Charlottetown Festival

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The Charlottetown Festival is a seasonal Canadian musical theatre festival which has run from late May to mid-October every year since 1965.

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The Charlottetown Festival is hosted in Confederation Centre of the Arts every year. [1] Named after its host city of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, since its inception in 1965 the festival has showcased Canada's longest-running musical, Anne of Green Gables: The Musical . It also seeks out and commissions new Canadian musicals, including Evangeline, Emily, Johnny Belinda, Stories From The Red Dirt Road, On The Road With Dutch Mason, Tell Tale Harbour , Bittergirl: The Musical, Maggie , and Rockabye Hamlet. [2]

Anne of Green Gables: The Musical debuted in 1965 and holds the Guinness World Record for longest-running annual musical, [3] being performed every summer up to 2019. The production was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [4] After returning the musical to the stage in 2022, the festival announced that the musical would from then on be staged every second year. [5] The production has also toured to Japan, New York City, and across Canada. [6]

The festival includes a summer musical theatre training program called the Confederation Centre Young Company. [7] [8] The Young Company shows are free to the public and take place at noon outside the Confederation Centre. The shows typically feature Canadian-themed content. In 2011, Indigenous playwright Cathy Elliott wrote and directed The Talking Stick, featuring an all-Indigenous cast. [9] [10] [11] The piece was performed for the Prince William and Princess Catherine during their tour of Prince Edward Island in 2011. [12] As a Canada 150 Signature Project, the Young Company toured the country in 2017, presenting the original musical The Dream Catchers and working with youth in each city. [13] [14] The Dream Catchers was also performed for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in October 2017, during the Confederation Centre's presentation of the annual Symons Medal and Lecture in Charlottetown. [15]

Past artistic directors of the festival include Mavor Moore, Alan Lund, Jacques Lemay, Duncan MacIntosh, Anne Allan, and Walter Learning. The current artistic director is Adam Brazier. [16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Charlottetown Festival". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2025-02-27.
  2. ↑ "History of The Charlottetown Festival". Confederation Centre of the Arts. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  3. ↑ "Anne of Green Gables musical hits world record". CBC News. 2014-03-08. Retrieved 2025-02-27.
  4. ↑ MacLeod, Nicola (2020-04-25). "Impact of COVID-19 on Confederation Centre 'well into the millions'". CBC News. Retrieved 2025-02-27.
  5. ↑ Marhnouj, Safiyah (November 24, 2022). "P.E.I. tourism industry not worried about new plan for Anne of Green Gables musical". CBC News. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  6. ↑ Doran, Greg (2009-10-13). "Charlottetown Summer Festival". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2025-02-27.
  7. ↑ "Young Company". Confederation Centre. Archived from the original on 2017-11-08.
  8. ↑ Lake, Chelsey (2023-04-12). "All Local Young Company to perform Munschables at The Charlottetown Festival". Confederation Centre of the Arts. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  9. ↑ Wall, Dan (February 18, 2011). "Confederation Centre Young Company Creating Aboriginal Show". Confederation Centre. Archived from the original on 2017-11-08.
  10. ↑ "Young Company Creating Aboriginal Show". The Buzz. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07.
  11. ↑ Atkey, Mel (2012). A Million Miles from Broadway -- Musical Theatre Beyond New York and London. Friendlysong Books. p. 151. ISBN   9780991695706.
  12. ↑ Fenlon, Brodie (2011-07-04). "William And Kate In Canada: Big Photos Of Day 5 Of The Royal Tour Of PEI (PHOTOS)". HuffPost. Retrieved 2025-02-27.
  13. ↑ Herbet, Pierre-Olivier (2016-08-10). "The 150th Anniversary of Confederation in 2017: Make Way for Inspiring Works!". Canada.ca. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  14. ↑ Callaghan, Spencer (2018-06-20). "The Dream Catchers Cross-Country Tour to Recognize Canada 150". Confederation Centre of the Arts. Newswire. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  15. ↑ Yarr, Kevin (2017-11-16). "The Dream Catchers, solo singer, replace youth choir at Symons ceremony". CBC News.
  16. ↑ Ouzounian, Richard (2013-11-04). "Adam Brazier new artistic director at Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown". The Toronto Star. ISSN   0319-0781 . Retrieved 2017-10-23.

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