Hoping to hit its mark: MTYP launches campaign to ‘expand and renew’ facility
Manitoba Theatre for Young People (MTYP) has launched a multi-million dollar campaign it hopes will keep the stage lights on for future generations.
The $9 million Play It Forward campaign includes plans for facility improvements, new productions, and debt elimination.
“There’s the changes to the space which are not just going to improve the facility, and this building, but also the creation of rituals and theatre which are perfect for those works that you just want 40, or 50 people there, because of the nature of the show, because it’s for very, very young children and their parents. So that is something that we haven’t been able to do yet,” said MTYP’s artistic director Pablo Felices-Luna.
$6.5 million has been allocated for infrastructure investments which will focus on accessibility, and includes an enhanced quiet room, a studio transformation, and other key additions.
“Accessibility is baked into our work, because kids with sensory needs, kids with mobility issues, kids who are neurodivergent are in our audiences, so we need to make the work accessible to them and to everyone who wants to come to the theatre,” Felices-Luna said.
$1 million has also been earmarked for a new production fund which will support play development, something Felices-Luna believes is important for the evolution of the theatre.
“Children and young people change very fast and the work that we make for them has to change at the same pace, so we want to engage in new works, new stories, and, of course, in adaptations of new classics,” said Felices-Luna.
According to a release, the campaign’s first priority was to eliminate the $1.5 million accumulated by the theatre between 1998 and 2012, a mission that it has now officially achieved.
As for when the proposed work is going to begin, Felices-Luna says it’s going to start very soon, and he hopes in “12, 18 months, people can come see all of the incredible things that can happen in the building.”
Meantime, MTYP says the campaign has already raised $7.5 million - an accomplishment Felices-Luna says the theatre is thrilled about. But the organization still needs the help of the community to achieve its ultimate $9 million fundraising goal.
“If you ask anybody who runs long distance, it’s the last stretch which is the hardest. So that’s why we are so excited to be coming out to the community to say look at how far we’ve come, we’re almost there. Please help us cross the finish line,” said Felices-Luna.
MTYP also announced the company Payworks has committed to matching all new gifts donated up to $500,000.
Around 90,000 Manitobans take in productions, presentations, and other activities at MTYP annually.
With files from CTV’s Carie Wilson
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Drive one of these vehicles? You may pay 37 per cent more than average insurance costs due to thefts
As the number of auto theft incidents rises in Canada, so have insurance premiums for drivers, even the ones whose vehicles aren't stolen.
Israel's war cabinet minister moves to dissolve parliament: statement
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz's centrist party has proposed holding a vote to dissolve parliament in a bid to bring about an early election, his party said in a statement on Thursday.
'I'm not wealthy': Ontario senior shocked she owes $40,000 in capital gains after gifting land
An Ontario senior who wanted to help her daughter and grandson eventually own homes one day decided to give them two lots on her property as a gift—but she didn’t know it would eventually cost her tens of thousands of dollars.
DEVELOPING BMO clients face outages in Canada, U.S. following data centre fire alarm
Bank of Montreal clients on both sides of the border Thursday morning have reported outages with banking services. BMO said its technical team is investigating.
Exorbitant fees get Gazans out with no help from Ottawa
The comforting sound of giggling grandchildren has chased away the cloud of anxiety that has loomed over Mohammed and Intisar Nofal's home for the past seven months.
Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., begins RBC Canadian Open defence
Nick Taylor begins the defence of his RBC Canadian Open title this morning.
B.C. mortgage broker ran $270-million Ponzi scheme, then fled Canada, bankruptcy trustee says
The trustee appointed to manage the bankruptcies of a Victoria mortgage company and its owner has concluded that they committed "numerous offences" and operated as a "massive Ponzi scheme."
Want to turn off Meta AI? You can't - but there are some workarounds
If you use Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram, you've probably noticed a new character pop up answering search queries or eagerly offering tidbits of information in your feeds, with varying degrees of accuracy.
opinion Trump's Republicans falling far behind in fundraising, infrastructure
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, Washington political analyst Eric Ham explains how and why Republicans -- up and down the ballot -- are falling far behind Democrats in both fundraising and infrastructure.