Is there any hope for English language theatre in Montreal?

The Segal Centre is a well-known landmark in Montreal’s Jewish community, being the birthplace of the Yiddish Theatre, and now it’s trying to reach out to a much larger audience.

“Before we can look at the future we need to understand the past,” said Bryna Wasserman, the artistic director at the Segal. “It seems like only yesterday that we started to have professional theatre in Montreal.”

Over the last few years Wasserman, daughter of the late Dora Wasserman- founder of the Yiddish Theatre, has been worried over the future state of English language theatre in Montreal by alluding to the “two solitudes” that has been created in the local arts scene.

“We’ve relied on professionals from across the English and French divide,” she said.

Now Wasserman, who spoke after the finale of her re-make of Tennessee Williams Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’, believes that the Segal Centre must become a place where all performing arts will be accepted and showcased to the World.

“We need to give our artists a place to perform and to learn,” she said. “Now we’re talking about the future of survival.”

So what Wasserman and the Board of Directors at the Saidye Bronfman Centre and Segal Theatre have done is tried to bring in Montreal’s Anglophone audience by reproducing classic American plays.

“The transition from community to professional theatre has been tough,” she said. “Part of our mandate is to produce socially relevant plays.”

More importantly Wasserman finds that there needs to be a revival in interest in English language theatre in Montreal and she believes this can only be done by bringing out the best actors and artists to make the Segal Centre a thriving place for the arts.

“There’s one very important element and that’s an educated audience,” she said. “One that’s eager and hungry for good theatre."

The next logical step for the Segal Centre in its transformation into a performing arts destination in Montreal is by hosting many other events.

“November 23 we’re hosting a jazz concert at the Segal,” Wasserman added. Then she went on to discuss the centre’s association with the Montreal International Jazz Festival and their recent endeavours into cinema and dance.

“I learned the word survival, perseverance and dedication, which has led me to the place I’m at now” she said.

However the dilemma still remains for Wasserman and the Segal Centre as to how they can bring in a newer and younger audience so they can compete in a city with over 65 other theatres, which are mostly French.

“I think we need to instill in our youth a love for theatre,” she said.

‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ director Greg Kramer also thinks that this particular play is something that will resonate with the next generation of playwrights and actors and comments on how theatre is played down in the media as a place for amateurs.

“The only way to experience theatre is live,” he said. “You’re a witness to something that can’t be transcribed into any other medium.”