Harriet’s House at Hart House Theatre

It is very exciting that Gailey Road’s first production outside the Toronto Fringe Festival will take place at Hart House Theatre. The theatre opened in November of 1919 and became a leader in the Canadian “Little Theatre” movement of the 1920's and 1930's. During that time, Hart House Theatre cultivated and featured some of the country’s finest actors, directors, playwrights and designers of the Pre-World War II era, including Raymond Massey, Dora Mavor Moore, Lloyd Bochner, Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, Wayne and Shuster and Merrill Denison.

After the war, Hart House Theatre, under the direction of Robert Gill, became an extracurricular student theatre and for twenty years turned out a new generation of stage professionals. William Hutt, Don Harron, Kate Reid, David Gardner, Arthur Hiller, Donald Sutherland, Norman Jewison and Lorne Michaels all got their start treading the boards on the Hart House stage. I can’t think of a better theatre from which to launch Gailey Road’s Harriet’s House.

In addition to putting on its own full season each year (this year marks the theatre’s 90th anniversary) Hart House Theatre also offers a range of theatre classes and workshops (www.harthouse.ca/classes). In my next blog, I will provide of list of these. Registration for the winter courses starting in January is now open.