written and starring Campbell, is a one-man show about true crime legend, Clark Rockefeller, and our cultural addiction to a good, true story. Co-created with Chris Abraham, this new work has been supported by The Banff Centre Theatre Arts Residency Program and the Stratford Festival.
Two remarkable Canadian women artists take the stage in association with Crow’s Theatre. Ngozi Paul presents The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely, which follows a young Caribbean woman in her search for love and as she tries to understand herself as a black woman and explores her relationship with her body and sexuality. Nightwood Theatre presents Volcano Theatre’s breakout success from the 2016 Progress Festival, Century Song, which melds classical song and movement to inhabit a century of women whose identities are contained within a single performer.
Crow’s proudly welcomes four guest companies in its inaugural season including: Soundstreams presents Odditorium, a concert of musical curiosities from R. Murray Schafer’s mammoth Patria Cycle, directed by Crow’s Artistic Director Chris Abraham; Toronto Masque Theatre presents the premiere of The Man Who Married Himself by composer Juliet Palmer, librettist Anna Chatterton and choreographer Hari Krishnan. Based on a Karnataka folk tale, this work is inspired by the dance, music and poetry of India; SideMart Theatrical Grocery presents Illusions by Ivan Viripaev, translated by Casimir Liske, a deceitfully dark comedy that playfully unravels the paradoxes of the lives of two couples; and Theatrefront presents The Orange Dot by Sean Dixon.
Streetcar Crowsnest will also host a dynamic array of musical, literary, and comedy series that will be announced quarterly under the banner of Crow’s Late Night. Of note, the inaugural season will include a new instalment of Outside The March’s popular monthly storytelling night The Spoke. The new Spoke: EAST, curated by Crow’s partner Mitchell Cushman, will feature a cross-section of people telling true stories from their lives based around a common theme. The Crow’s Late Night Winter/Spring 2017 calendar will be released in the coming months.
Following a hugely successful pilot program in 2015, Crow’s will be expanding The Scotiabank Creative Youth Program to provide year-round, high calibre classes and programming for youth in Toronto’s east end. The Winter/Spring Crow’s Kids calendar will range from performance to design to improvisation… and will notably include a top-notch March Break camp for kids aged 12-17 provided by Crow’s in partnership with Shakespearience. Further class information and registration details will be announced later this Fall.
For her outstanding work in what she calls “Spontaneous Theatre”, director-creator Rebecca Northan has been named the 2016-17 recipient of Crow’s RBC Rising Star Emerging Theatre Director Prize. The $5,000 prize is awarded to a Canadian emerging director and also includes an artistic residency with Crow’s Theatre.
In the Fall of 2016, Crow’s Theatre will launch Canada’s first Documentary Theatre Creators Unit. Lead by Associate Artistic Director and award-winning verbatim playwright, Andrew Kushnir, the unit will provide a development platform for five writer-investigators. Documentary Theatre is a dynamic way to bring issues of the day onto the stage, to feature local voices and a multitude of perspectives, as well as to explore questions of justice and the “State of the Nation” on a substantial, theatrical canvas. The unit will complement Crow’s ongoing new play development which, in 2016-17, will include focus on new works by Kevin Drew (of Canada’s Baroque-pop collective Broken Social Scene), Andrew Kushnir (Associate Artistic Director), Ellie Moon (Asking For It), Ngozi Paul (The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely playwright and The Watershed actor), and Zack Russell (Crow’s 2015-16 RBC Emerging Director’s Prize).
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Tickets are now available for Crow’s 2016-2017 season with regular tickets starting at $25. Get online information and make ticket purchases at crowstheatre.com.
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For more information or interview requests please contact:
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Crow’s Theatre 2016-2017 Season
A Crow’s Theatre and Talk Is Free Theatre Co-Production
The Wedding Party January 12 – February 11, 2017 (Guloien Theatre)
Written by Kristen Thomson
Directed by Chris Abraham
Based on the characters created with: Trish Lindström, Tony Nappo, Moya O’Connell, Tom Rooney, and Bahia Watson.
“If there's anyone who can lay bare her emotions onstage, it's Thomson.” NOW
From the award-winning creators of the beloved play I, Claudia, Kristen Thomson and director Chris Abraham comes a new comedy about two families, a wedding, mistaken identities, and love, love, love! With their latest creation, The Wedding Party, they invite the audience to take a seat ringside on the big day, while an astonishing cast of the country’s leading actors including Virgilia Griffith, Trish Lindström, Jason Cadieux, Moya O’Connell, Tom Rooney, and Kristen Thomson herself, hit the dance floor, drink too much, and try to get along.
