UNION EIGHT THEATRE
is an unincorporated, not-for-profit company dedicated to the innovative development, production and dissemination of Canadian theatre. Our approach to theatre making is rigorous, irreverent, physical, daring, intellectual, heart felt and filled with truth. We have developed and presented works in Owen Sound, Rockford, Stratford and Toronto, with plans to continue produce new work in Canada and abroad.

Union Eight Theatre embraces a multifaceted approach to script development that incorporates the creativity of the writer, director, choreographer, actors and designers allowing for a multi layered development process.

Union Eight Theatre is dedicated to making theatre that can be accessed by people from many regions and socio economic realities. Viscerally and intellectually, our productions wake audiences up to important social and political issues.

Our History:

Since our inception in 2008, Union Eight Theatre has supported the work of Canadian playwrights who examine our society with poetry, clarity and courage.

We have workshopped three new works (Atlas of Mud, The Bird, Oil Man) and produced two Canadian plays (Tuesdays & Sundays, The Bird).

Union Eight Theatre held our FREE public reading of Atlas of Mud in the back of the Downtown Bookstore in Owen Sound. This brought not only theatre lovers but also literary enthusiasts out to see the performance.

Our production of Tuesdays & Sundays was the first play offered at the Grey Roots Museum Theatre in Rockford. This location allowed audiences not only to engage with this excellent Canadian play but also invited them to experience a piece of Grey County history.

For our world premiere production of The Bird, we offered our Owen Sound audience a van tour to Toronto to see the show. This was revolutionary in that it was the first time many of our van tour patrons had seen a play at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Canada’s foremost queer theatre company.

Union Eight Theatre has collaborated with Buddies in Bad Times (The Bird - production) and The Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Oil Man – workshop). We are delighted with these creative associations and are eager to foster an environment of constructive interaction with many more theatre companies.

At Union Eight Theatre, we strive to integrate and nurture diverse methods of approaching the development, rehearsal and performance of a play. We workshopped Atlas of Mud as a site specific piece – moving in the waters of Indian Falls and the Georgian Bay. Union Eight’s production of Tuesdays & Sundays was staged completely without props and relied on choreography matched with the play’s poetic text to tell the tragic tale of William Millman and Mary Tuplin. We used bird patterning and flocking as inspiration for text work in our production of The Bird.

Union Eight Theatre is very thankful for the ongoing nurturing of the Ontario Arts Council who have supported our company from its inception. The Toronto Arts council and various members of the international theatre community have also been very generous in supporting our vision.