Community feedback continues to shape Royal George Theatre design
In response to growing concerns from residents, the Shaw Festival has begun revising its controversial redevelopment plans for the Royal George, emphasizing heritage preservation and accessibility
Robin Ridesic is both a board member of the Shaw Festival and a neighbour to the Royal George—she can see the much-discussed fly tower from her front lawn. And she also owns a business on Queen Street.
As such, she has a slightly different perspective about the proposed rebuild of the Queen Street theatre. She has heard concerns from the community, she says, and has spent board and staff time and energy “to make sure we continue to listen, we continue to incorporate feedback, and that there’s a focus on ensuring the buildings, particularly on Victoria Street, are sympathetic to the heritage of the neighbourhood.”
She has found herself talking to people every chance she gets, one resident at a time, hoping to reassure Shaw staff are listening to their concerns, she told The Local.
She also started a Shaw community engagement committee with local board and staff members, who are helping her. “I particularly want to talk to the people who are not feeling positive about the project, because I think that’s where we have the most potential to learn and listen and adjust. That open house Wednesday was extraordinarily helpful for the Shaw, because of what we heard.”
At this point, Ridesic stresses, the Shaw is just at “step one,” submitting the applications to have the properties involved rezoned for site-specific use as a theatre. And to complete those applications, she says, they had to submit two-dimensional drawings “which were quite rudimentary.”
But the next month will be about moving through the design process with the community input that has been received, “thinking about how we soften it, how we break it up, how we transition it better. I care so deeply about this community, I care so deeply about doing this right, and building a theatre that the community is really proud of. I think we’re going to get there, but it’s still a work in progress.”
Unfortunately, “we can’t keep everybody happy,” she adds, “but certainly those initial renderings were never intended to be the final exterior, so I think we can do something that everyone feels comfortable with.”
Ridesic says she feels residents have a better understanding of the need for an enlarged footprint of the building now, and are more focussed on the design. The Shaw is listening, and has already made some changes that incorporate some of the neighbours’ feedback. That process started about a year ago, and is ongoing, she explains. Before this round of meetings began, “there had been another floor over top of the rehearsal hall (on Victoria Street in what is still known locally as the Angie Strauss house), and they listened when neighbours said they didn’t want another storey on Victoria Street.”
It would have been a second floor, but that first floor is quite tall, making it look more like a third floor, Ridesic says. Since then, “20,000 square feet have been cut, and the building is now 15 feet further back from those neighbours’ property lines.”
And while it’s still a larger building, which incorporates the theatre and box office, plus the two houses on Victoria Street that have been owned by the Shaw for years, extra space is required by code, and accessibility issues, she says. “At the end of the day I think we will all be proud that we’re building a theatre everybody will be able to access.”
What is also important tho the Shaw is the strategic planning that’s been undertaken over the last 10 years to look at the future of theatre.
“Unfortunately, the audience is not growing,” says Ridesic. “We’re competing with an instant entertainment in everyone’s pockets, with their little screens, with Netflix, and we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that. We don’t think we’re going to grow the number of attendees, but what we want to focus on is what we have that screens don’t. And what we have is that human connection, human energy, that two-way engagement.”
As a result of those discussions, both the Upper Canada Lodge property and the new Royal George will be able to offer “a much deeper experience than someone can get from their phone,” through workshops and children’s programs, for Q&As with actors and directors, and even dance lessons.
“That’s what we think is really critical to the future theatre, and staying relevant as we compete with screens.”
“We all get really excited about the tremendous amount of opportunity,” Ridesic continues, especially the space to attract school groups—if students go to the theatre when they’re young, they are much more likely to continue to attend when they’re an adult, she says. And a new Royal George has the potential to extend its season, getting school groups into the theatre with workshops, and then taking them to a show.
The alternative, she says, if the Royal George isn’t rebuilt, could be a developer “stepping in to build a mini-mall.”
And so the intention now, Ridesic says, is for the Shaw to take the drawings back to councillors and the public at the site plan stage, “so that everyone can see it. And if there’s further input that people want to provide, they can still be heard.”
Whatever changes are made,” she adds, “whatever attempts to make a compromise, make a better design that people will like better, the public will have a chance to see that. And hopefully, talk about it before it is approved.”
Shaw Festival executive director Tim Jennings, responding to a question about what comes next in the process, and whether there will be any discussion at the Tuesday, July 22 council meeting—the last before the August break—says the Royal George discussions from the meetings of July 8 and 9 will be part of the minutes that will be approved at the July 22 council meeting, but there is no vote expected on the applications for rezoning.
“As staff still has work to do and we have responses to offer, there is not a resolution expected. We are supportive of the town’s process and want to make sure everything is happening properly.”
In the best case, he adds, “we might have hoped to see it passed at the meeting (July 22), but town staff tell us there is still a way forward to get everything vetted and the needed revisions reviewed for the September meeting, though it is tight.”
Delays past that would be an issue for their tight timeline, he says, “as they would push us into tourist season with demolition, but assuming everything else stays on track we can still make our deadlines.”
By Penny Coles, ThoroldToday.ca
