Our Mission

Talk Is Free Theatre is an artist-driven, award winning theatre company based in Barrie. The company was founded in 2003 by Artistic Producer Arkady Spivak and has produced nearly fifty productions concentrating largely on new and neglected work.

Some of the productions include The Inspector General (at Barrie City Hall), The Marriage, The Tale of Ivan vs. Ivan all by Nikolai Gogol; Accidental Death of An Anarchist by Dario Fo, Canadian musicals Harvest Moon Rising, Colette: The Colours of Love, Emily (two productions), Variations on a Nervous Breakdown (World Premiere), Playground (World Premiere), Napoleon (In Concert) among others; productions of Canadian plays This Is a Play, Tales of an Urban Indian (held on a moving city bus for a total of 70 performances). Other notable productions include the Canadian premieres of highly acclaimed Anyone Can Whistle (In Concert) by Arthur Laurents & Stephen Sondheim and Myths and Hymns by Adam Guettel; the North American Premiere of Trees Die Standing Tall written by Alejandro Casona in 1949; first Canadian regional production of the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman; and productions by local writers of world premieres - Chaplin: About Face, Laughton Common and Redemption.

Most recently, Talk Is Free Theatre’s co-production of Assassins (with Birdland Theatre) won the Dora Mavor Moore Award – for Outstanding Production of a Musical, which is due to be revived in January 2011.

"There are certainly larger organizations than Barrie’s Talk Is Free Theatre and ones with bigger budgets, but I doubt that any of them deliver the bang for the buck that this enterprising gang and its visionary artistic director, Arkady Spivak, consistently does." Richard Ouzounian, The Toronto Star.

About TALK IS FREE THEATRE INC.

We concentrate primarily on theatrical works that have enjoyed a fractured production history. This includes styles and forms of theatre that are still in search of a wider audience. We continue to be especially concerned with the evolution of Canadian Musicals as a distinct theatrical form and the re-examination of classics from the International and Canadian repertoire.

Artistic Producer Arkady Spivak was the recipient of the inaugural Barrie Arts Award for Excellence in the Arts. Our long-time supporter, North American Centre Corp, won the prestigious 2008 Globe & Mail Award (First Dance)through Business for the Arts.

The Press on Talk Is Free Theatre’s previous productions

"There are certainly larger organizations than Barrie’s Talk Is Free Theatre and ones with bigger budgets, but I doubt that any of them deliver the bang for the buck that this enterprising gang and its visionary artistic director, Arkady Spivak, consistently does." Richard Ouzounian, The Toronto Star.