Video Auto-biography
In the Fall of 2020, when I announced my intention to retire as Artistic Director of Infinithéâtre, I was asked by a Montreal theatre club to retrace, in zoomed encounters, my journey through and with Canadian theatre. The result was over four hours, in three separate sections, of what I call “verbal selfies”. They are improvised and a little messy, but actually kinda fun. No mistaking my passion for theatre.
Chapter One ends with the founding of the Half Moon Theatre in January of 1972.
Chapter Two covers the great theatre we created at the Half Moon, 1972-1976. (For a separate video on this period, see link below to 2017 Half Moon Heritage Project. “Stages Of The Half Moon” )
Chapter Three covers my return to Canada, the challenges as a free-lance director and the adventures running the Toronto Free Theatre, including the 1983 founding of the Dream In High Park, the outdoor Shakespeare amphi-theatre that by 2000 had already permitted over a million Torontonians to enjoy accessible and affordable Shakespeare al fresco. The verbal selfies end with the high-jacking of the newly-founded Canadian Stage company by the Board of Directors. A major event in the evolution of Toronto and Canadian theatre that still has repercussions today. A planned further chapter to relate the Infinitheatre journey will be taped when time permits.
Stages Of The Half Moon:
Guy Sprung
Co-founder, Artistic Director, 1972 – 1975
Guy co-founded Half Moon Theatre in 1972 with Maurice Colbourne and Michael Irving and was the first Artistic Director. He directed the opening production of In the Jungle of the Cities. Other productions he directed included Will Wat, If Not, What Will?, Fall In and Follow Me, Get Off My Back, Ripper!, The 3p Off Opera and Paddy. He also directed the community productions Spare Us a Copper and Driving Us Up the Wall.
Before joining Half Moon Theatre, Guy was Assistant Director at the Schiller Theatre in Berlin. He returned to his native Canada in 1975, where he has been involved with many companies, including Artistic Director of the Toronto Free Theatre, founder of the outdoor Shakespeare in High Park, co-founder and first sole Artistic Director of The Canadian Stage Company, an Associate Director at the Stratford Festival and interim Artistic Director of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company. He is currently Artistic Director of Infinithéâtre.