A Crow’s Theatre Production
Breath In Between February 18 – March 11, 2017 (Scotiabank Community Studio)
Written and directed by Anton Piatigorsky
A surreal love story about Roger, the murderer of two willing victims who respond to his ad on a webpage, and Amy, a woman he meets soon afterwards in a bar. Breath In Between is a highly theatrical, mysterious meditation on radical intimacy, on the bliss of connection and the agony of isolation, on the ways in which people possess each other and struggle to bridge the gaps between them. This production will be the directorial debut for multi-Dora Award winner Piatigorsky and will star Julia Krauss and Kyle Gatehouse.
Crow’s Theatre presents The Castleton Massive Production
True Crime April 4 – April 15, 2017 (Guloien Theatre)
Created by and starring Torquil Campbell
Co-created with Chris Abraham in collaboration with Julian Brown
Clark Rockefeller is a real-life conman of the highest order, now serving a near-life sentence in a California State prison. And iconic Canadian ranter and rocker Torquil Campbell wants to try him on for size. What does it mean for an excellent fabulator to embody an excellent fabulator? And in the end, does an intricate con differ that much from a successful work of art? Torquil’s dogged investigation and impersonation challenges us to find the truth in true crime and confronts our cultural addiction to a good story. Entirely scripted or absolutely extemporaneous, True Crime is a mind-twisting encounter with an artist obsessed with how we all fake it, one way or another.
A Crow’s Theatre Production
The Boy in the Moon May 9 – May 27, 2017 (Guloien Theatre)
Written by Emil Sher based on a book by Ian Brown
Directed by Chris Abraham
“Gripping” Ottawa Citizen
Based on Ian Brown’s candid and moving memoir of raising his son Walker, The Boy in the Moon captures the difficult but joyous journey of a couple raising an extremely disabled child. First presented in 2014 in Ottawa by the Great Canadian Theatre Company, the text of the play draws from Brown’s book along with original interviews.
CROW’S PARTNERS
A Project: Humanity Production in Association with Crow’s Theatre and Urban Ink (Vancouver)
Freedom Singer February 1 – February 11, 2017 (Scotiabank Community Studio)
Co-Created by Khari Wendell McClelland and Andrew Kushnir, with Jodie Martinson
Inspired by Khari Wendell McClelland's recent journey, as featured on CBC's The National and Tapestry, Freedom Singer is a new theatrical work that will launch the Scotiabank Community Studio programming at Crow’s Theatre. Using traditional and contemporary styles like gospel, soul, funk and hip hop, JUNO-nominated McClelland retraces the steps of his great-great-great-grandmother Kizzy and personalizes the music that may have accompanied her escape from US slavery. These songs, along with his interviews with choirmasters, historians, family and community elders, propel Khari towards a reckoning, and bring to the surface the myths and realities of one of our quintessential historic narratives: the escape to Canada through the Underground Railroad.
Emancipation Arts in Association with Crow’s Theatre
The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely April 3 – April 8, 2017 (Scotiabank Community Studio)
Created by and Starring Ngozi Paul
Ms. Lovely is searching for love. In this hilarious and evocative tale we meet Lovely at different stages in her life as she struggles with her understanding of herself as a Black woman and awakens to her sexual identity as mirrored through popular culture. Personal stories from Lovely's life interweave with the story of Sarah Baartman (The Venus Hottentot), the historical symbol of the commodification of black women’s sexuality. From the 21st century twerk to the “faux-cul” of the 19th century, we travel a musical landscape using movement, sound, dance and projection while re-examining our relationship with ourselves, our sex and the dark matter that binds us all. Lovely discovers that she has the power to break the cycle and become free, rejecting the image of herself that she’s been buying into, looking for self love and emancipation on her journey. The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely won the Spotlight Award for best performance of the 2015 Summerworks Festival, Canada's largest theatre festival, and was the ‘critic's pick’ in several publications.
