Artistic Director - Great Canadian Theatre Company

The Great Canadian Theatre Company was founded in 1975 by a group of professors and graduate students at Carleton University.  Riding a wave of cultural nationalism, founders Robin Matthews, Larry McDonald, Bill Law, Greg Reid and Lois Shannon envisioned a theatre company that would produce only Canadian plays, especially those with social and political relevance. Driven by a dream to place Canadian stories and Canadian history front and centre in our country’s universities and theatres, the company launched its first production in August of 1975.

For several years, GCTC was entirely volunteer-run, performing first at the University, and then in the Old Firehall that is now the Ottawa South Community Centre. Even as a young company, the GCTC founders knew that there was an audience that craved Canadian theatre that is emotionally charged, intellectually engaging and socially and politically relevant.

In 1982, with a huge outpouring of support from the City of Ottawa, then-Mayor Marion Dewar, Councillor Toddy Kehoe, the financial backing of 700 people and the technical assistance of Phil Sharp of the School of Architecture at Carleton University, GCTC claimed its own permanent home at 910 Gladstone Avenue by transforming a truck repair garage into a 230-seat theatre.

The new theatre opened with the collectively authored Sandinista! a large-scale production about Nicaragua that went on to tour nationally to critical acclaim.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the company expanded both its staff and audience. It gained national recognition for producing the work of notable Canadian playwrights, as well as Ottawa-based writers.  The company began to commission and premiere new plays, and also added the production of contemporary international work to its mandate.  GCTC has produced over 84 world premieres to its credit.