Shoestring Players began in the 1960s as the Manitoba Speech Association (MSA), founded by members of the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Education, including Gus Kristjanson, Sheila Maurer, and Harold Turner. Originally, the group focused on promoting clear, confident speech as a prerequisite to teaching, acting, and communicating. The group presented Readers Theatre and community performances in schools, churches, seniors’ residences, and other venues across Manitoba.
MSA’s earliest projects included Christmas programmes, homecoming events at the University of Manitoba, and educational video recordings.
As time passed, the Manitoba Speech Association grew and became Shoestring Players as we know it today. Since its early days, Shoestring has dipped its toes into pantomime, melodramas, children’s plays, a radio play, and a campaign for the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission. Shoestring has also taken on adaptations of the plays of many brilliant and prolific playwrights, and participated in ten editions of the Master Playwright Festival, starting with 2007’s StoppardFest (featuring a fully equipped vintage dentist’s chair and hydraulics!) and continuing to the festival’s final season, ShakespeareFest, in 2020.
Shoestring has happily performed in myriad theatres, from the Manitoba Theatre for Young People to the Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Warehouse. We have staged all manner of plays, including classics.
Throughout it all, we have kept our communities close to our hearts, raising and donating over $20,000 over the course of our history to foundations like the Hospitality House Refugee Mission, the Women’s Canadian Club of Winnipeg, and multiple local churches. It has been a deeply rewarding experience.