The Canadian Theatre Review was Canada's first quarterly theatre journal and was established at York University in 1974 as a publishing project of the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Department of Theatre. It grew out of a Theatre Department publication called the York Theatre Journal which began in about 1970. Both publications were initially edited by faculty members Don Rubin and Ross Stuart.The first issue of CTR appeared in January 1974 and it set the model for the journal's issues thereafter: themed issues, a full-length playscript, short essays on a variety of subjects and book reviews. Within 24 months, the journal expanded into theatre book publishing and began using the more comprehensive designation CTR Publications. In addition to the journal,CTR Publications, under Rubin's general editorship, published some two dozen separate volumes including the archival series "Canada on Stage" (1974-1988), the four-volume "Canada's Lost Plays" series and historical volumes such as Toby Gordon Ryan's "Stage Left: Canadian Theatre in the Thirties". In 1982, Rubin turned the editorship over to Robert Wallace of Glendon College and its production to the University of Toronto Press.When Wallace left as editor, the publication was taken over by the University of Guelph and edited by Alan Filewod, a Guelph Theatre professor and a graduate of the York Theatre Department when the journal first began.