Hrant Alianak certainly isn't voicing conventional wisdom when he says that these are the best of times for Toronto theatre -- even better, he argues,(...)

Original Toronto Star caption: Hrant Alianak certainly isn't voicing conventional wisdom when he says that these are the best of times for Toronto theatre -- even better, he argues, than the storied 1970s. Now 42, Alianak, who moved from Sudan to Canada with his family in 1967, was an integral player in the city's theatre scene in the early '70s, writing and directing scripts for the then fledgling Theatre Passe Muraille and Factory Lab. We were doing different and daring things back then, Alianak says, but there were only a few companies involved.