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Gallery The Ada Kelly Collection at the L. W. Conolly Theatre Archives
The Ada Kelly Collection at the L.W. Conolly Theatre Archives (University of Guelph) consists of twenty-two scrapbooks containing, programs, photographs, reviews and other theatre memorabilia dating from 1946 to 1995. The material presented on the CASP site represents only a fraction of this massive collection. The imagesgathered in the files below document both the adaptation and performance of Shakespeare in Canada during the formative years of Canadian theatre, and also trace Kelly’s own developing engagement with theatre. Moreover, the scrapbooks document performances and events during a period in Canadian theatre history that saw the establishment of the Stratford Festival, the rise and fall of Dora Mavor Moore’s New Play Society, and the most active (and nationalistic) years of the Hart House Theatre. While pieces of this collection exist in archival collections elsewhere, their assembly in these scrapbooks highlights the excitement that was generated by the incredible amount of theatrical activity in and around Toronto following World War II. Kelly used these books to educate herself about theatre, and her developing critical eye (as documented in her collections and margin notes) mirrors the growing maturity of Canada’s professional theatre.
Ada Kelly spent her career teaching secondary school math at Oshawa Collegiate (now the O'Neill Collegiate and Vocational Institute). She came to Oshawa as a young woman when her family moved from their farm in Picton, Ontario, during the Depression. She attended the University of Toronto where she earned her degree in Mathematics at Victoria College. Kelly began teaching in the 1930s until her retirement forty years later. Oshawa Collegiate enjoyed a faculty with a passion for the arts, largely thanks to the school’s principal who insisted on a literate teaching staff who were engaged with the arts. Kelly was never in short supply of colleagues just as enthusiastic as she to frequent the theatre. She began attending the theatre in Toronto with colleagues and friends in the mid-1930s and would remain an avid theatre goer throughout her life.
Originally a mere enthusiast, one can see through these scrapbooks that Kelly came to consider herself an authority on Canadian theatreand theatre generally as her experience grew. While the earlier scrapbooks are free of remarks, the books from the 1970s on are full of handwritten notes. Over one unfavourable review of a production she wrote, “I disagree.” Dispersed thrugh other programs and clippings one can find a series of comments and opinions on various theatrical productions in Canada. The scrapbooks she spent over fifty years compiling, then, function not only as a historical document of Canadian theatre at a crucial stage in its evolution but also chronicle the personal enthusiasms of a devoted theatre goer over a significant time span.
This publication marks the first time that extensive samples of this unique material has been made public in a virtual space; users wishing to see more of the collection are invited to visit the L. W. Conolly Theatre Archives at the University of Guelph. Please note that Firefox users who wish to see expanded/enlarged versions of the files will be asked to download the PDFs directly to their desktop.
Detailed images and notes from a selection of Kelly's twenty-two scrapbooks are available via these links below:
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| Ada Kelly Scrapbook Volume Four |
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| Ada Kelly Scrapbook Volume Eight |
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| Ada Kelly Scrapbook Volume Fourteen |
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CASP gratefully acknowledges the generous help of Eleanor Ewing and the L.W. Conolly Theatre Archives in this research, which was completed by CASP URA Ben Dugas in May, 2007.
Disclaimer: This site has been designed with only non-commercial, academic uses in mind. Although every effort has been made to secure permission for materials uploaded on the CASP site, in some circumstances we have been unable to locate copyright holders. Links may be made to our site but under no conditions are the texts and images to be copied and mounted onto another site server. Researchers using the site should accredit it following standard MLA guidelines on how to do so. Correct citation of information from the site is as follows:
Fischlin, Daniel. Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project. University of Guelph. 2004. <http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca>.
