Winnipeg Studio Theatre has announced a new chapter with the appointment of a new artistic leadership duo.
The company announced last week that Kara Joseph will assume the title of artistic director and producer while Vinnie Alberto will be taking on the roles of managing director and artistic associate. In a post on their Instagram page, the company cited the duo’s “wealth of creativity, passion, and dynamic leadership”.
“Winnipeg Studio Theatre has played such a fundamental role in the Winnipeg theatre community, and to be trusted with a position like this, especially at a younger age than you would typically find someone with this title, it was an incredible honour and a great privilege,” said Alberto in a conversation on Morning Light.
The company’s fundamental role as a developer of young talent is something that Joseph experienced firsthand. “I was a part of their StudioWorks program as a young adult in 2018, and to be able to continue this legacy and bring it forward into a new era is really exciting,” she says, citing the program’s training in stagecraft and professional development as building blocks for her to confidently take the next steps into the professional theatre realm.
The company’s legacy of developing young voices has been one of its calling cards in the Manitoba theatre ecosystem since it was first founded in 2006. Joseph has taken her developmental experience and turned it into a thriving, multi-faceted arts career that includes performances at Rainbow Stage and Manitoba Theatre for Young People as well as serving as training programs coordinator with Creative Manitoba. Alberto, meanwhile, has parlayed his training into credits across Canada with the Charlottetown and Shaw Festivals.
Both Joseph and Alberto see that development angle as the key for Winnipeg Studio Theatre as they start their tenure. The duo already has plans to institute new training and performance opportunities for aspiring theatre workers ranging from high school students to emerging professionals. “We’re very driven towards giving people their first opportunities,” says Alberto. “We want to amplify their voice and give them a platform to be themselves.”
With the development of younger theatre voices at the forefront comes a desire to produce material that gives voice to their views of the world. Winnipeg Studio Theatre has long had a pedigree of producing projects that are both diverse and challenging experiences for audiences, and this is something that Joseph is keen to continue. “I think the thing that we have noted is that in a political climate that can sometimes be very contentious, in a place where not everyone feels heard and seen, we want Winnipeg Studio Theatre to be a place where you are heard and you have value, no matter what,” she says.
In order to make these ambitious projects come to fruition in an always-challenging arts sector, Alberto notes that the new leadership team is excited to explore new collaborations with other groups across the city, and that those dialogues are aided by their previous artistic projects. “We’re quite good friends with folks that are running other theatre companies,” he smiles, noting that those friends are also juggling multiple roles in Winnipeg’s theatre ecosystem. “As much as they wear the hats of artistic director and managing director... they ‘re also our friends and we can go and share a cocktail together and talk about theatre. And if something comes up, you’re like, ‘Hey, let’s do this together!’”