Our name

The name temenos is taken from a Greek word meaning the sacred space surrounding a temple or an altar.

Carl Jung used this same word to refer to the inner space deep within us where soul-making takes place.

Company Mandate

temenos exists to cultivate excellence and virtuosity in all aspects of its theatrical activity in Quebec, Canada and beyond, through an emphasis on ensemble work; a commitment to train and develop dedicated theatre artists; and the development, creation, adaptation and production of distinct, contemporary and culturally inclusive works.

Mission

To develop, produce and present compelling live performances which resonate with contemporary preoccupations, and to develop, support and challenge performers and other creative theatre artists.

Artistic Policy

Company History

temenos, a not-for-profit theatre company was incorporated in January 2003. Its roots reach back more than a year prior to that when Artistic Director Kate Bligh first brought together an ensemble of actors to train in a spectrum of techniques including the disciplines of Rudolph Laban, Uta Hagen and Jerzy Grotowski. This ensemble work still continues today.

Following a public launch in January 2003, temenos invited British director Barry Edwards and members of his company, Optik, to visit Canada for the first time and present a two week workshop hosted by Concordia University. The workshop took place in May 2003 and was followed by three public outcomes. The first was presented outdoors on the Esplanade of the Place des Arts and the two others were presented at the Black Watch Drill Hall with the added participation of a live video artist and 5 electro-acoustic musicians who, along with the 14 actors, improvised a spontaneous movement performance piece: xstasis.

In November 2003 temenos presented 18 performances of Crave by Sarah Kane at the Studio Theatre of the Monument-National. The critically acclaimed production was directed by Kate Bligh and featured Lucas Fehr, Carmen Grant, Sadia Mahmood and John Mounsteven in the parts of B, M, C and A. The performance also included original music by Tomas Phillips and John Phillips. This was the première of Crave and indeed of any of Sarah Kane’s plays in English in Quebec.

Through January-August 2004 the company held training sessions and workshops as part of the adaptation and preparation process for their bilingual production of Le Songe / Dreamplay. Rehearsals for this piece began in September and it opened for a 15-performance run at Théâtre La Chappelle on November 16 2004. This was the company's most ambitious project so far, for which they received the financial support for the production from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association.

Since that time, the company has been in production hiatus, whilst artistic director Kate Bligh continued her work in the areas of new play development, her own writing, and research in Laban-Grotowski performer training.

temenos is pleased to announce its upcoming production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh, to be presented in January 2011.