Kate Reid, long considered one of the foremost actresses of Canadian Theatre was born Daphne Kate Reid, November 4, 1930 in London, England. She spent the first 10 years of her life in England until the death of her father, when she and her mother moved to Oakville, Ontario Canada in 1940 (International Dictionary of Theater 1). Her personal philosophy as an actress was expressed when she said that "acting is not being emotional, but being able to express emotion" ("Quotations by Author").
She was not known for distinguishing herself academically, calling herself "something of a party girl," yet by the time she turned 15, she had enrolled in an acting course at the Royal Conservatory of Music. There she not only impressed Robert Gill, the director of the Hart House Theatre at the University of Toronto, but she caught the attention of other local theatre directors as well, who soon invited her to join summer stock companies (International . . . 1).
Shortly afterwards, in 1948, she made her professional debut at the new Crest Theatre, Toronto's first professional repertory theater, where she became known through her role as Lizzie in The Rainmaker. Reid remained with the Crest Theatre until 1956 when she moved to London to make her debut there as Catherine Ashland in The Stepmother (International . . . 1-2).
In 1959, Kate Reid was invited to join the Stratford company, one of Canada's major theater institutions. The Stratford company began in 1953 with the founding of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, which was originally an annual six-week theater event that has currently grown enough to have added traveling tours all over the world and a year-round staff (Shemanski 52). Soon after Reid joined the Stratford company, she became a protTgT of Mich'l Langham (International . . . 1). She joined other long-time Stratford actors such as William Hutt, Martha Henry, and Douglas Rain, who became known for creating "an approach...