加拿大戏剧在西方戏剧界里是成熟较晚的一个。二十世纪初期崛起的小剧场运动是推动加拿大戏剧走上民族化道路的一个重要起点。它的宗旨是反对戏剧走商业化道路,提倡创作艺术戏剧,鼓励剧作家写加拿大题材和主题,开拓独立的加拿大民族戏剧。本世纪初,加拿大戏剧界要求摆脱外国戏剧垄断、发展民族艺术戏剧的呼声日益高涨。他们首先把批评的矛头指向毗邻的美国,强烈抗议美国戏剧辛迪加对加拿大戏剧舞台的垄断,批评有人把安大略省跟美国明尼苏达州相提并论,好象只不过是“百老汇大街两边的办公室”,更令人感到不公的是,加拿大艺术家要 Canadian drama is a late mature one in Western theater. The rise of the small theater movement of the early twentieth century is an important starting point to promote the Canadian drama onto the national road. Its aim is to oppose the drama go commercial, to promote the creation of artistic drama, to encourage playwrights to write Canadian themes and themes, and develop an independent Canadian national drama. At the beginning of this century, the demands of the Canadian theater industry for getting rid of the monopoly of foreign drama and for developing the national art drama are on the rise. They first criticized the neighboring United States and strongly protested the monopoly of the American theater syndicate on the Canadian theater scene. Criticizing that someone compared Ontario to the state of Minnesota as if it were “offices on either side of Broadway,” Unfair is that Canadian artists want