Founded in 1988 through a merger of Centre Stage Company and Toronto Free Theatre, Canadian Stage is a contemporary performing arts organization. Canadian Stage produces, presents, commissions, and collaborates with partners to put on performances. The charity performs its stage performances at three Toronto venues: The Bluma Appel Theatre at TO Live; The Berkeley Street Theatre; and the High Park Amphitheatre. Other than its main performances, Canadian Stage runs education & outreach programs.

In F2020, Canadian Stage featured 14 new works, including six world premieres. It brought theatre and dance artists from five continents to support the performance of works including, The Book of Life, Let’s Run Away, and Minorities.

Through its education & outreach programs, Canadian Stage is committed to sharing its performances with people to enrich the experience for the audience. Canadian Stage runs student and educator workshops, and artist mentorship programs. In F2020, 795 students attended performances with discounted tickets and 749 educators participated in educational workshops. The charity partners with York University to support the next generation of talent. Every year, a group of York theatre students help on stage, backstage, and on creative teams for Canadian Stage’s Shakespeare in High Park production. This gives students the opportunity to work with industry professionals in performance, design, production, and stage management.

Canadian Stage received donations and special events revenues of $3.1m in F2019. The charity also collected $2.3m in box office revenue in F2019. Administrative costs are 9% of total revenues (excluding investment income) and fundraising costs are 17% of total donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, 75 cents go to its programs. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Canadian Stage has $1.9m in cash and funds held in trust and $212k in bank debt. Net reserves of $1.6m could cover annual program spending at the F2019 level for three months. However, almost all reserves are donor-endowed, reducing the charity’s net, non-donor endowed program cost coverage ratio to less than zero.

Ci has sent this profile update to Canadian Stage for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 24, 2021, by Shira Wine.