2013

Company founded by Joan Etienne and Carey Nicholson

2013

First Production: Vern Thiessen’s Vimy, Port Perry

2014

Incorporated as a not for profit organization

2015

Ontario Trillium Foundation Seed Grant for 1st Durham Minifest in 2016

2016

Ontario Trillium Foundation Seed Grants for Summer Stages Youth Camps, 3×60 Youth Collective, Port Perry Heritage Cemetery Walks

2018

Ontario Trillium Foundation Seed Grant for First Nations Youth Program in for Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation

2019

Received Charitable Status

2020

Created “Something From Nothing” new play workshops in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

2020 & 2021

Moved our summer season outdoors in response to the Covid 19 pandemic

2021

Funding from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and
Ontario Trillium Foundation to support adaptation and recovery from the Covid 19 pandemic

2022

Funding from Economic and Social Development Canada New Horizons
for Seniors Program to support theatre based programs for community seniors.

2022

Funding from Ontario Trillium Foundation
to create a summer season venue in partnership with Scugog Shores Museum Village,
including semi-permanent performance tent, stage and technical equipment.

2022

Ontario Culture Days Creatives in Residence partner
to create a new play based on the first Black resident of Port Perry in 1856.

Our Impact on the Community since 2013

• We continued our repertory summer theatre festival in Port Perry, providing an “incubator” for emerging artists and an economic driver for local tourism and business partners in the community.

• Through generous donors, we made theatre training available to 2 area youth who were able to work and perform with our professional company as apprentices.

• Through sponsorship support, we made live theatre experiences available to over 200 youth who may not have other access to live performing arts.

• We workshopped and premiered a new Canadian musical, Willow Quartet at our summer festival.

• We continued our partnership with Scugog Lake Stewards and presented our original theatre for young audiences production, Monsters and Milfoil: A Tale of Lake Scugog at West Shore Retirement Village, to residents and the public.

• We continued to provide roleplaying services to Durham Regional Police Services and Elder Abuse Ontario training programs.

• We continued to provide employment and financial compensation for local theatre artists and practitioners through our programs and productions.

Our Impact on the Community since 2019

• We have brought live theatre to more than 3,500 elementary and high school students through our community touring program.

• We have introduced the work of local and national Canadian playwrights to audiences.

• We have provided mentorship to area high schools and community theatres.

• We have developed unique youth theatre training programs in Durham with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

• We have been able to increase financial accessibility to local theatre to students and those of limited financial means.

• We created Durham Minifest, an educational one-act play festival with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

• We have worked with local heritage partners to create a dramatic cemetery walk program in Port Perry with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation and digitized these programs with the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

• We have created programming for the Ontario Black History Society

Our Impact on the Community since 2020 & 2021

• We kept theatre live, performing in parking lots in the summer months, and were able to provide employment to theatre artists through the Covid 19 pandemic

• We created the Port Perry Snapshots Short Play Festival in celebration of the colonial sesquicentennial of Port Perry in 2021.