Fonds SC581 - Theatre Energy fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Theatre Energy fonds

General material designation

  • Textual record

Parallel title

Other title information

Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

  • Source of title proper: Title based on the contents of the fonds.

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

CA UVICARCH SC581

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1970s to 1990s (Creation)

Physical description area

Physical description

3.25 m of textual records and other materials

Title proper of publisher's series

Parallel titles of publisher's series

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Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

Numbering within publisher's series

Note on publisher's series

Archival description area

Name of creator

(1976-1993)

Administrative history

Theatre Energy, 1976-1993, was a prominent, innovative theatre collective in the West Kootenay area of British Columbia. Centred originally in the Slocan Valley, it was founded in the spring of 1976 when a small group of local actors, who had been staging amateur productions of published plays, decided to “do theatre in a bigger way, to making our own plays.” They began by offering a series of community summer workshops, utilizing the skills of local and outside resource persons, notably Ronnie Gilbert who had been a member of Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theatre Company in New York and Buzz Bense who had worked with Tamahnous Theatre collective in Vancouver. Both became active members of Theatre Energy.

The original company consisted of eight members operating as a theatre collective whose mandate was to make theatre “by, for and about the Kootenays,” creating their first work, Renderings, with stories and images from their direct experiences of living in the Slocan Valley. This was followed by works of local histories such as Voices, Now and Then in the Kootenays (tales of settlement of various peoples in the Valley), which had a number of incarnations as a touring show to high schools, and a number of locally inflected works. These included Muck Millie Virgil (open and non-monogamous relationships), Powerplay (exploitation of local natural resources), The Girls Will Be Out in a Minute (Kootenay women from historical and contemporary periods), and The Food Show (issues and celebrations of food). Eventually the Company began to include non-original, published plays beginning with Waiting for Godot and The Threepenny Opera in the early 1980s.

Through much of their production history, Theatre Energy members typically toured shows throughout the East and West Kootenays, as well as the Okanagan, and with occasional forays into the Cariboo District and Vancouver. These included school performances of the theatre-in-education, audience participation plays Project Immigration and Calling the Play. The company ceased operations in the mid-1990s.

Custodial history

Scope and content

The fonds consists of histories of Theatre Energy, records of early, founding activities, drafts of original scripts, and files regarding the non-original scripts, all ordered chronologically. Included alongside the scripts are correspondence, the company’s financial and operational records, including financial statements, employment records, fund raising files, miscellaneous performance projects, journals, reviews, and posters.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Gift of Penny Haggarty via James Hoffman, April 2015.

Arrangement

Language of material

Script of material

Location of originals

Availability of other formats

Restrictions on access

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Finding aids

Uploaded finding aid

Associated materials

Related materials

Accruals

2019-001, 2022-016

Alternative identifier(s)

Standard number

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Control area

Description record identifier

Institution identifier

Rules or conventions

Status

Revised

Level of detail

Partial

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Created, February 27, 2019.
Revised, April 5, 2022.
Revised, November 23, 2022.

Language of description

  • English

Script of description

Sources

Accession area

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