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Crest Theatre

Company and venue in Toronto, Ontario , which is at the source of professional theatre in Canada. It was founded in 1954 by Murray and Donald Davis and their sister Barbara Chilcott and performed in an 822-seat theatre on Mt. Pleasant Road.

The company went on to produce over 90 plays from the Canadian and international repertories and presented the work of Robertson Davies , Marcel Dubé , Mavor Moore , Barry Morse , Bernard Slade , Herbert Whittaker , Malcolm Black , John Hirsch , Kate Reid , Martha Henry , Charmion King ,, Bruno Gerussi and Amelia Hall among many others.

In 1957, JB Priestly's The Glass Cage premiered with the company and when the troupe toured the work to London's West End, they became the first all-Canadian troupe to play there.

However, times became hard in the 60s and the Canada Council actually refused a grant because it claimed the company's artistic standards were slackening. It closed in 1966.

An archival collection on this subject is available at the Toronto Reference Library.

Readings: Eugene Benson and LW Conolly. English-Canadian Theatre. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1987; Anton Wagner, ed. Contemporary Canadian Theatre: New World Visions, Toronto: Simon and Pierre, 1985.

Additional information provided by Anthony L. Wynn and Clair Sedore.

Last updated 2010-03-25