| Manitoba Theatre for Young People | |
| Address: | 2 Forks Market Road Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 4X1 |
| Coordinates: | 49.8881°N -97.1331°W |
| Capacity: | 315 |
| Type: | Theatre |
| Opened: | 1999 |
| Yearsactive: | 1982–present |
| Othernames: | The MTYP |
Manitoba Theatre for Young People (MTYP) is a theatre for children and young adults in The Forks area of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.[1], MTYP's annual attendance regularly exceeds 100,000.
Within the theatre complex are two performance venues: a 315-seat Main Stage and a smaller hall. The smaller hall does not have theatre seating and is used primarily as a rehearsal hall and multi-purpose room.[2] The building also features four classroom studios, production and wardrobe shops, a greenroom, two full dressing rooms, a box office, and lobby.[2] The theatre is 5,270 square feet in size with a 1,344 square feet stage area. The black-box style theatre seats up to 315 and is reconfigurable.[2]
Manitoba Theatre for Young People is one of only two TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) institutions in Canada with a permanent residence, and is the only one that offers a full season of plays for teens.
The theatre was founded in 1965 as Actors' Showcase, and incorporated in 1977.[3] In 1982, Leslee Silverman became the Artistic Director, and MTYP became a professional theatre devoted to young people.[3]
For many years, the theatre operated out of the Gas Station Theatre in the Osborne Village area of the city.
In 1999 the MTYP moved to the Canwest Performing Arts Centre (now the Shaw Performing Arts Center),[4] a 28000square feet facility in The Forks, built to house the theatre and its school.[3]
Pablo Felices-Luna has been the Artistic Director since 2014.[5]
The Manitoba Theatre for Young People presents a full season of theatre for young audiences via both public and school shows, as well as two productions per year that tour both the city of Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba.
MTYP's Theatre School offers fall, winter, and spring sessions, as well as spring break and summer camps, including classes for children as young as three-years-old.[6] The theatre school serves over 1,600 children and teens.[7] MTYP's Theatre School provides training for absolute beginners through to pre-professionals, including annual productions performed by teen students in its Young Company and Shakespeare Company, along with various extracurricular performances. The theatre's drama outreach program presents performance workshops at the theatre and in schools province wide.
MTYP offers free acting, performing, and film training classes to Winnipeg's Indigenous youth between the ages of 12 and 18.[8] It is run by theatre artist Ian Ross [8] and runs as an independent division of MTYP. The program sees more than 500 students and is the largest of its kind in Canada.[9] Cultural Connections for Youth (CCAY) supplies more than half of the funding for MTYP's Aboriginal Arts Program.[9]
, the operating budget for the MTYP is $2.2 million.[2] Fundraising accounts for 20% of revenue, government grants for 30%, and earned revenue for 50%.[2] Earned revenue consists of theatre tuition, ticket sales, and facility rentals.[2]
The current facility cost $5.6 million to build.[10] Although $4 million was raised in a capital campaign, the remainder wasn't completed and, the theatre has $182,000 in mortgage payments annually, as there is $1.2 million remaining debt that the theatre owes for the facility.[10]
Between 2006 and 2011, MTYP's then finance and administration manager Kathleen Owen-Hunt embezzled over $90,000 from the theatre.[11] MTYP sued Owen-Hunt and expected to recoup a portion of the money.
The theatre and its artistic director Leslee Silverman have been awarded the following honours:
Notable former students of MTYP's theatre school include Adam Beach and Nia Vardalos.