The Producers:
Producers
Ellen Peterson: Playwright, actor, educator, dramaturg
Ellen’s most recent play, None of This is Happening, was produced in the fall of 2022 by Theatre Projects Manitoba. Other plays produced include: Sense and Sensibility (RMTC), The Brink (PTE), The Eight Tiny Reindeer of the Apocalypse, and Tickle Trunk (Theatre Projects). As an actor, Ellen has appeared on almost all the stages in Winnipeg and in most of the school gyms in Manitoba. She’s a dramaturg, and has worked with many fine writers across the country. She teaches at Manitoba Theatre for Young People’s Theatre School, in school settings and at the university level. She was also, for a brief time, an improv comic in a bar.
www.ellenpetersonwebsite.wordpress.com
Lindsay Nance: Actor, educator, producer
A (re)transplant to Winnipeg, Lindsay has her MFA in Acting from the University of Tennessee and has spent the last 20 years in the USA teaching, acting, and producing. Highlighted credits across disciplines include teaching Movement for Actors at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (New York, NY). Developing and performing the role of Allison in the world premiere of The Open Hand, (The Clarence Brown Theatre). Producing Romeo & Juliet (GoShakes Theatre). Since returning to Winnipeg Lindsay has had the opportunity to act in a number of movies in Winnipeg’s thriving film scene and currently teaches acting at the University of Winnipeg. Fun fact: Ellen was one of her first directors and mentors when she was coming up at MTYP, making the opportunity to collaborate on this creative endeavor all the more wonderful!
Aaron Pridham is an Official Friend of the Free Theatre, and designed the logo.
Why do this?
This is no time to keep doing what’s been done. It’s time for radical change in what we do and how we do it. We’ve been noticing that theatre isn’t reaching the people that might get the most from it. We’ve noticed that artists aren’t getting enough work, and artists only become better artists by working.
We want to make art that can respond quickly to the world and reach its target audience while current events are still current. We want to make art that doesn’t cost so much to make and doesn’t waste resources. We want everyone to have a chance to do what they want and get back to why we got into this business in the first place. It wasn’t the money. It must have been love. If you love theatre, set it free.
“This is going to be fun.”
— Ellen Peterson
Our commitment
We pledge NOT to use the phrase “push the envelope,” because it is overused and dumb. What good is pushing an envelope? The envelope just gets further away. At any rate, the original and correct phrase, which was coined in the aerospace industry, is “push out the edges of the envelope.” That means you can get more in your envelope. But we are talking about theatre. To hell with the envelope.
Other words and phrases we are not using: in these challenging times, post-COVID landscape, innovative, boundary-pushing, and cutting-edge. We’re still considering zeitgeist. We’ll see how it goes.
The Free Theatre Winnipeg 