Winnipeg theatre companies’ diversity promises followed by mixed results

Some companies are still pushing back against diversity promises, artists say

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Two years after Manitoba's theatre industry made promises to increase the diversity of people working in the industry, local artists say they're not seeing changes from all companies.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/03/2022 (1602 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two years after Manitoba’s theatre industry made promises to increase the diversity of people working in the industry, local artists say they’re not seeing changes from all companies.

“I feel like it’s 50/50,” says Winnipeg actor Karam Daoud, who was born in Morocco and now lives in Winnipeg.

“Some people are hearing these things, listening and self-reflecting … What can we do better? While others are like … Whoa! Are you saying I’m racist?”

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre was one of many Winnipeg theatre companies to make a plan to increase diversity and inclusion in the theatre industry in 2020. (Jeff Stapleton / CBC)
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre was one of many Winnipeg theatre companies to make a plan to increase diversity and inclusion in the theatre industry in 2020. (Jeff Stapleton / CBC)

To read more of this story first reported by CBC News, click here.

 

This content is made available to Free Press readers as part of an agreement with CBC that sees our two trusted news brands collaborate to better cover Manitoba. Questions about CBC content can be directed to talkback@cbc.ca.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

West Kildonan Industrial residents call for speed bumps after child hit by truck

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Preview

West Kildonan Industrial residents call for speed bumps after child hit by truck

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:09 PM CDT

Residents in the West Kildonan Industrial neighbourhood are calling on the city to install speed bumps in their area after a child was hit and dragged by a vehicle Thursday.

Katelyn Bemister lives near the area where the child — who was hospitalized as a result of the incident and has been upgraded to stable condition — was struck. She says people frequently speed in the area.

“They’re going really fast, and they’re not really paying attention at all to the pedestrians in the area,” says Bemister.

In video supplied to the Free Press by a resident, the child can be seen riding a bike down a sidewalk along the 500 block of North Point Boulevard.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 3:09 PM CDT

Men’s recovery home dedicated to ‘homeless hero’ Faron Hall’s memory

Scott Billeck 14 minute read Preview

Men’s recovery home dedicated to ‘homeless hero’ Faron Hall’s memory

Scott Billeck 14 minute read Friday, Aug. 14, 2026

Faron Hall never got the chance to begin recovery. Once heralded as Winnipeg’s “homeless hero” after twice plunging into the Red River to save strangers from drowning, Hall told St. Boniface Street Links executive director Marion Willis shortly before his death in 2014 that he wanted help for his alcoholism.

Read
Friday, Aug. 14, 2026

Impaired driving victim honoured

Morgan Modjeski 5 minute read Preview

Impaired driving victim honoured

Morgan Modjeski 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:16 PM CDT

Ten years after he was killed in a collision involving an impaired driver in 2016, Robbie Anderson’s name has been added to MADD Canada’s Manitoba Memorial honouring those killed in drunk and drug-impaired-related crashes.

His older brother Chris Anderson, was one of two dozen people who gathered at the Glen Eden Funeral Home and Cemetery in West St. Paul Saturday to remember their loved ones, 86 victims whose names are etched into the granite monument near the heart of the graveyard.

“It’s heavy,” said Anderson when asked what it was like to be part of the ceremony and see his brother’s name added. “It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a while.”

Grateful for MADD’s work and its efforts to honour Robbie, who was 27 when he died, Anderson said his brother, represented the “absolute best of us.”

Read
Yesterday at 6:16 PM CDT

Puzzles Palace

1 minute read Monday, Jul. 27, 2026

To solve our puzzles, please subscribe with this special offer: |

WRHA directs three care homes to accommodate surge of hospital patients

Malak Abas 5 minute read Preview

WRHA directs three care homes to accommodate surge of hospital patients

Malak Abas 5 minute read Friday, Aug. 14, 2026

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has directed three long-term care centres to make space for hospital patients, citing “exceptionally high demand for care across the health-care system.”

Read
Friday, Aug. 14, 2026

Sea Bears finish on top

Joshua Frey-Sam 6 minute read Preview

Sea Bears finish on top

Joshua Frey-Sam 6 minute read Yesterday at 8:27 PM CDT

Beauty. Bliss. Ecstasy.

That is how Aug. 15, 2026 will be remembered in Winnipeg.

What was once a pipe dream in the city’s hoops community became an epic reality on Saturday, when Simon Hildebrandt, who grew up playing on the courts of this very town, made good on a three-pointer from the wing to crown the Winnipeg Sea Bears Canadian Elite Basketball League champions.

A storybook ending to a 98-84 victory over the Brampton Honey Badgers sent a CEBL attendance record of 12,519 fans into pandemonium at Canada Life Centre and capped a Finals run for the ages — one that was fraught with injury, impromptu player exits and unprecedented circumstances.

Read
Yesterday at 8:27 PM CDT