Photostory #325: Legends, Fables Come Alive on Amateur Stage: Whimsical World of Canada's Folklore Theatre

Photographers
Bob Lansdale , J. Marshall
Maker
National Film Board of Canada
Release Date
November 27, 1962
Collection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Main Text
Cackling, spell-casting Ontario witches, seductive, gold-digging Klondike beauties, stark-staring, coastal-Indian face masks, forest fantasies from Quebec, Eskimo fables and Maritime myths. All these come on stage during productions by the Folklore Theatre of Canada. A 35-member company of players, the folklorists take pages here and there from Canada's unofficial history, infuse characters with zestful life, polish up colourings of comedy, accent dramatics, present them as a series of 10-minute plays. Performances, including Christmas shows, usually take place in Toronto but already the three-year-old troupe has made its first summer road tour (to Nova Scotia), has appeared on TV, hopes sometime to take its rollicking, lively glimpses of Canadian folklore and whimsy to audiences across the seven seas.