Canadian Stage Company

The Canadian Stage Company (popularly known as CanStage) was formed in 1988 after the merger of Toronto Free Theatre and CentreStage. The merger resulted in the birth of one of Canada's largest arts organizations. The artistic directors of both companies (Guy Sprung and Bill Glassco, respectively) remained on as co-leaders to guide the new entity's vision of supporting "the development of large-scale works for big audiences while also developing smaller, more risky works by our more experimental creators." By 1990, it became apparent that having co-leaders was not working out, so Bob Baker took over as the sole Artistic Director until 1998, and Martin Bragg took over the role as General Manager. Bragg replaced Baker as Artistic Director and Celia Smith took on the role of General Manager until 2009. Matthew Jocelyn took the helm as Artistic and General Director until 2018, when Brendan Healy was appointed Artistic Director.

CanStage focusses on the creation of new Canadian work and Canadian interpretation of the plays from the international repertoire. The company operates four theatres: the Bluma Appel in the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, two smaller theatres at 26 Berkeley Street, and an open-air summer stage in High Park.

Materials in the fonds include performance files, programs, posters, photographs, publicity materials, and administrative records.