Fonds UAA Fonds 0528 - Theatre Three Fonds

Theatre 3 was a theatre company founded in 1970 by Mark Schoenberg and Anne Green. As a professor of theatre at the University of Alberta Dr. Schoenberg supported the idea of an alternative to the Citadel Theatre and the Walterdale Theatre. He saw a need to implement what he and his department were teaching and he brought to the company a mandate of developing new plays, local talent, and less commercial work. He directed many of the company's early productions including Brendan Behan's The Hostage and the Canadian professional premiere of Harold Pinter's Old Times. Schoenberg and Edmonton actress Green registered the company as a non-profit organization gaining financial support from a number of Edmontonians. The company had a board of directors that included Leslie Green (Ann's father), Mark and Judy Schoenberg, and accountant Mark Johnson. They secured Drew Borland to design the first productions. Keith Digby succeeded Schoenberg when the latter took a position at the CBC in 1978. The company began playing in a 90-seat venue at Victoria Composite high school, moved to the Centenial Library theatre, and finally graduated to its own house in 1976. It ran until 1981 when it could no longer maintain its debt load of approximately $800,000. Keith Digby worked quickly to form the Phoenix Theatre as Theatre 3's successor. So quickly that the latter company used the same office space and even the same telephone number.