When Encore Theatre artistic director Callam Rodya received a $14,500 cheque from the Ontario Arts Council last week, it was like “winning the lottery.”
“I'm looking at this cheque, and I'm thinking 'This is the biggest cheque I've ever seen, and it's for art,'” he said.
The theatre company specializes in producing edgy, alternative plays. For example, this past season, Rodya starred with his mom, Valerie Senyk, in "The Monument", which centres on the dark side of humanity exposed while surviving war.
It also presented "Alphonse", a one-person show starring France Huot, who plays an imaginative little boy who becomes lost in the woods.
Although Encore has been ambitious in its offerings, it's also been operating on a shoestring budget since it was founded nearly three years ago, Rodya said.
The grant will go towards supporting one of the troupe's 2014 mainstage productions. Rodya's not yet ready to reveal what exactly play that will be — next year's play schedule will be announced Jan. 24, 2014.
“We've kind of gotten used to scaling back our concept for the work that we do and paying people just a pittance,” he said. “It kind of means a complete shift in the way that we operate and produce theatre.”
Receiving the Ontario Arts Council grant was a “magical” and “emotional” moment for Encore, Rodya said.
“It's a real milestone to kind of finally be recognized by your peers in Ontario that your work is worthy of public funding,” he said.
“It is based on peer review. It's taken us a long time to convince the various juries and the various panels that analyze these grant applications that we are in fact here for the long haul, and the work that we do is important.”
To learn more about Encore Theatre, visit encoretheatre.ca.