Marlene Smith is a founding member of the Hart House Theatre Standing Committee and has supported the theatre for many years. Her participation has helped to provide students with excellent co-curricular and experiential learning opportunities and has augmented the theatre’s standing in the performing arts community. She has served on several cultural boards: St Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Shaw Festival, Studio180, and has been the recipient of the Prestigious Silver Ticket Award, for outstanding contribution to Canadian Theatre.
“I guess you’d say I started ‘show biz’ on the stage of Hart House, in the chorus of Skule Nite. At that point in time, there were not enough women in Engineering at U of T, so a few of us were helping out! However, it was my least favourite job in the business …. It’s much more fun to be backstage or be a Producer. I found out in a hurry that it was no fun at all being a 5’4” chorus gal in a 5’7” lineup. Several years later, I was fortunate to produce a few shows at Hart House Theatre – including Arsenic and Old Lace with Kate Reid and Charmione King and four years of DQ (a popular fund raiser for Casey House) with the top drag talent in Toronto.
Over the years I have produced about 60 shows and have enjoyed them all. I have worked in numerous theatres throughout the city and consider our Hart House Theatre among the most important and historical theatres in the city core.
It is exceptional to have a career that you love during most of your life. The opening of CATS was, of course, a phenomenon! A Broadway show had arrived to be produced in Toronto, opening the only functioning double decker theatre in the world – The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres, still actively involved in live productions.”
Today, Marlene awaits the opening of the Theatre Museum of Canada in 2020. As the Chairperson of this venture, she hopes many will enjoy this new facility, ‘Let the Memories Live On’.
