The Kanata Theatre is an all-volunteer amateur community theatre company operating in Kanata, Ontario, Canada. It began in 1968 as a play reading group in a sleepy bedroom community. At that time the town consisted of only a handful of houses, one public school, two gas stations, a post office and an A&P grocery store.
There are now about 250 members, who put on five main-stage plays and a children’s holiday play each year. In any one year, there may be additional productions for training or experimental purposes. Members receive a newsletter giving information about Kanata Theatre activities and the times and places of general meetings and of auditions.
After years of fundraising, Kanata Theatre was able to open its own facility, the Ron Maslin Playhouse, a modern 350-seat theatre situated in the south-west of Kanata, which itself is on the west of Ottawa.
Kanata Theatre is organized by a Board of Directors, who are elected at the General Meeting which is held in early June of each year. All members are eligible to vote, and any member may stand for any office.
Kanata Theatre’s activities are governed by its By-Law.
Kanata Theatre does not receive operating grants from any level of government. Its income is from ticket sales, membership fees and donations. It is registered as a charity, charitable registration no.
11897 7602 RR0001.
Kanata Theatre began in what is now the Beaverbrook community of Kanata, which at that time was a housing development in March Township. Construction traffic entered the site by means of Beaverbrook Road, while prospective purchasers were directed to The Parkway. To ensure that no big trucks sullied The Parkway, a heavy beam was mounted across it, supported by big triangular concrete pedestals.
The pedestals still stand near the main access to the Earl of March Secondary School; each pedestal has, cast into it, a triangle-within-a-triangle motif.
Several local community organizations adopted the triangle motif, and indeed the March-Kanata Skating Club continues to use it in its logo. For Kanata Theatre, Ron Maslin designed the first logo, based on a theatrical mask, in 1969. He followed it with a double-mask design in about 1973. This continued in use until 1988, when Ron created a logo especially for Kanata Theatre’s 20th anniversary season, again using two masks, but one having a sad face, the other a happy face.
For subsequent seasons, he used the core of the anniversary logo, and a digitized form of this has become the current logo.
Don't just see the shows, become a part of them! Click the button below to learn about what it means to be a volunteer and member of Kanata Theatre.
BECOME A VOLUNTEER