Young People's Theatre
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| Address | 165 Front Street East |
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| Location | Toronto, ON, Canada |
| Coordinates | 43°39′00″N 79°22′08″W / 43.65000°N 79.36889°WCoordinates: 43°39′00″N 79°22′08″W / 43.65000°N 79.36889°W |
| Type | Theatre |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1888 (stables) |
| Renovated | 1977 (theatre) |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Young People's Theatre (YPT) is a Canadian producer of theatre for youth and Toronto's oldest not-for-profit theatre company. Founded in 1966 by Susan Douglas Rubes, YPT originally operated out of the now-demolished Colonnade Theatre on Bloor Street. Since its 1977-78 season, the company has resided in a renovated heritage building in downtown Toronto.
YPT operates two performance spaces in the building at 165 Front Street East; the Susan Douglas Rubes Theatre and the Nathan Cohen Studio. It stages an average of eight productions each year. The current Artistic Director is Allen MacInnis and the current Executive Director Nancy J. Webster.
Rubes created the Museum Children’s Theatre in her Toronto kitchen and then, with the help of a few local businessmen, opened Alice in Wonderland at the Royal Ontario Museum in 1963. Susan staged her first YPT show, The Looking Glass Revue, at the Colonnade Theatre in 1966.
Before finding its permanent home in 1977, YPT staged shows at the St. Lawrence Centre, the Ontario Science Centre and Toronto's Firehall Theatre. The company also toured to schools throughout Ontario, and toured the play Inook and the Sun in the UK. In 1975, Rubes received the Order of Canada for her work in children's theatre. Two years later, YPT staged its first show at its current home (165 Front St. E) with an adaptation of The Lost Fairy Tale. Young People's Theatre added a drama school in 1969, a community outreach program and resources for educators. As of 2015, the Drama School operates four different locations in Toronto.
Several stage and screen actors have appeared on the YPT mainstage since the 1970s, including Martin Short, Megan Follows, Brent Carver, Cynthia Dale, Fiona Reid, Gordon Pinsent, R.H Thomson, Sheila McCarthy and Eric Peterson. Celebrities such as Drake and Kiefer Sutherland also attended YPT's Drama School in their youth.
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