Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Abarca-Cantin, Paulina
At age 19, Paulina Abarca-Cantin founded Montreal’s Street People Theatre Company (SPTC) to produce, direct and perform in Talking With alongside local talents at Centaur Theatre. The production achieved significant acclaim, encouraging her to pursue her passion for stories.
She studied at the University of Toronto and at the National Theatre School of Canada, directing Denise Boucher’s Les Fées ont soif (Monument National)prior to graduating. Earning a spot in Patricia Hamilton’s inaugural Advanced Actors Workshop ensemble at the Banff Centre for the Arts, she performed in Lorca’s Blood Wedding at Tarragon Theatre (dir. Mike Alfreds). In 1990, she was Assistant Director on From Main to Mainstreet (dir. Damir Andrei) a hit collective creation (Centaur Theatre),later remounted at Canadian Stage.
Returning to SPTC as Artistic Director, she evolved a mandate focused on plays by and about a new generation, in collaboration with Associate Artists Shelley Tepperman, Zoe Sakellaropoulo and Louis Beaudoin. She directed Three Postcards; Wendy Lill’s The Occupation of Heather Rose; the Late Night Cabaret and Tall Tales of a Generation – A Collective Creation co-produced with Centaur Theatre. Over two years, she developed the English-language translation of Dominic Champagne’s La Répetition (Playing Bare), playing Luce in productions directed by Katrina Dunn and Bruce M. Smith (Theatre La Chapelle and Théâtre Français de Toronto). She produced Critical Mass by Scott Duchesne and Michael McMurtry’s The Enthusiasm of the Species. In 1997, she directed A Fertile Imagination by Susan G. Cole (MAI). Winner of awards, tri-level funding and loyal audiences, SPCT took a final bow in 1998.
At the Stratford Festival, she was Assistant Director on the world premiere of Fair Liberty’s Call by Sharron Pollock (dir. Guy Sprung), The Imaginary Invalid (dir. Albert Millaire) and Bacchae (dir. David William). As Intern Director in the Neil Munro Director’s Project at Shaw Festival in 1995, she was Assistant Director on The Petrified Forest (dir Neil Munro) and The Philanderer (Jim Mezon, dir). She directed Playing Bare (Nora McLellan as Luce) and the Canadian premiere of Virginia Woolf’s Freshwater.
Key directing credits include Talley’s Folley and Morris Panych’s 7 Stories (Theatre Lac-Brome); and Fronteras Americanas by Guillermo Verdecchia (Theatre Aquarius).
She performed lead roles in Betty Lambert’s Jenny’s Story and George F. Walker’s The Art of War (Victoria Playhouse); Miranda in The Tempest (Skylight Theatre); Cecilia in Something in the Air at Toronto Workshop Productions/TWP (dir. Robert Rooney) and Lucille in The Bourgeois Gentleman (dir. Guillermo de Andrea) at Canadian Stage.
From 1990-92, she covered Québec’s theatre scene for Theatrum, a national print magazine. An advocate for English-language theatre in Quebec, Abarca-Cantin fostered national partnerships to create a landmark training program for professional directors at the Quebec Drama Federation, after serving as Vice-President. In 2004, she co-founded the interdisciplinary English Language Arts Network (ELAN), later chairing ELAN’s Advisory Committee.
Throughout an enduring association with Teesri Duniya Theatre, she has taught acting workshops and directed staged readings of works by Wajdi Mouawad and Griselda Gambaro among others. In 2003, she directed Silvija Jestrovic’s Noah’s Ark 747 set in Belgrade (MAI). In 2015, she staged a reading of Carmen Aguirre’s The Refugee Hotel, co-presented with Imago Theatre at the Have We Forgotten Yet? Plays About War Festival. In 2016, she directed The Refugee Hotel, presented at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, featuring Spanish-language surtitles and public talkbacks.
Her body of work in television, film, 3D animation and digital media is extensive.
From 2017-2022, she led acquisitions and operations of the Encore+ YouTube channel, created by the Canada Media Fund and industry partners, to preserve and stimulate demand for classic Canadian and Indigenous content locked in analog formats. Encore+ digitized and promoted over 3000 legacy titles, resulting in stellar domestic and global viewership. Astonished to (re)discover page/stage-to-screen treasures like Waiting for the Parade, Billy Bishop Goes to War, A Nation is Coming, Karen Kain: Prima Ballerina, Danser Perreault and Michel Marc Bouchard’s The Tale of Teeka and Lilies, she launched Encore+ Originals featuring talent revisiting productions.
Encouraged by Martha Henry, Paulina unearthed The Wars (1983), Timothy Findley’s screen adaptation of his award-winning novel, directed by Robin Phillips, starring Martha Henry, Brent Carver, William Hutt Ann-Marie MacDonald and Jackie Burroughs, music by Glenn Gould. Lost for over thirty-five years, the film premiered on Encore+ in 2020. In 2022, she commissioned the remastering of The Wars for Encore+ with Telefilm, the NFB, Stratford Festival and Torstar. In 2024, she programmed a restoration case study and screening of The Wars at the International Film Festival of Ottawa. As symposium event producer for the Stratford Festival in October, she organized a special screening of The Wars. It will also be available on StratFest@Home, along with the behind-the-scenes interview she filmed with Martha Henry in 2021.
Last updated 2024-11-05
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The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia web site was originally conceived and developed in 1996 by Gaetan Charlebois—theatre critic, playwright, and actor.
