Shadowland is known for animating streets, parks, and communities with its bold design sensibility and raucous theatricality. Founded in 1983 on Toronto Island by a collective of visual and theatre artists, Shadowland works with a wide range of urban and rural communities to unearth and celebrate their distinctive histories and tell new stories. Our performances incorporate masks, puppetry, and spectacle arts, and take place mostly in outdoor and non-traditional theatre spaces. We are committed to the development of artistic practice, particularly among young people. Each year we provide training and summer employment for students who are thrown into the full creative process. We offer long-term internships and a more intensive training for those entering the community-engaged, performing arts field, as well as numerous opportunities for young people to express themselves through theatre arts. Shadowland artists are available for workshops in shadow puppetry, mask making, stilt-walking, giant puppet construction, lantern-making, and more. We regularly work in schools and community centres and collaborate with a wide range of cultural and community organizations. Projects are customized with our partners to celebrate local issues and evolve in a collective collaborative process. Co-artistic director Anne Barber trained in Theatre at the innovative Dartington College of Arts, and worked for ten years with Horse and Bamboo, the UK’s only horse-drawn theatre. In 1992, she came to Canada, via Bread and Puppet Theater, to join Shadowland. Anne directs most of the company’s productions, and leads its weekly youth theatre program on Toronto Island, now in its 21st year. She has extensive teaching experience with learners of all ages in Ontario schools, colleges and universities, and in hands-on workshops in mask and puppetry, stilt-walking and outdoor performance. Co-artistic director Brad Harley trained as a visual artist and graphic designer and is founding member of Shadowland. His theatre work is influenced by Welfare State International (UK), Callalloo Productions (Trinidad) and Bread and Puppet Theater (US). Brad’s expressive design sensibility defines Shadowland’s highly visual aesthetic. No puppet is too big or too small! Brad creates short videos of Shadowland’s productions as well as his own video works. He is in demand as a theatre designer, props maker and creator of complicated animated sculptures and has designed the props for VideoCabaret’s History of the Village of the Small Huts productions since 1983. Contact Anne at [email protected] or 416 898 0946 if you’re are interested in upcoming programs and opportunities.
