June 24, 2010
CERCLE MOLIÈRE THEATRE OFFICIALLY OPENS
A new $9.7 million facility that houses Canada's oldest continually operating theatre company was officially opened today by the Honourable Greg Selinger, the Honourable Vic Toews and Mayor Sam Katz.
"The new Cercle Molière Theatre is an innovative landmark and an architectural backdrop for the French-language theatre scene, one that is to be enjoyed by Manitobans and tourists," said Premier Selinger. "The theatre is a great source of pride for the French-speaking community of Manitoba and will be the showcase of Manitoba's Francophone arts and culture community. I commend the Centre culturel franco-manitobain (CCFM), Cercle Molière, and the Francophone community for all their work in building this remarkable theatre."
The Premier noted the theatre strengthens the efforts of the French community to preserve Francophone heritage and promote French-language arts and culture for the benefit of all Manitobans.
"The Government of Canada is proud to have invested in the construction of the new Cercle Molière Theatre," said Public Safety Minister Toews, Member of Parliament (Provencher), on behalf of the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages. "This first-class venue is a tremendous asset to Manitoba's Francophone and arts and culture communities. This new theatre will serve as a meeting place for Francophones and for all those who want to share the French language and culture from Winnipeg, Manitoba and across Canada. It will also provide more opportunities for the public to attend high-quality performances in a state of the art facility. We wish the Cercle Molière continued success."
"The City of Winnipeg is pleased to be a partner in the construction of the new Cercle Molière Theatre," said Mayor Katz. "As our country's oldest permanent theatre company, I want to thank all of the stakeholders and the entire Francophone community for their passion and dedication in continuing this important and historic expression of Francophone culture in our city."
"We have been working towards this moment since 1992, when the need for the Cercle Molière to have a space of our own was first expressed," said Paul McKenna, the President of Cercle Molière. "We are so proud of the result, of this jewel located in the heart of Saint-Boniface, of this significant addition to our province's cultural landscape. We especially want to recognize our community partners, our funders, our fund raising committee, our dedicated staff and many friends and contributors."
The new theatre is built on the site of the Centre culturel franco manitobain (CCFM) at 340 Provencher Blvd.
"The CCFM is proud to welcome the Cercle Molière Theatre to our Centre," said CCFM President Gérald Clément. "Our mission is to foster French arts and culture in Manitoba, and we couldn't think of a better way to do that then to help establish a state of the art theatre centre in St. Boniface. This theatre is the result of the hard work of our many partners and is something all Manitobans can be proud of."
The Cercle Molière was first established in 1925 by a group from St. Boniface. For the past eight decades, it has presented countless theatrical offerings as a professional theatre group in order to promote French-language dramatic arts in Manitoba.
For more information on Cercle Molière visit: www.cerclemoliere.com.
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Backgrounder
Cercle_Moliere.doc - https://www.gov.mb.ca/asset_library/en/newslinks/2010/6/Cercle_Moliere.doc