The Stratford Festival is lending its expertise to a city in El Salvador to help create a theatre company there.

The city of Suchitoto was devastated by the civil war in El Salvador during the 1980s. Its local theatre was damaged and many actors fled the country.

Now people are coming back and the lakeside city, about an hour and a half's drive northeast of the capital San Salvador, has ambitions of becoming a theatre centre.

Professionals from Stratford are pitching in, including a designer and propmaster, actors, directors and fundraisers.

Antoni Cimolino, Stratford's general director, is in Suchitoto this week and sees many parallels between Stratford and the Salvadoran city.

"It's a beautiful community like Stratford, and the thought that this could take root and grow is one that's really special not just to me but to all the people back in Stratford who want to make a contribution toward this," he told CBC News.

First production in March

He said he jumped at the idea of the four-year project when it was brought to him by the international development organization CUSO-VSO.

A technical school is already providing training in carpentry, stage design and lighting. A performing arts school will open next year and the first production will be staged in March.

"This is a wonderful experience," said Tatiana de la Ossa, director of the new theatre.

"This is the first opportunity for many people — especially young men and women — to have an alternative for studying and working. There are no theatre schools in El Salvador so this will be a first effort really to bring the idea of arts as a tool for development," she said.

De la Ossa hopes her new theatre will attract lots of tourists and create even more jobs in Suchitoto.

So far, about a third of the money for the $1.5-million project has been raised from governments in El Salvador and Spain, and Canadian companies such as Power Corp. CUSO-VSO is also supported by individual donations.

With files from CBC's Margo Kelly