{"id":445512,"date":"2022-05-12T00:03:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T21:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/inside-the-stratford-festivals-72-million-theatre-makeover\/"},"modified":"2022-05-12T00:03:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T21:03:30","slug":"inside-the-stratford-festivals-72-million-theatre-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/inside-the-stratford-festivals-72-million-theatre-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"#Inside the Stratford Festival\u2019s $72-million theatre makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3a1100c4ffa\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3a1100c4ffa\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/inside-the-stratford-festivals-72-million-theatre-makeover\/#%E2%80%9CInside_the_Stratford_Festivals_72-million_theatre_makeover%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Inside the Stratford Festival\u2019s $72-million theatre makeover&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CInside_the_Stratford_Festivals_72-million_theatre_makeover%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Inside the Stratford Festival\u2019s $72-million theatre makeover&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                            This summer\u2014after years of delays\u2014the show will finally go on at Stratford\u2019s immaculately redesigned Tom Patterson Theatre\n                        <\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I<\/span><span class=\"s1\">n August of 2019, Antoni Cimolino, the art<\/span>istic director of the Stratford Festival, stood on a platform under construction, a blue light shining brightly off the metal scaffolding. He had a big announcement to make: the following year, the festival would open the long-awaited Tom Patterson Theatre\u2014the crowning feature of Stratford\u2019s $72-million renovation, set to house its must-see summer production of <i>Richard III<\/i> <span class=\"s1\">starring Colm Feore. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be big, it\u2019s going to be historic, it\u2019s going to be surprising,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Two and a half years later, the theatre has yet to see a public audience. In 2020, with nearly an entire season\u2019s worth of costs already sunk and roughly $4.6 <\/span>million refunded to ticketholders, the festival\u2019s season was postponed indefinitely. So was the opening <span class=\"s2\">of the state-of-the-art theatre, originally scheduled for <\/span>June 11, the 100th birthday of the building\u2019s <span class=\"s1\">namesake and the festival\u2019s founder, a Stratford-born <\/span><span class=\"s2\">journalist and Second World War veteran.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>MORE:\u00a0This Winnipeg art gallery is a monument to Inuit culture<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Since then, the structure itself has come to embody the crisis facing the entire performing arts industry:<\/span> immeasurable effort and beauty brought to a standstill. Now that Ontario\u2019s COVID restrictions have lifted, the future is looking bright. \u201cThat theatre, and all of the different rooms, are yet an unplayed instrument,\u201d Cimolino says, days before rebooting rehearsals for <i>Richard III<\/i>, which officially opens in early June. \u201cThere\u2019s a part of me that is waiting for the other shoe to drop. But what do they say about a pleasure deferred?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The theatre was originally constructed as a dance hall but was used for concerts and productions when the festival began in 1953, hosting Marcel Marceau, Glenn Gould and Oscar Peterson. It remained an audience favourite, despite having virtually no theatrical infrastructure and doubling as a badminton court in the winter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Siamak Hariri, a co-founder of the Toronto-based <\/span>architecture firm Hariri Pontarini, visited the theatre<span class=\"s1\"> as an audience member before winning the contract to design the new 77,000-square-foot complex in 2017. \u201cThe whole thing was clearly makeshift,\u201d Hariri says. \u201cBut there were elements of it that were brilliant\u2014the intimacy, the warmth\u2014and we made sure to honour those. It should have nobility, but not to the point that you have to wear diamonds to go.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Situated along the edge of Stratford\u2019s Avon River, the new Tom Patterson\u2019s curved shape reflects the swirls and eddies of river plants. The intent is for audience members to similarly gather in conversation, as if moving with the current. The exterior is covered by a veil of Spanish bronze beams and Italian glass, which act as a translucent barrier between the nature outside and the art inside. At its centre, the 600-seat theatre and its stage are surrounded by a drum of sound-absorbing Danish brick. A pillar of limestone from Owen Sound stands beside the outdoor patio\u2014a rough offcut that Hariri describes as the crust of the bread. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of building where, when you step into it, you feel a little weak in the knees,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236678\" style=\"width: 2010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1236678 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Tom-Patterson-Theatre-with-Peterson-Drive-in-the-foreground.-Photography-by-Scott-Norsworthy.jpg\" alt=\"Toronto\u2019s Hariri Pontarini Architects swathed the exterior in Spanish bronze and Italian glass. (Photography by Scott Norsworthy)\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1284\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toronto\u2019s Hariri Pontarini Architects swathed the exterior in Spanish bronze and Italian glass. (Photography by Scott Norsworthy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p3\">A far cry from its badminton-court days, the new Tom Patterson includes no small amount of theatrical <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a>. Flexible lighting systems operate more like drone controllers than a traditional manual grid and follow-spot system. It\u2019s also one of the first theatres to use unobtrusive sound equipment to evenly disperse voices and sound effects across a tricky space\u2014speakers have been discreetly built into steps by the front row, for example.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The stage itself is constructed from slats of Canadian birch on a giant trap door, so anything can emerge from underneath. The wood was hard to find: the festival ended up buying a woodlot in Tobermory to mill the trees into lumber. That story has already taken on a Shakespearean life of its own\u2014local residents have asked whether the festival now owns its own <i>Macbeth<\/i>-ian forest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">There\u2019s a mythical quality to the new facility, now so close to its debut production: actors and crews are rehearsing in masks and greeting each other with elbow bumps; costume and set shops are buzzing; the team is buffing out any leftover scuffs from construction and performing final safety checks. Downtown, Stratford\u2019s hotels and restaurants\u2014which serve about a million tourists in a typical year\u2014are staffing up for the summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Still, there\u2019s a sense of reservation. Even an experienced actor like Colm Feore, poised to make his delayed <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>earance as the titular Richard III, says he\u2019s terrified. \u201cI was convinced that when we finally came back, we would be announcing our victory over COVID and resuming our collective Canadian life\u2014that we would have succeeded by the very fact that we were there in a theatre together, speaking to each other,\u201d Feore says. \u201cI think we are still a little damaged by it all, trying to crawl our way back to confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>READ:\u00a0How to fight the climate crisis with electricity<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p3\">According to Cimolino, the first days back in rehearsal were exciting, if a little nerve-racking. \u201cWe seem to have new eyes and a renewed sense of excitement\u2014even wonder,\u201d he says. \u201cDare we believe we will be able to do what we love once again? Everyone is collectively knocking on wood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Of course, nothing is for certain, but the plan is this: On June 4, <i>Richard III<\/i> will finally officially open, along with the Tom Patterson Theatre itself. Ten productions will roll out through all the Stratford Festival venues, featuring an ensemble of 125 actors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">When Cimolino put out the call for architects, he was looking for a building designed to take the festival into the next 50 years. To Hariri, that is what they\u2019ve created, in spite of the circumstances. \u201cThe building has this signal beacon,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s saying, \u2018No, we\u2019re not anywhere near going away.\u2019 If anything, this shows our deep commitment to make things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean<\/em>&#8216;s sent straight to your inbox. 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He had a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":445513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Tom-Patterson-Interior-Photography-by-doublespace-photography-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[71919,67899,158,129066,9376],"class_list":["post-445512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-architecture","tag-arts","tag-culture","tag-stratford-festival","tag-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}