Staff & Board

Founder & Artistic Director: David Anderson

General Manager & Cyclops Coordinator: Catherine McLeod

Board of Directors: Ray Kinoshita (President), Nicole Arends, Simone Georges, Schuster Gindin, Helder Ramos, Richard Underhill.

About Clay & Paper Theatre

Out amongst the community bake-ovens and lush gardens of Toronto's Dufferin Grove Park, Clay & Paper Theatre has been changing the world. Completely. Irrevocably. Medieval mystery plays, Punch and Judy shows, African myths, Indonesian shadow puppetry, Native Canadian masks - all these and more have been influencing Clay & Paper Theatre since its birth in 1994. This is theatre on the ground, for the groundlings, in the park and on the street. This is theatre of exaggeration, of giant puppetry, of satire and wit gone awry. This is a little theatre company asking big questions with humour and irreverence. This is Clay & Paper Theatre.

Mandate

Clay & Paper Theatre's mandate is to create, develop and perform multi-disciplinary, community-driven theatrical works using narrative theatre and large-scale puppetry in public spaces for large and diverse audiences. Clay & Paper Theatre produces plays, pageants and parades with the community, grounded in the idea that performance in public space is an act of cultural transformation. Our practice of building, rehearsing, and performing in full public view is an attempt on our part to "bring back the commons," reunite art with the daily life of the community, and to make art accessible to all.

History

Clay & Paper Theatre is built on the accumulative experience of David Anderson - theatre activist, producer of new Canadian work, and defender of public space since 1969.

I believe theatre can speak to the whole population. The role of theatre is to give the community an image of itself. I think of our task as being a kind of 'thinking in public', and thinking in public works most effectively when the whole public is really there.

- David Anderson

Since 1994 Clay & Paper has been bringing together seasoned arts professionals, theatre students, local businesses and community members in the co-creation of public theatrical performances and celebrations. Clay & Paper uses its own brand of narrative theatre and larger-than-life puppetry as a means of animating public space - igniting community festivity and celebration for a wide cross-section of the local population.

Building Local Stories

Clay & Paper's continuing community project, Building Local Stories, represents the company's commitment to developing and performing theatre that is embedded in local histories. This important initiative ensures that the local stories of the diverse communities of Toronto are shared and remembered. In 1996, Clay and Paper Theatre found an ideal home in which to continue developing local stories: Dufferin Grove Park, a 'Great Community Place' known locally and internationally for its neighbourhood bake ovens, gardens and unparalleled community programming.

Artistic Programming

Every year in the month of June, Clay & Paper presents Day of Delight, a one-day multidisciplinary festival celebrating love, courtship and desire. Coinciding with the summer solstice, Day of Delight is a fanciful celebration of spring, presenting dozens of Toronto's most amorous artists, both emerging and professional.

Each summer the company presents a new Canadian play, which runs for up to 5 weeks in Dufferin Grove Park. As the centerpiece of our season, this play is rehearsed and built in full public view. Admission to all performances is 'pay-what-you-can,' ensuring theatre that is accessible to all members of our community.

Our annual Night of Dread has become one of Toronto's favourite community events. Occurring each October on the Saturday before Halloween, hundreds of revelers gather for this community parade and celebration to parade images of their fears through the darkened streets. Returning to Dufferin Grove Park, these fears are mocked and banished, and their names burned in a bonfire. Our ancestors are honoured with a shrine garden, and the night is lit up with music, dancing and fire spinning.

In addition to these three major annual productions, Clay & Paper can be seen throughout the year at events such as Puppets on Ice or Red Pepper Spectacle's Kensington Festival of Lights. Our Cyclops: Cycling Oriented Puppet Squad can be seen zipping around the city, bringing cycling to the theatre and theatre to the cyclists. Performances such as The Return of the Green Man and Bicycle Revolution have endeared us to the local community. Clay & Paper offers workshops in stilt-walking, puppet-building, performance and community art-making, providing community members the opportunity to practice their artistry and learn new skills.

With each passing year, each performance, each workshop, each parade, Clay & Paper Theatre further weaves itself into the fabric of the local community.

Clay & Paper Theatre supported by: