Our History
How it all started...
In 1982, Founding Artistic Director, Greg Wanless, together with a passionate group of community members, purchased the Gananoque Canoe Club from the local Rotary Club. The historic building, originally built in 1909, was converted into a 350-seat proscenium theatre right on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, and named Thousand Islands Playhouse.
The Playhouse’s first season featured a comedy (On Golden Pond), a classic (The Comedy of Errors), and a musical (The Beggar’s Opera). The Playhouse productions, reputation, and audiences began to grow.
In 2000, the original building was renamed the Springer Theatre, in recognition of the Springer family’s incredible patronage and support of the organization.
The Firehall Theatre was added as a second performance space in 2004. Originally built as the Gananoque Armoury in 1913, the building also served as the local fire and police station before becoming the second venue for the Playhouse.
This 130-seat black box theatre presents a range of theatrical styles and genres and is used for many community events and concerts throughout the year.
Under Greg’s leadership and together with Associate Artistic Director Kathryn MacKay, TIP grew from a three-show season to seven-show, two-venue, not-for-profit theatre.
Ashlie Corcoran became the second Artistic Director in the Playhouse’s history in 2012. During her five-year tenure, Corcoran expanded programming to include large-scale musicals, screwball comedies, and contemporary, international, and classical works.
Since 2017, Brett Christopher has led the Playhouse as Managing Artistic Director, providing creative opportunities for more than 1000 professional actors, directors, designers, and stage managers from across the country, as well as hundreds of youth in the region. Under his leadership the organization’s annual operating budget has grown from $1.8 million to $4.2 million, now attracting more than 48,000 people to Gananoque, Ontario each year.
All three of our spaces: The Firehall Theatre, Springer Theatre, and Production Facility have undergone improvements since they opened thanks to the generous support of our patrons, community members, and Board.
In 2020, Former Board Chair, Bob Thomas spearheaded a matching-donation campaign to renovate the Firehall Theatre’s green rooms and in 2024, Catherine and John Macdonald made the beautiful Springer Theatre lobby renovations possible.
Most recently, the Production Facility was expanded, increasing the footprint to 21,000 sqft, housing a new rehearsal hall, green room, set storage, and scenic paint shop.
