Have you heard of The Theatre yet?

Tucked beneath a residential tower just off 17 Avenue, Calgary’s newest black box venue is stepping into its first official season. Simply called ‘The Theatre,’ the space seats fewer than 80 people and is co-led by Abagail Vanmerlin and Jakob Schaefer, who describe it as “something unique to Calgary — the kind of venue you might find in Toronto, Vancouver, or New York.”

Capacity shifts show-to-show, it can be anywhere from 40 to 80 seats.

The creative payoff of that scale, Jakob Schäefer says, is proximity: “Yes. The audience is very close. It’s almost like watching a film. Like it’s as close as the camera is in a movie. So you’re right up front.”

“The audience becomes part of the action sometimes… [it’s] this unique combination of almost film acting

See Full Page