Citadel Theatre
The Citadel Theatre was founded in 1965 in the old Salvation Army Citadel on 103rd Street. The current Citadel Theatre, in the heart of Edmonton’s arts district, opened in 1976. The Citadel celebrated its 50th Anniversary in the 2015/16 season. The Citadel Theatre is one of North America’s largest not-for-profit theatres. It is a complex of five performance spaces in downtown Edmonton. The theatre’s core programming in recent season consists of 10+ plays. The Citadel also features an outreach performance series each year known as Beyond the Stage, designed to encourage people who have not encountered much live theatre to come into the Citadel and experience various forms of entertainment beyond conventional theatre offerings, including live music and dance-theatre hybrids. A registered charitable organization, the Citadel also operates a year-round theatre school known as The Academy. Daryl Cloran is the current artistic director and Chantell Ghosh is the Executive Director.
Artistic Vision
The Citadel Theatre is recognized and respected as a national centre of excellence in production, creative development,and audience engagement, the artistic and cultural heart of the Albertan community.
In September 2016, Daryl Cloran became the Citadel’s new Artistic Director, bringing with him great enthusiasm and vision for the Citadel’s future. Daryl’s vision is for the Citadel to be: Inclusive, Innovative, and International in our programming and practices.
Inclusive – We will celebrate, welcome, and share stories with the many different communities that make up Edmonton. Our stage will come alive with different voices and cultures.
Innovative – Our programming will celebrate new work, new performance styles, and productions that experiment with dramatic form. We will create collisions between different art forms, and present work that includes dance, circus, music, and storytelling. We will tell stories digitally, including podcasts, video, and multi-platform projects.
International – We will present and collaborate with exciting theatre-makers from around the world, as well as taking the fantastic work of the Citadel to audiences everywhere.
The Citadel is the heart of Edmonton’s arts community. We are positioned at the centre of the city, and fill our building with exciting programming and partnerships with local companies and artists. We are proud to be part of a city so rich in theatre practice and theatre artists, and we look for every opportunity to feature local artists and their work on our stage. The Citadel is also an important contributor to the national theatre landscape, creating work and training artists seen on stages around the country and internationally. We grew from audacious beginnings 50 years ago, and plan to honour that spirit with an inclusive, innovative, and international approach to our future.
The Citadel Theatre runs Canada’s most comprehensive program for creative development in Professional Theatre. The Academy encompasses three programs under one umbrella:
- The Citadel/Banff Centre Professional Theatre Program is a rigorous advanced training program for established and emerging theatre professionals.
- Young Companies offers advanced training and mentorship in Acting, Musical Theatre, Playwriting, and Theatre Production for 16-21 year olds.
- The Eldon and Anne Foote Theatre School is the oldest and largest theatre school in Edmonton, providing year-round classes for all ages and experience levels since for almost 50 years.
The Citadel also offers Play Development. Accelerator is our multi-faceted approach to the play-development process. It involves working with playwright/creators to catalyze their process and bring the component parts together. This program includes:
1. Commissions
We seek out promising new voices and exciting established playwrights to engage in writing specifically intended for Edmonton audiences and the Citadel stages. Commissions can take the form of traditional plays or musicals, but may also lead into alternative arenas such as podcasts, “happenings” in spaces other than onstage, digital and live integration projects, and beyond.
2. International Development Collaborations
We work to pair with artists and companies from across the globe, fostering exciting, genre-defying work – collisions of different art forms, including theatre, dance, film, podcast, circus, and music. These unique international collaborations bring new experiences to our audiences and bring Edmonton to the world.
3. Workshops and Readings
The Citadel provides opportunities for theatre-makers to develop their projects with professional artists in a laboratory setting: text workshops to hear the work aloud; physical workshops to explore new ideas on their feet; and design workshops to delve into conceptual innovation. Our audience is engaged in the development process through workshop showcases – a vital step in which the public enables creators to discover the project anew through their response.
4. The Lab
Building on seven successful seasons of The Forum, The Lab is a place for theatrical experimentation, bringing playwrights together over the course of the theatre season to create individual projects exploring a common theme. Its focus is on creating innovative, large-vision projects that speak to a wide audience and reflect a diverse approach.
The goal of the Accelerator program is to lead these new works to World Premieres at the Citadel and elsewhere. The Citadel is committed to featuring New Work on our many stages.
Upcoming 2018/19 Mainstage Season
Once: September 22 to October 14, 2018 (Mainstage); Redpatch: November 1 to 11, 2018 (Add-On); Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley: November 17 to December 9, 2018 (Mainstage); A Christmas Carol: November 30 to December 23, 2018 (Seasonal Presentation); Sweat: January 12 to February 3, 2019 (Mainstage); Matilda: February 16 to March 17, 2019 (Mainstage); The Candidate: March 30 to April 21, 2019 (Mainstage); The Party: March 30 to April 21, 2019 (Add-On); The Tempest: April 20 to May 12, 2019 (Mainstage)
Upcoming 2018/19 Beyond The Stage Season Bridget Ryan's Oh What A Beautiful Morning!: October 19-20, 2018; Legends of Carnegie Hall: November 16-17, 2018; Nuela Charles: January 18-19, 2019; Made In Italy: February 14-16, 2019; Slight of Mind: March 27 to April 7, 2019; Nassim: April 30 to May 5, 2019
