History

The MT Space was founded on July 5th, 2004 by theatre artist Majdi Bou-Matar and was incorporated on February 7th, 2005.

The name The MT Space was inspired by the homophone of “empty” and “MT”. Primarily the name represents the need for a space for culturally diverse artists — a space that needs to be filled!

In its first year of operation the organization, through an HRSDC (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada) grant, The MT Space transformed a warehouse space into an intimate black-box studio, and drafted a 5-year business plan.

In the past six years the company has created four main-stage productions and are currently in the development stage of the fifth. We have toured to Montreal, Ottawa, London and Hamilton. Our 2005 production Seasons of Immigration, was developed based on a collection of immigration stories that we have solicited from our diverse local community. The show is being re-mounted at the Centre in the Square as part of their Great Canadian Play Series in March 2008. It also toured to St. John and Fredericton, New Brunswick in April 2010. Our 2007 creation Pinteresque: Exit Strategy follows the journeys of war refugees living in Canada and draws on Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize speech Art, Truth and Politics. The play was presented at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille as part of SummerWorks Theatre Festival. Our production The Last 15 Seconds is enjoying critical success — having premiered at IMPACT 09, headlined at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Kitchener 2010, a national tour to many parts of Canada in 2011 and a tour across the Middle East, to Jordan, Lebanon & Syria in fall 2010.

In six short years The MT Space has grown from a local grassroots organization to one that has earned national attention. Our work has been reviewed by national specialized theatre journals (Canadian Theatre Review and alt.theatre). We have been invited to speak at national conferences about our unique processes and practices in engaging culturally diverse artists in our work and diverse communities in our audience.

The MT Space has received the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Great Grant Award for the Arts and Culture Category in 2007. The MT Space also was short-listed for the Volunteer Impact Award 2007, awarded by the Volunteer Action Centre for the most effective volunteer programs in the community.

The MT Space is an affiliate member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT).

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