BTC cultivated a deep legacy of Black theatre and live performance artists in the 1970s and 1980s before folding in 1988 due to chronic funding shortages.
[1][2] A number of early collaborators helped set up the company's administration, among them June Faulkner, former general manager of Toronto Workshop Productions and Young People's Theatre.
[6] The company produced numerous well-received and well-attended works, including the first Canadian production of A Raisin in the Sun (1978) by Lorraine Hansberry and the Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning A Caribbean Midsummer Night's Dream (1983).
[12] Amah Harris, who served as co-director of BTC in the 1970s, toured schools with plays for young people based on the Anansi folktales.
[1][14] Lack of access to performance venues was also a frequent challenge, such that the award-winning A Caribbean Midsummer Night's Dream was produced in the auditorium of 999 Queen St W (former Centre for Addiction and Mental Health facility demolished in October 2008).
that these theatre productions, school tours, educational materials, numerous workshops and classes were produced with the most minimal amount of government and private support.
[15] This legacy includes Delroy Lindo, Arlene Duncan, Leon Bibb, Jackie Richardson, ahdri zhina mandiela, Joe Sealy, Tom Butler, Philip Akin, Denis Simpson, Diana Braithwaite, and Jeff Jones.