Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and Executive Director Anita Gaffney are excited to announce the launch of The Spirit of the Tent: A Campaign for the New Tom Patterson Theatre Centre. To mark the launch, Ophelia Lazaridis has announced a gift of $10 million.
The $100-million campaign will provide the capital for a stunning new facility, designed by acclaimed architect Siamak Hariri of Toronto-based Hariri Pontarini, along with a fund to support the long-term viability of the centre and the programs it will house.
“This is a big day for Stratford,” says Mr. Cimolino. “We are so grateful to Ophelia for coming forward with such a remarkable gift for this important project. The Tom Patterson Theatre is one of our most treasured creative spaces, but one that is woefully inadequate for the calibre of performance and experience our patrons have come to expect. This campaign will allow us to turn it into a facility befitting the founder whose name it bears. Together with our artists, staff and most generous donors, we look forward to rekindling the infectious spirit that Tom Patterson inspired 65 years ago, a spirit that awakened a belief in Canadian creativity and changed the cultural landscape of this country.”
The campaign is co-chaired by Ophelia Lazaridis and Dr. M. Lee Myers, with the Honourable Michael Meighen serving as Honorary Chair.
“This campaign will permit us to create a stunning new facility, fund the centre’s new and expanded programs, and ultimately strengthen a very important part of Canada’s cultural heritage,” says Dr. Myers, a cardiac surgeon at the London Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Myers first joined the Stratford Festival’s Board of Governors in 2002 and was Board Chair from March 2010 to 2012. She is currently a member of the Board of Governors, a director of the Festival’s Foundation Board and Chair of the Campaign’s steering committee and campaign cabinet.
“I am inspired by what the Festival has accomplished and even more energized for the future with this new theatre centre,” says Ophelia Lazaridis, who was a member of the Festival’s Board of Governors from 2007 to 2014, serving as Chair of the Education and Archives Committee. “I am particularly enthusiastic to support the Festival’s efforts to expand the youth audience and applaud the advances in education initiatives that will be made possible at the new Tom Patterson Theatre. That is why I have pledged $10 million to this campaign.” Ophelia Lazaridis has been a key supporter of the Stratford Festival for more than a decade.
Michael Meighen, a lawyer and retired Senator, was a member of the Festival’s Board of Governors from 1986 to 1997, serving as Board Chair from 1996 through 1997. He was Chair of the Festival’s Act III campaign to renew the Festival Theatre from 1995 to 1997. “Members of the Meighen family have been supporters of the Stratford Festival for three generations,” he says, “and we are proud to be involved with this newest project, which will see the Festival in an excellent position to remain a world leader in theatrical production and cultural tourism.”
Also serving as core members of the campaign are: Dan Bernstein (Westport, CT), Sylvia Chrominska (Toronto), Robert Gorlin (Northville, MI), Beth Kronfeld (Chicago), Rick Orr (Stratford), Dr. Cecil Rorabeck(London, ON), Carol Stephenson (London, ON) and Donald Woodley (Mono Township, ON).
“We are so grateful to Lee, Ophelia, Michael and the entire campaign team for the dedication and expertise they bring to this project,” says Mr. Cimolino. “We are also indebted to Tim MacDonald, Chair of the Building Committee, who is guiding us so well in the process, and our Board Chair, Dan Bernstein, who, in addition to leading the global search for the architect for this wonderful new theatre, was our remarkable first lead donor.”
Mr. Bernstein and his wife, Claire Foerster, have pledged $10 million to the campaign. “Claire and I take great pleasure in supporting this important project at a theatre that has meant so much to our family over the years,” says Mr. Bernstein, who is Senior Strategist and Director of Bridgewater Associates in Westport, Connecticut. “The Stratford Festival is a remarkable theatre company with vast capabilities not only in performance and production, but also in theatre education, new play development and cultural digital content.”
The Festival has also been promised $20 million in funding from the federal government and $20 million from the Ontario government. In addition to the leadership gifts from Ophelia Lazaridis and from Dan Bernstein and Claire Foerster, a further $10 million in pledges has already been received – with details to be announced in coming weeks – so the campaign has already reached 70% of its goal.
The Stratford Festival is one of the world’s leading theatres and the largest classical repertory company in North America, presenting a seven-month season of about a dozen plays in four venues. It offers an immersive experience that not only reflects society but also acts as an influential force within it, providing a crucible for artistic and intellectual exploration, an arena for engagement and interaction, and a centre for education and global outreach.
At the beginning of their joint tenure in 2013, Mr. Cimolino and Ms Gaffney introduced three new initiatives that have shown tremendous growth and now require space of their own in order to flourish: the Stratford Festival Laboratory for the development of new work and theatre practices; the Stratford Festival Forum, which offers about 150 events each season to shed light on the themes of the plays as reflected in society today; and the Festival’s digital initiatives, which include Stratford Festival HD, which is capturing all of Shakespeare’s plays on film over a period of 10 years. The new theatre centre will house all of these projects, along with outreach programs developed and led by the Festival’s Education Department.
At the heart of the centre will be a jewel-box theatre with all of the character and intimacy of the existing Tom Patterson auditorium, but with greatly expanded production and patron facilities.
For 46 years, the Tom Patterson Theatre has been housed in a City-owned facility originally built in the early 20th century as a curling rink. Though a much-loved creative space, with a distinctive thrust stage wrapped in close embrace by the audience around it, the theatre suffered from cramped and uncomfortable seating, poor accessibility and limited production capabilities. The structure has been deemed by the Festival’s engineers to be at the end of its viable life.
“The new auditorium will expand upon the magical qualities of the existing Tom Patterson Theatre,” says Mr. Cimolino. “It will be uniformly intimate. It will have vastly improved acoustics and a much greater sense of comfort for audience members. It will take the strengths of the current theatre and make them bespoke – tailored with the finest materials and craftsmanship.
“Our architect, Siamak Hariri, has designed an inspiring space, which we believe will be the best theatre room in North America, a space worthy of the exceptional work that has always been produced in this well-loved theatre. We hope it will be a shining example of legacy architecture, like the Sydney Opera House or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain – but on a smaller scale suitable to our beautiful riverside setting.”
The auditorium at the heart of the new centre will be clad in softly lime-washed masonry and surrounded by a veil of shimmering glass, hung with thin bronze mullions. A two-acre terraced garden, beautiful enough to be a landmark in itself, will stretch from one end of the site to the other.
The theatre will have a slightly larger capacity and longer season. Together with the expansion of Forum, education and digital offerings, it is estimated that the new centre will generate an additional $14 million per year in economic activity, on top of the $134 million already generated annually by the Festival as a whole.
“Just as the creation of the Festival transformed our city 65 years ago, this new theatre will add great depth and opportunity to our community,” says Ms Gaffney. “The expanded education and Forum activities will help us to develop new audiences – including the important youth market – and the beautiful auditorium will open wonderful creative avenues, setting us apart from other world-class theatres and helping us to attract visitors from around the globe.”
Illustration: Artist’s conception of new Tom Patterson Theatre.
2018-01-15
Stratford: Stratford Festival launches $100 million campaign for new Tom Patterson Theatre