Burning Passions Theatre is an Ottawa-based professional theatre company with a commitment to employing the arts to build and transform communities, working at all levels to provide professional development, training, mentorship, and unique theatrical opportunities to a wide range of artists from at-risk youth to veteran Canadian talent, while committing to the highest standards of artistic practice.
Founded in Toronto in 1997 with a mandate to produce both professional productions and theatre projects in the community, the company moved to Perth in 2010 to expand our professional programming and to enhance our community engagement activities.
From 2010-2019, we presented the Classic Theatre Festival during the summer months, staging hits from Broadway and the London Stage while celebrating Perth’s unique heritage and history. We also presented Listen Up!, an annual Rural Youth Theatre Training Program in Lanark County that produced both a touring show with at-risk young people, as well as Perth through the Ages and The Lonely Ghosts Walk, annual theatrical historic walking plays that animated the downtown core of Perth during the summer.
In 2020, the company moved to Ottawa with a view to relaunching the Festival post-pandemic in the nation’s Capital. The Classic Theatre Festival ran for two summers in 2022 and 2023 at Arts Court Theatre in downtown Ottawa.
Following a strategic review of our company’s programming, the board and management created a new plan to further engage with the Ottawa community, providing professional mentorships, new play development (the Playwrights Circle), training support to local artists, along with professional and community in the theatre productions. In 2024 the company launched the Seniors Sharing Stories program, (part of the company’s Community in the Theatre mandate). This resulted in a new play for and by seniors, A Circle of Care, followed by another new play in 2025, A Circle of Time. Both projects were in partnership with Rideau Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre.
Providing both artistic and economic stimulus as well as community empowerment, we engage in theatre to enhance community involvement, commit to artistic excellence and support the creation and development of new Canadian theatre works and playwrights.
A registered charity, Burning Passions Theatre is governed by a volunteer board of directors, and managed by Artistic Producer Laurel Smith, and Associate Producer Matthew Behrens.