About Us

• Theatre YK is a Sole Proprietorship owned by Brian Wainwright. Established in 1988

• Corporate Registry, Northwest Territories, Canada. 1988/01/25 966508

• GST Registration: 122073828RT0001

• Registered with Canada Customs for Exports: 122073828RM0002

• Corporate address is: Theatre YK, 10 Ptarmigan Road, Yellowknife, NT, X1A 2W8, Canada

• Contact: Phone: (867)444.9839 txt preferred

eMail: Use Questions Form on “Instructions” page (see Menu)

• A member of CITT https://www.citt.org/

• A certified Theatre Rigger (ETCP-RT). ETCP is affiliate with ESTA and PLASA https://etcp.esta.org/ https://www.plasa.org/

• A certified Automotive Technician (Motor Vehicle Mechanic) Source of my background in 12 volt wiring

 History

I grew up, in the UK, in a Theatrical Household (my Mother was an Opera Singer). I was active on-stage and back-stage throughout School, and then in Amateur Dramatics. In 1970 I emigrated to Canada

By 1983 I was living and working in Yellowknife, NWT, where a new theatre was being built ….. I got involved and have been 'involved' ever since

NACC (the Northern Arts & Cultural Centre) opened in 1984 and was a totally volunteer operation for the first half-dozen years https://www.naccnt.ca/

By 1988 I had grown weary of creating Zero Budget Sets out of re-cycled and borrowed materials. A local group scored $1,000 sponsorship for a new Northern Play ("Going Native" by Bruce Valpy), so I formed 'Theatre YK' and spent $2,000 building my first real Stage Flats, hoping to somehow recoup the balance in later productions

In 1994 I quit my 'Day Job' to do Theatre Full-Time working Freelance, serving School Music and Drama Programs and Community Theatre Productions

I retired those first Flats in 2008: they had done 148 Shows. I should have retired too, but I was having too much fun working ...... so I built new Flats and continued having fun

The last Musical I did, before the COVID-19 'Shut-Down', was Sir John Franklin School’s production of "Frozen Jr." (Nov. 2019). The School put one of the 12 performances on their YouTube Channel expecting the usual 200 hits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=m_3WZZoqEHU

The video went viral ….. over 107,000 hits and counting

Elsa's Magic Hands were one of the special effects that I made for that Show. They were a bit expensive but they were wildly popular. I started getting emails asking how to make them

So I decided to find a cheaper way for all School Theatre Programs and Community Theatre Groups to be able to create that same Magic for their own productions of "Frozen"

So here we are at "ElsaHandKit.com"