SPOTLIGHT

NEW ENERGY AT VIDEOCABARET

Anand Rajaram is the new Artistic Director at the acclaimed theatre company VideoCabaret.

With the blessing of co-founder Michael Hollingsworth, the Board of VideoCabaret announced the new leadership team of Anand Rajaram as Artistic Director and Anthony Chung as Business and Development Manager of acclaimed theatre company VideoCabaret and The Deanne Taylor Theatre.

Founded in 1976 by Michael Hollingsworth and Deanne Taylor, VideoCabaret is an award-winning company renowned for its political satire and unique theatrical style. One of Canada’s most inventive, prolific and celebrated theatre ensembles, Hollingsworth and Taylor have created many enduring plays, devising spectacularly original styles of performance — black-box epics, multi-media cabarets, musicals, opera, and masquerades.

Michael Hollingsworth’s health struggles followed by Deanne Taylor’s death in 2020 left the board searching for the right person to lead the company into the future.

The board wanted a person who could honour the history of the company while building on that legacy to continue the presentations of relevant, unique, politically savvy work. The goal was to build a team that would engage with ‘the news’ while expanding Videocab’s creative and social range, inviting new communities into the Deanne Taylor Theatre at 10 Busy St.

As an actor, director, writer and a creative collaborator, Anand Rajaram has a remarkable shared history with VideoCabaret that goes back more than 25 years. Inspired by VideoCab’s “black box” production style, he performed in Michael and Deanne’s early plays and served as VideoCab’s first playwright in residence. His success since then as a multi-talented theatre creator has been entwined with the company’s evolution, from the back room of the Cameron House to the beautiful new VideoCab home in the east end.

Anand’s activities in his first year as Artistic Director will include: collaborating on a digital, living archive of the company’s 50-year history; establishing regular, civic engagement activities to bring the “cabaret” back to VideoCabaret; making the theatre technologically exciting for creative pioneers; playing in digital realms, honouring Deanne by presenting her work, and planning 50th anniversary celebration events.

Anand wasted little time making moves for VideoCabaret and this coming July for the first time, the theatre will be an official venue for the Toronto Fringe Festival, July 2-13.