About Us
Mandate
"The best way to arm tomorrow's citizenry is with the desire and skills to understand their Canadian heritage" Former Premier, Peter Lougheed
Canadiana Musical Theatre Company creates and performs theatrical musicals drawn from pivotal events in Canadian history that nurture a passion and love for Canadian heritage. With zest, wit, farce, dance, and high drama these musician/actors present key figures from history in a vibrant engaging manner for students and teachers alike.
About the Director
Allen Desnoyers
Artistic Director - Composer - Playwright - Musical Director
Nominated for three Jessie Richardson awards for outstanding work as an actor, musical director, and composer, Allen has been involved in theatre for twenty years launching several theatre companies that continue to this day, including Vancouver's Pacific Theatre, Toronto's Brookstone Theatre, and the Rosebud dinner theatre in Alberta . A keen interest in the stories of Canadians inspired Allen to create a theatre company dedicated to those stories and the Canadiana Musical Theatre Company is that result.
Plays & Compositions
An interest in history has inspired a number of original plays and musical productions.
Beginning in the eighties, Allen launched the highly successful Rosebud Dinner Theatre by transforming an abandoned community hall into a theatre and producing his two-act musical about a depression-era farmer, “When the Sun Meets the Earth”.
Upon the heels of pioneering that theatre, he co-founded Vancouver’s Pacific Theatre producing a play about Johann Sebastian Bach told from the point of view of his son. A classically trained pianist, he learned early music style harpsichord for his one-man show, Friedemann Variations, which also enjoyed a run at Orlando Theatre projects in Orlando, Florida.
Commissioned by the Chemainus Arts Council to write songs for their tenth anniversary celebrations, he presented a show called Over Deepest Blue, a collection of songs about Chemainus history that was also sold as an audio recording.
The Birth of British Columbia, a musical about the Cariboo goldrush which explored the experiences of immigrant gold miners, was performed over five hundred times across British Columbia.
In 1999, hired by Dawson City’s Palace Grande Theatre for their 100th anniversary, he performed over a hundred shows in the legendary Klondike town where he wrote music to honour Arizona Charlie Meadows, the man who had built the theatre.
In 2000, he was nominated for a Jessie Richardson award for best original score for his music for the production Dreams of Kings and Carpenters and launched The Birth of the C.P.R., a musical that has toured over 500 performances across Western Canada, from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
"The Blackfoot and the Redcoats", his musical about the N.W.M.P. in Blackfoot territory premiered in Alberta in Spring of 2004 and toured across British Columbia and Saskatchewan before returning to Alberta in the winter of 2005 (including a performance on the Siksika (Blackfoot) reserve).
He is currently developing a show for 2006 about the Klondike gold rush featuring rag time music.
Performance
He has toured across North America and Europe. In Canada, he has also performed in Halifax, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Regina, Saskatoon, and nearly every city in British Columbia including the Playhouse, Vogue Theatre, Pacific Theatre, Bard on the Beach, Gateway Theatre, Presentation House, and James Cowan Theatre (all in the lower mainland); the Royal Theatre (Victoria), Sunshine Theatre (Kelowna), Theatre Royal (Barkerville), Chemainus Theatre (Chemainus), Cowichan Theatre (Duncan), Evergreen Theatre (Powell River), Arts Centre (Prince George), Terrace Community Theatre (Terrace) Performing Arts Centre (Prince Rupert), as well as a summer in Dawson City, Yukon at both the Palace Grande Theatre, and Diamond Tooth Gerties.
Musical Director
As a musical director, he has worked with some of Canada's best known actors including R.H. Thomson and Albert Schultz (Soulpepper theatre artistic director). Musical director credits include Theatre Royal in Barkerville, Palace Grande Theatre in Dawson City, Chemainus Theatre, as well as live music co-ordinator for Bard on the Beach, Vancouver.
Record Producer
His recording and producing work has taken him from Bath, England to Nashville, Tennessee and he has produced 3 albums independently as a singer-songwriter.
