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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-CA">From
Canvas to Stage<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span lang="EN-CA">The
Group of Seven and Contemporaries at Hart House Theatre</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><span
lang="EN-CA">Toronto</span></st1:City></st1:place><span lang="EN-CA">
– Inventiveness was the name of the game at Hart House Theatre in
its earliest days when such artistic innovators as Arthur Lismer,
Lawren Harris,
J.E.H. Macdonald, and A.Y. Jackson took to the stage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style=""> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA">For the first time, set designs
and
paintings by Group of Seven members and their contemporaries are
juxtaposed
with work from the Hart House Permanent Collection to shed light on
this little
known period of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s
art history in the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery from Sept. 6 to <st1:date
month="10" day="1" year="2005" w:st="on">Oct. 1, 2005</st1:date>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style=""> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA">Jackson, Lismer, Harris, and
MacDonald were
integral to the aesthetic that defined the designs of Hart House
Theatre during
the 1920s.<span style=""> </span>Together with Roy Mitchell,
the first director of the Theatre, the artists worked to
re-conceptualize stage
design, resulting in innovative interior sets and painted backdrops.<span
style=""> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA">Lismer took a leading role at
the theatre,
acting as art director for the 1924-25 season, and creating a Stage
Design
course at the Ontario College of Art where students generated ideas and
constructed sets for Hart House Theatre.<span style="">
</span>Future stage designers including Fred Coates and Pegi Nicol
McLeod
followed their lead, creating inventive images and environments for
plays
throughout the 1930s.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA">The exhibition will include an
eight-foot
square painted silk drop, part of a set attributed to Lismer, as well
as a set
rendering by MacDonald for the <i style="">Chester
Mysteries</i> of 1920.<span style=""> </span>Photographs and
playbills from the Hart House Theatre will help bring these images to
life, as
will the painted sketches for set designs by Coates, and the paintings
of McLeod.<span style=""> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA">This exhibition allows viewers
to see the
importance of both stage design and oil painting to the development of
these
Group of Seven artists, as resources from the Archives and the Hart
House
Theatre are shown alongside paintings taken from the Hart House
Permanent
Collection.<span style=""> </span><i style="">From Canvas to Stage</i>
provides a rare opportunity to see a period
when <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Toronto</st1:City></st1:place>
artists were greatly involved with the city’s theatrical pursuits.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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