A Nightwood Theatre presentation of a Volcano Theatre / Moveable Beast Collective Production in Association with Crow’s Theatre
Century Song April 18 – April 29, 2017 (Guloien Theatre)
Created by Neema Bickersteth, Kate Alton, and Ross Manson
Directed by Ross Manson
“Extraordinary…Truly magical… It’s rare to feel that you could stay in your seat and watch a complete repeat performance of anything. Century Song doesn’t just leave you wanting more, it leaves you bereft that this glorious hour is over.” –Critics’ Hub, Manchester UK
Century Song is a live performance hybrid created by soprano Neema Bickersteth and Dora-award winning collaborators Ross Manson and Kate Alton. Inspired in part by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, Bickersteth melds song and movement to inhabit a century of women whose identities are contained within her own. This unique show features music by some of the past 100 years’ most adventurous composers, as well as projections by Germany’s FettFilm – extraordinary visuals that bring to life major art movements of the 20th century.
CROW’S WELCOMES:
Soundstreams Presents
Odditorium March 2 – March 5, 2017 (Guloien Theatre)
By R. Murray Schafer
Directed by Chris Abraham
Odditorum, directed by Crow’s Artistic Director Chris Abraham, will be a concert of musical curiosities from R. Murray Schafer’s mammoth Patria Cycle. Considered one of the most radical and inventive musical works created in the past half-century, Patria combines elements from opera, theatre, and dance in a hybrid genre the composer calls ‘theatre of confluence.” This collaboration will launch a partnership between Crow’s Theatre and Soundstreams that will stretch across multiple years and projects.
Toronto Masque Theatre Production
The Man Who Married Himself March 10 – March 11, 2017 (Guloien Theatre)
By Juliet Palmer, composer; Anna Chatterton, librettist; Hari Krishnan, choreographer and director
The Man Who Married Himself is a stunning South-Asian-inspired masque (a fusion of music, words and dance). Based on a traditional Karnataka folk tale, it is a powerful and timely story about choosing to reject or embrace the different layers of oneself: the feminine and the masculine, the beautiful and the ugly.
SideMart Theatrical Grocery Presents
Illusions April 19 – May 7, 2017 (Scotiabank Community Studio)
By Ivan Viripaev and Translated by Casimir Liske
Passion and death, loyalty and betrayal, truth and fiction, hope and despair, Illusions is a deceitfully dark comedy that playfully unravels the paradoxes of the lives of two couples. It tells a tale of friendship, crossed lovers, attraction and confusion. This captivating play is the first English translation of the work of Ivan Viripaev, one of Russia’s foremost contemporary playwrights.
A Theatrefront Production
The Orange Dot March 16 – April 1, 2017 (Guloien Theatre)
By Sean Dixon and Directed by Vikki Anderson
In The Orange Dot, two city workers are called to take down a large tree blighted with termites. The vehicle they're meant to use is stuck in traffic, so they are left waiting . . . armed with their cellphones, a stethoscope, an ancient arrowhead, a soupçon of boredom, and a large dose of existential dread about what the world is coming to.
CROW’S LATE NIGHT and CROW’S KIDS
Crow’s Late Night will include numerous intimate performances showcasing comedy, cabaret, and music events – with programming calendars unveiled quarterly. Crow’s Kids will roll out quarterly, affordable, and creative programming for and about kids – most notably the Scotiabank Creative Youth Program’s classes and workshops for youth of all ages. The following are two examples of feature offerings in these two series:
Spoke: EAST
Curated by Mitchell Cushman’s Outside the March
Spoke: EAST will be a monthly east end instalment of Outside the March’s (OtM) popular storytelling night. For almost four years, OtM has presented The Spoke at popular west end venues, Videofag and Burdock. Now The Spoke is coming to the East! The Spoke features a cross-section of people telling true stories from their lives, based around a common theme. Past themes have included “Love in the Age of the Internet,” "Kindness of Strangers," and “When the Lights Go Out” — stories told completely in the dark. The Spoke has now run over forty editions of the live event and has featured almost two hundred storytellers. The event is always Pay What You Can, and features storytellers from all walks of life and all levels of experience
Mosaic Storytelling Festival
The Mosaic Storytelling Festival is an east end based, grass-roots collective of artists dedicated to celebrating the diversity and creativity of our rich east end neighbourhoods – and our world – through afternoons of storytelling with tellers and tales from all across the globe for children of all ages. Mosaic’s incredible storytellers have been enriching Toronto’s east end Danforth neighbourhood for many years – Crow’s is excited to partner with Mosaic in expanding their offerings to the Leslieville area.
