1946–1949 · CBC Trans-Canada Network

CBC Stage, Toronto

Canada's national theatre, made of sound

Andrew Allan took over CBC drama in 1943 and built, out of a Toronto studio and a repertory company of Canadian actors, the closest thing the country has ever had to a national theatre. Stage ran on Sunday nights on the Trans-Canada Network, commissioning original Canadian scripts from writers such as Len Peterson alongside adaptations of the classics, and it made careers: Lorne Greene, Jane Mallett, Tommy Tweed, John Drainie, a very young Lloyd Bochner. Almost all of it is held by Library and Archives Canada under restricted terms and cannot be streamed. What sits here is what escaped into the public domain — three broadcasts, no more, and the only Stage most listeners will ever be able to hear.

3 broadcasts · 3 seasons held · Toronto