In the Beginning

L-R Back: Mike, Pip, Garry, Eric

Front: Kim, Andrea, Shtev

Café DaPoPo was initially conceived by Garry Williams, Artistic Director of DaPoPo, an independent theatre company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The company toured two shows to Berlin in 2006 without financial support from granting agencies and was left with a small debt. But what do you do when you can't afford to pay for a venue to perform? Fortunately, Garry was offered the regular use of Mollyz Diner, a restaurant/bar in Halifax. So, once a month we had access to a free venue, but how to use it?

Garry saw the opportunity to have a performance night that was menu-based. Patrons would come in, peruse a menu offering our talents and order what they wanted to see. Performances would be tailored, as much as possible, for presentation only to the individual or table that had ordered it. And there would be no overall charge, just a bill for what they had ordered from the menu.


From this original concept, the idea took off and the net was cast wider to include the creativity and talents of several DaPoPo regulars and alums including: Steve Cloutier, Steven Bourque (known affectionately to us as Shtev), Pip Bradford, Mike Chandler and Eric Benson. Andrea Dymond was invited on board and Bonnie Archibald-Awalt offered her support services.






And we were off. Planning meetings, rehearsals, collecting and creating material, brushing off old stuff we all had in our portfolios, getting the word out ... it was a flurry of activity leading up to the premiere on January 25th, 2007.