Dian Marie Bridge

·53 min·5 clips

Diane Marie Bridge reveals how Black Theatre Workshop became Canada's oldest Black theatre company over 55 years.

Diane Murray-Bridge comes in through the story of a company. Phil Rickaby begins with his own gap in knowledge, asking her to introduce Black Theatre Workshop from Montreal instead of acting as if every listener already has it filed away. The mood is easy and curious. Murray-Bridge says she first heard about the company decades earlier, while she was still connected to Toronto. Our Place is the episode's handhold. The Kanika Ambrose production, directed by Murray-Bridge, opens up a bigger talk about visibility, community, and the plain hard work of getting people into theatres. Montreal's English theatre scene comes across as closely tied without sounding cozy. Murray-Bridge talks about shared season launches, where designers, companies, and thin local media can land in the same room and give more than one production a little daylight. Rickaby recognizes the shape of that from Toronto. He ties it to the pressure companies have been under after the pandemic: less funding, fewer venues, more reasons to stop pretending everyone can solve this alone. The conversation stays practical. Cooperation is not treated like a lovely value statement. It is what theatre people keep returning to because the conditions keep pushing them there. Rickaby remembers the idea that there is audience enough for everyone, and uses it to make audience sharing feel both generous and strategic. Murray-Bridge agrees, while leaving the difficulty in the frame. Resource-sharing has been tried in places such as Toronto, she says, and somehow things still fall through. The wish does not disappear. A Vancouver building with several theatre companies, shop space, and performance space gives the episode one sturdy picture of shared infrastructure actually working. Mostly, though, this sounds like arts workers thinking out loud: how to stay visible, how to stay funded, how to stay connected without turning every neighbour into competition. The close returns to Stageworthy's world, with Rickaby asking for Patreon support and pointing listeners toward Fiona Sautter and Bad Hats Theater's holiday production of Narnia.

As heard by us

A grounded theatre conversation about shared space, shared audiences, and the networks that help companies endure.

Stageworthy's conversation with Diane Murray-Bridge sits at the intersection of directing, arts leadership, and the daily work of keeping theatre connected.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Want a candid look at how theatre gets made when space, venues, and funding are under pressure?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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