Kanata Theatre is a community theatre organization, operates the Ron Maslin Playhouse, a 350-seat theatre located in the Kanata district of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was opened in May 1996 by Merle Nicholds, then the mayor of Kanata, and Marianne Wilkinson. The Building was designed by Peter Smith, who also designed the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto.
History
In 1968, Kanata Theatre began as a play reading group in a sleepy bedroom community. At that time the town consisted of only a handful of houses, one public school, two gas stations, a post office and an A&P grocery store. In 1993 several major developments brought the dream of having their own performance venue closer to reality. The group conducted a feasibility study that convinced the members to spend Kanata Theatre's $300,000 reserve fund on a playhouse project. On Kanata Theatre's initiative, the City of Kanata allocated roughly half of its new federal/provincial infrastructure funding to that project, set aside land at Walter Baker Park, and gave Kanata Theatre the right to manage the building under a lease. By the spring of 1994 the project was under way. Peter Smith of the firm of Lett/Smith, Governor General's award winner for his restoration of London's Grand Theatre, designer of Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre, and long time architect for the Shaw Festival, was chosen to design the building. Kanata Theatre took possession of its new home in March 1996 and in May of that year staged its first production in the Playhouse, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. The move to the Playhouse was followed by a large increase both in the group's membership and its audience. In 2001 the Playhouse was expanded by the addition of a rehearsal studio, postponed for budgetary reasons from the original construction, an expanded lobby and other facilities. Kanata Theatre covered the entire cost of this expansion.
Recent Years
As of now, they regularly stage 6 productions a year. 5 plays and 1 kids' musical in December of each year. There are plays occasionally that are heavily musically based or features singing and dancing ( 2019's Nunsense and Comedy of Tenors are among the recent plays. When KT started doing annual kids' productions, they were always very small scale and low budget. Over the years the musicals got more and more recognition and got more money put into sets, props and costumes. Recent seasons include 2018/19: Don't Dress For Dinner, Madagascar: a Musical Adventure, Silent Sky, A Man For All Seasons and Nunsense. As well as the partial season 2019/20 that included:A Comedy Of Tenors, Operation Mincemeat and You're A Good Man Charlie Brown starring Leith Bader as the title role.
Location
The theatre is located at 1 Ron Maslin Way, near the Queensway on the western side of Kanata, just off Terry Fox Drive. There is public parking and bus access by OC-Transpo.
Funding for the construction for the theatre came from Kanata Theatre's own building fund. Funding also came from a federal-provincial infrastructure grant, while the then City of Kanata provided the site.
Organization
All performers and staff are volunteers from this community, all with an interest in theatre., from box office, ushers and other front of house duties to the stage crew, stage lighting and sound board.
40th Anniversary Season
In celebration of Kanata Theatre 40th anniversary, Kanata Theatre was given the honor of hosting the 2009 Theatre Festival at the Ron Maslin Playhouse. The Visiting theatre groups from across Ontario were presenting their best productions each evening from May 13 to 16, with an Awards Brunch on May 17.
