Named for the street on which the company was founded, Roseneath Theatre Company is one of the most successful theatre companies in Canada "that no one ever heard of," as its artistic director, David Craig, once joked. However, we have heard of its productions, like "Danny, King of the Basement" and "Wrecked".

It all began in 1983, when actor Robert Morgan and playwright David Craig formed a writing team producing plays for young audiences from junior kindergarten to university students. One of their early pieces was called Morgan's Journey, in which Robert Morgan took the lead. The play is still performed from time to time.

Messrs. Craig and Morgan found there was magic to what they were doing - writing plays that dealt with issues, problems, and life - of young people. They brought their plays not just to theatres but to schools and community centres, places where children and teenagers would be able to go, places where the plays could readily be performed before large numbers of young people.

As the value of what they were doing became apparent, their shows went on the road and the theatre company produces its plays around the world. It is not only the content of the plays that brings the attention and approbation of all those who see them, but it is also the people who act in them.

Since the beginning, only well seasoned, experienced actors have been brought in to perform in the Roseneath shows. Actors who otherwise work in Stratford, the Shaw Festival and on Mainstage (as it were), Toronto, play the parts in the Roseneath plays.

The Craig/Morgan team decided to go their separate ways in 1999. Robert Morgan went on to form the Toronto Children's Peace Theatre and David Craig took over as sole artistic director of Roseneath. Since that time, Roseneath has continued to go from strength to strength.

There are several reasons for this. As a registered charity, the company gets grants from the Canada Council of the Arts, among others. As the fastest growing theatre in Canada, Roseneath is doing an incredible 300 to 350 performances a year all over the world.

Here is how it works. The theatre company sells the production of a play to a venue for a set price, be it a theatre or a school, say, and then leaves the venue to sort out the box office. This allows the company to deal unfettered with its own administrative details of travel, translation, and everything between.

Where the plays are produced abroad, sometimes they are acted in English and sometimes they are translated. In Germany, the translation of Danny, King of the Basement, won them a national literary award. There are Sign language translations, where it suits, as well. Roseneath never turns down an opportunity to be translated.

All this came to light in a conversation with Kim Jennings, Roseneath's managing director. There was pride in his voice as he extolled the virtues and accomplishments of the theatre company.

He explained where the material comes from for the company.

"These are all original Canadian plays for young audiences," he said. "They are original scripts, not based on books. In mid to late September, we hold our readings, some 15 or 16 plays with 30 actors reading them. David gets 100 to 150 manuscripts every year and he picks among them looking for good ideas."

Mr. Jennings is especially happy about the people involved in the plays - from writing to directing to acting. He offered a long list of the accomplishments of the various participants: the director of Wrecked, Richard Greenblatt, who has worked for Camstage and is the co-creator of "2 pianos, 4 hands"; actor Helen Taylor, who won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her lead part in the 2006 production of Wrecked, as just two examples. For that matter, Wrecked earned numerous awards, as Mr. Jennings said, "just about every award in Canada."

Perhaps part of the Roseneath's secret to success is that it is the highest paying theatre company in Canada, regularly exceeding the wage scale set by OCTRA, the national theatre union. What also help to facilitate this largess, besides the grants it receives from various arts councils, are the partnerships in which it engages with corporate sponsors, who put up the funds for Roseneath to produce its works in schools across North America.

In addition, the large number of shows that Roseneath produces in the U.S. accounts for a big percentage of the company's overall income.

It all began with a good idea to help young people deal with their problems through the oldest entertainment in the world - live theatre. Plays written with humour and intelligence, written giving young people credit for being able to appreciate this novel approach to counselling, so to speak. And the rewards for trying to make a difference in this manner have been monumental. Putting together the best in the business with the best intentions has paid off.

It just goes to show that good guys can win.