Distillery resident Martin Bragg is ready for the curtain to rise once more.

Bragg is the artistic producer of the Canadian Stage Company, or CanStage. He’s been with the company for 15 of the 20 years of its history. Bragg is considered one of the pioneers of Toronto theatre and one of Canada’s foremost cultural leaders.

He was a vital participant in the early days of local theatre, when he worked with Toronto Workshop Productions and Factory Theatre, and took “Billy Bishop Goes to War” on tour. “I was only about 22 or 23 at the time,” he remembers. Since then, he has played every possible role, from acting and directing to set building and producing original Canadian productions.

Bragg speaks proudly of the artistic highlights and achievements during his time and is “a firm believer in life going in circles”—especially in the intimate circle of Toronto actors.

For example, Bragg works with many actors more than once. For example, Bragg worked with Eric Peterson, of recent Corner Gas fame, “in 1977 when he had just done “Billy Bishop Goes to War”, I think it was at Factory.” Bragg had the opportunity to mount the 25th anniversary of the play at CanStage, and later directed the production on tour. He jokes that Peterson had “never been old enough to play the old Bishop, but now he’s too old to play the young Bishop.” Peterson also came back for the production of “Half Life” from last year’s CanStage season.

In addition to big-name actors, Bragg includes many big-name shows on his Berkeley St. theatre resume, including “Angels in America,” a show that ran for 42 weeks in the small theatre, then toured to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. At the time, to run a play for a year—“It was unheard of,” he states.

“I have a very special place in my heart for all of our theatres here, but in particular this theatre at Berkeley St.—250 seats,” explains Bragg. “I call it [like] the ‘home theatre’ because it almost is like sitting there in front of a 50-inch television screen because it’s not a lot of seats but a huge stage.”

Bragg likes to produce what he calls important plays, such as “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia” by Edward Albee. “I’ve never been a huge fan of fluff,” he says, and believes that the company’s current talent pool of writers, directors and actors “are as good or better than anybody else in the world.” He is particularly proud of the new plays and new playwrights that debuted here, “from Adam Peddle to Brad Fraser.”

Not all of Bragg’s CanStage memories are set in Toronto. Bragg relates the story of having the opportunity to tour “The Overcoat” around the world. “It was an insane project.” Originally produced in Vancouver at a theater school, it was picked up by the Vancouver Playhouse. “They wanted to do this crazy thing and tour it across Canada, and equally crazy is they wanted me to do it.” Afterwards the playhouse still controlled the rights to the play, but didn’t want to do anything with it. Bragg recalls the night that his producer frantically called saying, “Marty, Marty, they’re throwing out all the sets at the playhouse!” So he and his troupe took over the show and built two complete new sets with props and took it on tour, criss-crossing the globe, as well as two national tours of Canada. “That’s the power of theatre—not a single word spoken on stage—22 actors, telling a story with their bodies.” Critics asked, “What is it? Is it a dance piece? Is it a music piece?” Bragg said to them, “No, you know what? It’s theatre.”

And who could forget the night Steve Martin came to town for the opening of his play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile?” “That was a pretty big thrill,” Bragg admits.

Big names are important for CanStage’s financial future, but for Bragg, his experiences benefited from public funding and he reminisces about a different time in Canadian history when governments played more of a role in funding start-up theatre companies and sponsoring emerging new talent. He himself received an Opportunities for Youth (OFY) grant in 1971 to start a theatre company in Burlington. Remarkably, most of the current Toronto theatre venues were started in one way or another by seed money from these grants in the seventies. “Toronto Free Theatre wouldn’t have existed without a Local Initiatives Program (LIP) grant,” says Bragg. “Factory Theatre, Toronto Workshop, Tarragon, they all started with grants.”

He has little time for superficial politicians who pledge commitments and don’t follow through. He was recently invited to a consultation with Stephane Dion, concerning what the Liberals should do for the arts before the next election. Bragg is disillusioned at the lack of political will and talks about the need for a vision. He longs for a return to the days when governments provided an opportunity for youth and funded initiatives for the arts. At the same time, in those days there wasn’t the Toronto Fringe festival or the Summerworks festival. “I think the really sad thing about it, is that all of that work is happening on the backs of artists,” and that if “you and I were really passionate about doing a play, and the only opportunity for us to do it was at Summerworks, it’s going to be our houses that we mortgage to do it,” he chuckles.

Bragg would like to see a national policy on culture. He was astonished when a senior administrator for the 2010 Olympics told him that the federal government declined to participate at all in the cultural component of the event. “Bev Oda says no, there’s nothing we can do,” he reports. To Bragg, it’s about putting your best foot forward, and “to say that we’re not interested in supporting it, really makes a big statement.” On a dour note, he says that “as long as I’ve been in this business, the arts have been in crisis and we seem to lurch from one crisis to another which is a bit sad.”

Despite the current funding climate, CanStage is in a good position to celebrate. This season marks a number of anniversaries for the company. It is the 25th anniversary of “The Dream in High Park,” an outdoor theatre festival which includes a permanent, environmentally designed, 1000-seat performance space. As well being Bragg’s 15th year with the theatre company, it is also the 20th anniversary of the merger of the Toronto Free Theatre and Centre Stage Toronto, which to this day remains the only time that two major theatre companies have come together in Canada.

One of the two major events for the anniversary will be the opening of the newly renovated St. Lawrence Centre for the arts. When the Bluma Appel stage opens once again on Oct. 11, Bragg predicts, “it will be a completely different experience.” Three million dollars have been spent on the renovation (a joint project between the audience base, with money raised through a surcharge on ticket sales) half of which has come from Canadian stage customers, and the other half from the City of Toronto. Thanks to initiatives by Kyle Rae, chair of the Mayor’s Round Table on Arts and Culture, and Rita Davies, executive director of the Culture Division, the city has contributed another $1.5 million for the renovations.

The theatre has been literally transformed. The wallpaper has been removed, the old peach-coloured paint has been replaced with a midnight-blue treatment on the walls. The seats have been replaced; there are new carpets and a whole new lobby. The old stairs were removed, rebuilt, made smaller and relocated. Ceilings have been opened; slate-finished floors and wooden millwork have been installed.

“We really wanted that theatre to reflect the company,” he offers, but Bragg laments that not enough is done towards the upkeep of all the wonderful local theatres in Toronto. Sadly he says, that they spend all this money to build these venues, but don’t put the money in to maintain them. “The $3 million renovation is really also a facelift on a facility that hasn’t been touched in 25 years—the last renovation happened in 1985.”

The second event will be the opening of “The Elephant Man” at the St. Lawrence Centre. Again, Bragg is moving in a circle: he tells the story of an early success with the play almost 20 years ago, starring a young Brent Carver. Carver is back as the Elephant Man, with Robin Phillips directing his third production for the company. Geraint Wyn-Davies will play Dr. Treves. Davies appeared in five episodes of the popular television series “24” and starred in “Forever Knight.”