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Imago Theatre

Okinum by Émilie Monnet, performed by Émilie Monnet. An Onishka and Imago Theatre co-production, performed at Centaur Theatre,  September 14-16, 2021.
Okinum by Émilie Monnet, performed by Émilie Monnet. An Onishka and Imago Theatre co-production, performed at Centaur Theatre, September 14-16, 2021. Photo by Andrée Lanthier.

Montreal-based professional feminist theatre company, originally founded as an experimental company by Andrès Hausmann, Ray Tomalty, and Kelly Patterson in 1987. It presented complex and challenging international works and bilingual collectives. Following directors Lowell Gasoi and then Ron Spurles, Clare Schapiro (founder of Theatre 1774; see Infinitheatre) became the Artistic Director in 2000, shifting the mandate of the theatre to Canadian and Quebecois playwrights, such as Greg Kramer, and women's lived experience. In 2013, Micheline Chevrier became Artistic and Executive Director of Imago as a feminist, artist-run theatre company exploring climate change, power dynamics, and social marginalization. The current Artistic and Executive Director is Krista Jackson.

Imago offers a free mentorship program called "ARTISTA" for young women and gender-diverse people, achieving collective empowerment through theatrical experimentation with the mentorship of professional artists. The "Creators Circle" provides opportunities for workshops and experimentation. Imago has a "Pay-What-You-Decide" entrance fee for financial accessibility, ASL-interpreted performances, French sur-titles, and digital productions for the blind.

Imago has presented a varied repertory including interpretations of plays by Samuel Beckett (The Shorter Plays and Conversation), Harold Pinter (Other Plays and Pinteriana), Milan Kundera (Jacques and His Master), Heiner Müller (Quartet) and a magnificent collective creation about the invention of the atomic bomb, Incandescent (which played in both French and English). Its 2004 production of Bye Bye Baby by Elyse Gasco moved to the Centaur Theatre for the 2005-06 season. In 2010, it produced Down from Heaven, an apocalyptic play by Colleen Wagner.

Micheline Chevrier directed Champs de Mars: A Story of War in 2009, Thinking of Yu by Carole Fréchette, and If We Were Birds by Erin Shields. She directed productions of La corneille by Lise Vaillancourt (co-production with UniThéâtre, 2014); random by English playwright debbie tucker green (co-production with Black Theatre Workshop, 2015); and Pig Girl by Colleen Murphy at the Centaur Theatre in 2016.

In September 14-16, 2021, Imago presented the English Language World Premiere of Okinum by Émilie Monnet, performed by Émilie Monnet in a co-production with Onishka at Centaur Theatre as a part of Brave New Looks. It then toured to the National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre.

Website: www.imagotheatre.ca

Last updated 2022-12-13