Unwrap Theatre is one of the most exciting performing arts organizations in the Waterloo Region.  

2024 marks our fifth year of operation, beginning as a theatre company in 2019.  We quickly began incorporating concert dance and music and, during the COVID19 pandemic (where we tripled in size), innovative media work that led us to our current multi-disciplinary programming.  As an organization, we are now getting ahead of the returning state of the sector by building new infrastructures in audience accessibility and artist professional development to grow the struggling arts sector in the Waterloo Region and share its outputs across Canada.  

We are doing this by:

-Providing opportunities for artists to develop meaningful new work. 

-Facilitating the presentation of artists’ work to new audiences and community groups, with specific priority to populations that face barriers in accessing distinctive leading edge arts experiences offered to the general population.

-Helping artists to understand and gain experience in how to market themselves and successfully produce and present their own work.

For example, we first worked with artist Haley Dimeck in 2019 when we commissioned her first full length dance work, The Hidden Revealed.  Since, we have commissioned Haley to create Exhale, a work with media and dance suitable to the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic.  Haley has since produced and presented two of her own dance productions, in addition to work garnered with other organizations.  Most recently, we commissioned Haley to create ‘Dreaming in Colour’ for our Neighbourhood Series.  The live performance incorporates her dance and abstract painting practices.  The inspiring interactive experience, centering around our relationship to dreams, presented in the Waterloo Region and reached communities with learning disabilities, indigenous communities, and families living in crisis protection services.

To date, Unwrap Theatre has supported over 175 artists and brought together over 6000 community members.  We have produced over 30 productions and collaborated with over 15 other organizations like the CBC, Anishnabeg Outreach, and Women's Crisis Services of Waterloo Region to share artistic experiences with a diverse variety of communities.  These experiences include underrepresented stories, like our concert Longing for Argentina (2022), instigators for social justice, like our production/presentation of the film Weightless (2023), and opportunities to navigate difficult subject matter through comedy, like our play Dancing Under a Blanket (2019).  Unwrap Theatre has been nominated for local awards and voted Best Live Theatre Company by our local news’ Readers’ Choice Awards

Unwrap Theatre continues to bring more leading edge performances to more people in the Waterloo Region, connecting our community through curiosity, inspiration and entertainment.