Stage Door News
Stage Door News
On Saturday May 26, 2018, The Princess of Wales Theatre will be a quarter century old. The building officially opened on the same day in 1993 with the Canadian premiere of MISS SAIGON.
Designed by architect Peter Smith, with an interior design by the, then up-and-coming firm Yabu-Pushelberg, now world renowned, and featuring artwork by contemporary artist Frank Stella, the Princess of Wales Theatre was the first privately built, stand-alone theatre in North America in over 50 years.
FREE OPEN HOUSE - Join us on Saturday May 26 between 9AM and NOON! - 300 King Street West (at John Street)
Free access to tour public areas of the building.
Display of Memorabilia from the construction and opening of the building.
Official cake-cutting at 10AM with David Mirvish.
Saturday May 26 is also Open Doors Toronto. Although not officially on the Open Doors schedule, you may want to include the Princess of Wales Theatre in your visit of interesting buildings in the downtown core.
About the Princess of Wales Theatre
The Princess of Wales Theatre is a modern, 2000-seat playhouse built by the father and son producing team of David and Ed Mirvish, just a block away from their historic Royal Alexandra Theatre. The Princess of Wales is the first privately owned and financed theatre built in Canada since 1907 - and the first anywhere in North America in over 30 years. Construction began on August 6, 1991, and the building opened to the public with the musical Miss Saigon on May 26, 1993.
The theatre was built with maximum flexibility in mind. Its stage is one of the widest and deepest in North America - large enough to accommodate the most spectacular theatrical productions - and its technical facilities are state-of-the-art.
The auditorium represents a happy marriage of the best ideas in theatre design from this century and the last. Architect Peter Smith, a winner of the Governor-General's Award for his theatre designs, accepted the challenge of building a large, modern theatre - with a huge stage and fly tower - that would somehow seat 2000, in exceptional comfort, while preserving the elegance and intimacy of a traditional, nineteenth century theatre - and doing it all on a small downtown plot of land.
Smith's solution features a horseshoe-shaped, two-balcony seating plan, with balconies connected to the proscenium by box seats. With seating on three levels - orchestra, dress circle and balcony - the Princess of Wales is surprisingly intimate. None of its 2000 seats is more than 85 feet from the stage, and all enjoy excellent sight-lines in an acoustically near-perfect auditorium.
The award-winning firm Yabu-Pushelberg is responsible for the interior designs of the theatre's spacious lobbies and lounges. The company's work employs the finest natural materials and is characterized by an unusual mixture of contemporary and traditional design themes.
The theatre interior features the work of dozens of highly skilled artists and crafts people, creators of its Venetian terrazzo floors, luminous glass and tile mosaics, blown-glass lamps and hand-made metal light fixtures. The wooden wall panels, doorways, arches, bars and handrails are made from an unusual variety of mahogany - Sapele wood - from Africa. Veneers, sliced in the field on order for this project, were shipped to Toronto and fitted together by expert woodworkers to emphasize a signature swirl in the grain - nicknamed "the Mirvish Swirl". The mahogany woodwork throughout the building covers a total area of over 20,000 square feet.
The colourful murals that decorate the interior walls, the proscenium arch, the fly tower and the spectacular ceiling dome are the work of renowned artist Frank Stella. The murals cover over 10,000 square feet and represent what is believed to be the largest mural commission of this century. Stella has echoed his mural themes in the sculpted reliefs that face the dress circle, balcony and box seats. Similar sculptures, in cast aluminum, decorate both ends of each row of seats throughout the auditorium.
Frank Stella's mural designs for the Princess of Wales Theatre have been exhibited in art museums around the world, with one original model now hanging in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada.
The Princess of Wales is a showcase of all that is best in both traditional and contemporary design. The Toronto Star described it as, "...a glittering glass jewelry case, a sparkling glimpse into a spectacle of total design." In the years since its public opening, the theatre has hosted hundreds of visitors - architects, designers, engineers and theatre professionals from all over the world - who have come not to see a show, but to study the architecture, design and art work of this landmark theatre.
Photo: Princess of Wales Theatre interior.
2018-05-22
Toronto: On May 26 the Princess of Wales Theatre celebrates 25 years with a free open house