Albert Schultz, artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre, is seen directing its production of Spoon River. (Photo:(Chris So / Toronto Star file photo)  

Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Plans to Commission New Work on a Countrywide Basis.

[Excerpted from the Toronto Star] Albert Shultz’s aim over the next five years is to build what he calls “a national civic theatre, one in which the qualities of a civic theatre, which we have been creating here — engagement, involvement, commitment — will be explored on a wider canvas.”

One of his plans to is commission new work on a national basis through something he calls “Project Imagination.”

“Diversity and gender equity are going to become very important to us,” Schultz says. “We’d like to explore what role a cultural institution can play in the civic conversation and to continue to examine how the performing arts can change people’s perceptions and lives.”

In recent seasons, Soulpepper’s work has been marked by increasingly imaginative stagings, including Angels in America, Spoon River, Of Human Bondage and, most recently, The Dybbuk.

It’s “a response to the world we live in, a world where my children can get anything they want at any time, curated by themselves, in the palm of their hand,” Schultz says.

“We have to offer them something more than that when they come to the theatre.”

To read the entire article from the Toronto Star, please click here.