Mandate

Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre is a Victoria, BC based, incorporated, professional, non-profit theatre society that fosters community spirit and cultural awareness through play production and workshops and offers:
 

  • Significant creative, production and management opportunities to emerging professional theatre artists wishing to pursue a career in the arts
  • Opportunities for young actors, directors, writers, producers and other career professionals in this field to train for, participate in, and occupy major creative, production and administrative theatrical roles alongside established theatre artists
  • The opportunity for these artists to develop, exchange and experiment with new techniques and ideas in the theatre – particularly as these techniques and ideas relate to the production of those classic works drawn from, or new works inspired by, the European and North American theatre traditions;
  •  The opportunity to promote equity in our community by proactively engaging with historically underrepresented groups through the development of new works inspired by the ‘classics’ or ‘classic’ sources;
  • The audiences of Greater Victoria its own professional theatre company that focuses on these masterworks, or new works inspired bythe ‘classics’ or ‘classic’ sources.

Mission

Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre was founded on the belief that, no matter what their size, great cities deserve great theatre.

Boasting its own opera, symphony, public art gallery, professional theatre training institutions and a host of medium to smaller professional theatres, Victoria, BC (population approx. 350,000) is remarkable for the range and diversity of the professional arts activity that it supports.

Although the theatre audiences of Victoria have been well served when it comes to seeing the best professional Canadian, cutting edge and youth theatre, they have lacked a professional company that dedicates itself to presenting fresh interpretations of the great works from the past – the ‘classics’.

BBRT has filled this need. Based on the belief that vibrant cultures are those which view the present, past and future with equal energy and clarity, BBRT’s aim is to give Victoria based artists, technicians and administrators the opportunity to build a remarkable new theatre company that offers audiences timeless visions into the world’s great plays.

History

Led by Founding Artistic Director Brian Richmond, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre was founded in 2008 by a team of well-established and exciting early career theatre artists and educators.

BBRT has completed 11 critically-lauded and well-attended seasons. In this time the company has presented 47 multi-award-winning productions and/or events. Enthusiastically received by the public, the media, and the community-at-large, these seasons have;

 

  • drawn more than 100,000 audience members to its events and shows
  • seen BBRT win 17 and receive 36 nominations in the Victoria Theatre Critics’ Annual Spotlight Awards (Victoria’s only juried awards system)
  • offered more than 400 early career opportunities to young theatre artists, technicians and administrators who have recently graduated from Victoria, BC and Canadian theatre training institutions
  • injected more than $ 8 million directly into the support and sustainability of the Victoria arts community
  • seen BBRT hailed by local media as being the “most important cultural event to take place in Victoria in decades” (Times Colonist) and one that produces “work as good as any seen on any stage in Canada” (CBC)