Kaleidoscope Theatre is a professional company that specializes in entertainment for young audiences. This unique program provides opportunities for young people living in Victoria to learn from and be mentored by theatre professionals.
More than 90 original plays or adaptations have been produced since 1974 and Kaleidoscope has performed these to an audience of more than 2.5 million.
Kaleidoscope Theatre’s Mission Statement is:
- “To create original, innovative and relevant theatre experiences that stimulates and inspires young people and their communities”.
And their mandate:
- To provide high quality in-house professional drama for families and young people of elementary, middle and senior high school age, principally in the Greater Victoria area.
- To provide high quality professional touring productions for young people of elementary, middle and senior high school age throughout British Columbia, and whenever possible, across Canada and around the world.
- To explore the art form of theatre through the development of new and innovative works.
- To produce and present theatre that reinterprets the classics and/or explores our history or current social issues.
- To provide professional outreach and educational activities to the Greater Victoria community including classes, workshops, and a young playwrights competition and festival.
- To produce works that allow young people to perform with, and be mentored by, theatre professionals
These goals are consistently met with a high degree of excellence, and as examples we can point to some of the many highlights of Kaleidoscope Theatre’s history, such as:
- Founding Artistic Director Elizabeth Gorrie was awarded the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal for her work in Children’s Theatre;
- Box office records were broken in Victoria when over 10,000 people took in “The Hobbit” at the McPherson Theatre over a period of only 10 days;
- Followed by more broken records with the production of “The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe” in 2003;
- Kaleidoscope’s “Adventures In the Rouge Trade” by Robert Clinton won the Petro-Canada Theatre Calgary Play Advancement Competition in 2004, and
- In 2007 premiered the most recent touring production: “The Boy Who Learned To Fly” at the Vancouver International Children’s Festival.
Kaleidoscope Theatre has proven very successful over the years and is a valuable source of theatrical education and entertainment in Victoria.
