Odyssey is strongly committed to creating and producing original Canadian work. We provide a forum for writers, designers, mask makers, musicians, performers and artists of diverse cultural traditions from across the country. We work with top national and international guest artists. The opportunities we offer are often not available elsewhere in Canada.

Odyssey is unique in Canada's landscape. Our mask and movement based work explores fundamental issues of the human spirit through myth, making it relevant for a contemporary adult audience.

We create an extraordinary theatrical language to interpret our themes, integrating physical theatre and text, fusing western traditions of masked performance with those of other cultures, and incorporating the arts of music, dance, Commedia dell'Arte, clown, bouffon, puppetry and Asian dance/drama. Our experimentation with artistic form is ongoing and rigorous, and reaches fruition in productions that are powerful, innovative and theatrically stunning.

Myth and Folklore
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Exploring myths and folk tales is of paramount importance in our creative endeavour. They are the most powerful way through which the human subconscious expresses itself. By exploring and critiquing these archetypal stories, we become conscious of their relevance to our personal destinies and to the shape of history and through that consciousness we can effect change.

This is an important role for artistic work in a world where human beings are increasingly compartmentalized and defined in terms of their role in supporting political and economic structures.... People are dehumanized in this world, as the freedom of the spirit and the fullness of human life are devalued and so lost.

Commedia dell'Arte
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Commedia dell'Arte, the Italian renaissance form of popular theatre, has been of importance to the artistic evolution of Odyssey Theatre. Commedia is the paradigm in western theatre of a theatre of masks: it explores human passions and obsessions, it is archetypal, physical and rhythmic. In Commedia, movement and physical action are of equal importance to text as the language of communication.

The medium we work in which, in a fundamental way, is defined by our use of masks, is an integral part of what we are saying on stage. Masks are a gateway to an imaginative world of dreams, where forces of the subconscious find expression; masks embody and call forth archetypes. Masks also command a theatrical approach of their own, one of movement, rhythm, music and play: these elements bring the theatre of masks to life.

Asian Dance-Drama
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To develop Odyssey further, Artistic Director Laurie Steven began to explore theatre forms from different cultures, particularly forms of Asian dance-drama. She studied in Asia with Ariane Mnouchkine whose world-renowned company, Théâtre du Soleil, specializes in this field. She also collaborated with Panda Dance Theatre in Toronto to integrate Commedia with Peking Opera. Their work culminated in the acclaimed productions of Turandot and Ondine which juxtapose the tragic and the absurd in human action and heighten the tension between the real world and the mystical one.

Odyssey provides a forum for writers, designers, mask makers, musicians, performers and artists of diverse cultural traditions from across the country, who wish to pursue work in our area of expertise. We work with top national and international guests artists.

Odyssey's productions address universal issues and archetypal situations in human experience.

We use masks to touch the universal in our experience and to create imaginative worlds on stage that liberate our thoughts and feelings from the boundaries of everyday life.

© 2007 Odyssey Theatre
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