Sponsorship acknowledgments
Crow’s Theatre gratefully acknowledges annual support from
Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts
Major Program Funding for Crow’s Theatre is generously provided by
The Government of Ontario – Entrepreneurship in the Arts Program
Major Sponsorship Support for Crow’s Theatre programming is generously provided by
BMO – Lead Season Sponsor
Scotiabank – Creative Youth Program Sponsor
Programming Support for Crow’s Theatre’s 2016-2017 season is generously provided by
Aimia – Production Sponsor for The Wedding Party
Amrin and Sabi Marwah - Design Sponsor for The Wedding Party
BNP Paribas – Performance Sponsor for True Crime
Chestnut Park Real Estate Limited, Brokerage – Audience Enrichment Program
CIBC – New Play Development
Eli and Philip Taylor – Production Support for True Crime
Hal Jackman Foundation – Support for The Wedding Party
J.P. Morgan – Supporting Season Sponsor
Larry Enkin – Production Support for The Boy in the Moon
McLean Smits Family Foundation – Lead Production Support for The Boy in the Moon
Munich Re Canada - Performance Sponsor for The Boy in the Moon
National Bank – Production Sponsor for The Wedding Party
RBC Foundation – Rising Star Emerging Director Prize
RBC Wealth Management – Production Sponsor for The Wedding Party
Sandra and Jim Pitblado – Lead Production Support for The Wedding Party, Production Support for The Boy in the Moon, Development Support for Brent Carver’s Cabaret
The Printing House – Official Preferred Printer
The W. Garfield Weston Foundation – Youth and Family Access Program
Tim and Frances Price – Production Sponsor for Teacher Trilogy
Wells Fargo – Volunteer Program
Crow’s recognizes additional programming support from
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley
Crow’s 2016-17 season is financially assisted by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation.
Crow’s thanks the Canada Council for the Arts for supporting Andrew Kushnir's residency as Associate Artistic Director.
About Streetcar Crowsnest
The performing arts space and community cultural hub will house three spectacular venues for artistic performance, community events, kids programming; and social and corporate functions: The Guloien Theatre; the Scotiabank Community Studio for performances, community programming and events; a Theatre Bar; and an onsite Restaurant. The Streetcar Crowsnest facility is the first professional performing arts facility of its kind east of the Don Valley, an area that is home to over 1.3 million people.
Streetcar Crowsnest’s design was led by architect Joe Lobko and his award-winning team at DTAH Architects. Mr. Lobko is the principal architect behind notable city-building projects in the GTA, including Wychwood Barns and Evergreen Brickworks.
Supporting the Streetcar Crowsnest facility is an entrepreneurial business model that will diversify Crow’s earned revenue streams. Notably, operating revenue generated through social and corporate events will be directly channelled to support artistic and community programming, enabling organizational growth without increased fundraising or government support. As a financially-sustainable not-for-profit, Streetcar Crowsnest further exemplifies the objectives and recommendations stated by the Creative Capital Gains Report: An Action Plan for Toronto (2011), including the development of new creative clusters and emerging cultural scenes to capitalize on their potential as generators of jobs and economic growth.
The lobby will feature an original artwork by local artist Jacob Yerex in honour of Sandra and Jim Pitblado and their commitment to Crow’s Theatre and the arts in general.
About Crow’s Theatre
Crow’s ignites passionate and enduring engagement between our audiences and artists by creating, producing and promoting unforgettable theatre that examines and illuminates the pivotal narratives of our times. Founded in 1983, Crow’s Theatre is recognized in the Canadian theatre landscape as a daring, award-winning theatre company. Crow’s has premiered over 50 new Canadian works, including multiple award-winning productions such as SEEDS, Eternal Hydra, Time After Time: The Chet Baker Project, A Short History of Night, Dali, and Unidentified Human Remains and The True Nature of Love.
In recent years, Crow’s Theatre has presented the world-premiere of Kristen Thomson’s Someone Else, presented the international success Winners & Losers, and, in 2015, debuted the world premiere of Annabel Soutar’s critically acclaimed The Watershed.
About Streetcar Developments
Since 2002, Toronto-based Streetcar Developments has designed and developed a series of stunning residential projects located in some of Toronto’s most loved neighbourhoods, improving the quality of entire communities. Every one of their celebrated buildings integrates seamlessly into its surroundings, respecting the historic look and feel of the area while providing a glimpse into what could be. With an unwavering commitment to build a more livable and culturally rich Toronto, Streetcar eagerly accept their responsibility to do their part to ensure this city achieves its potential. For more information visit www.streetcar.ca