>>PREVIEW
THE GRAND OPENING
Theatre Junction
Saturday, March 4
The Grand
After enduring decades of tasteless "modernization," indignities and neglect, Calgary’s historic Grand Theatre will rise again next week under owners who express respect for its past and confidence in its future.
A launch party on March 4 – so far considered the city’s cultural event of the year – will celebrate Theatre Junction’s new home in the Grand. It will also reveal to a curious public how the theatre company has spent $12 million renovating the oldest theatre of its kind west of Winnipeg. Three levels of government kicked in $7 million. Theatre Junction has raised $6 million in private donations and is seeking another $1 million to complete a $2-million capital reserve.
Located at 608 First Street S.W., the Grand was built in 1911-12 by Senator James Lougheed. It was a cultural jewel tucked behind his concurrently developed brick-and-sandstone, multi-purpose commercial structure, the L-shaped Lougheed Block. In its vaudeville heyday, the Grand hosted such luminaries as the Marx Brothers, Paul Robeson, Fred and Adele Astaire, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Ethel Barrymore, and Sarah Bernhardt, playing to audiences of 1,500 per show.
Later, it became a movie palace – nearly 50 years have passed since the Grand offered live performances. Consequently, its rebirth as a venue for theatre, dance and music is a triumph for Calgary, for Alberta and for Canada, says Mark Lawes, Theatre Junction’s artistic director.
"It’s unique in the whole country, this contemporary adaptation of a historic space," says Lawes. "I see us as the guardians of the Grand. We will be presenting the works of others in addition to Theatre Junction productions."
If any local building sorely needed a guardian, it was the Grand. Opened to great fanfare on February 5, 1912, on the former site of a florist’s greenhouse, the "Sherman Grand" boasted a relatively new method of construction – reinforced concrete and steel – and a beautiful, lavish interior that combined to make it "one of the finest and most commodious theatres" in the Canadian West. That was according to one of the era’s famous thespians, British actor-manager Johnston Forbes-Robertson, as quoted in Donald B. Smith’s superb 2005 book, Calgary’s Grand Story. (Curiously, the theatre’s name showcased its first manager, Bill Sherman. When a new manager took over in early 1915, it became simply the Grand.)
The theatre’s main entrance off First Street passed through the Lougheed Building, which will still be the case thanks to an easement on that separately owned, six-storey structure.
Starting with the removal of private balcony boxes in the 1940s, parts of the Grand were hacked away or plastered over with each new interior-decoration fad. The spacious main stage was hauled away in the 1960s, along with the velvet curtains, brass railings and other aspects of the interior’s magnificent Edwardian decor.
In the 1970s and ’80s, the Grand’s movie-sound quality and projection technology were understandably upgraded during the continued dumping of money into ever-blander visual overhauls of the cinema’s now-divided, twin Cineplex auditoriums.
But film fans had long ago begun their exodus to shopping-mall screens. By the new millennium, things looked pretty hopeless at 608 First Street, the Grand being dismally reduced to an indoor golf range.
Then the restoration-minded developer Neil Richardson rode to the rescue, buying the Lougheed Building and Grand Theatre in 2003 and selling the latter to Theatre Junction the following year.
During a recent February lunch hour, Lawes gives a tour of the theatre, which is in the final stage of renovation. In the entrance, he points overhead to assorted chunks of ornate recessed panels.
"That’s the original coffered ceiling, and there was very little of it left," he explains. "Rather than attempt a restoration, we decided to leave it the way it was, except for cleaning and stabilizing it to conserve the remnants. It’s like archaeology, with its layers of history."
Structurally, the 30,000-square-foot theatre has been virtually built anew, except for exterior walls and some details, to meet modern code requirements. But in the former lobby, now a restaurant-bar called Velvet, some weathered brick surfaces have been left exposed, surrounded by new construction. The old, still-solid staircase to the balcony is retained.
Tradespeople uncovered some delightful surprises recently, such as the handwritten "Barron Aug 13th 1945" on a plaster-and-lath wall. This signature of then-manager Jack Barron will be left on display.
In the main hall, the Grand’s fundamental vastness – long diminished by false ceilings and soulless partitioning – is back again, albeit without a trace of the original ornamentation. In its place is an array of black-painted metal grids and motorized, overhead truss structures that will permit flexibility in performances, viewed from mobile-design folding seats holding up to 400 patrons.
Lawes believes the hall’s immensity will be one of the strongest impressions for new audiences. How could a theatre this size have secretly resided in the heart of downtown Calgary for so long?
"It’s so hidden," he says. "People have no idea what to expect… right in the centre of the city."
Clearly, Lawes is proud of this labour of love as he strolls across floors once trodden by some of the 20th century’s greatest performers, and where entertainment magic will once again be conjured up.
"The theatrical muse was with us," he concludes with a smile. "The spirits of the building are happy we’re here again." |
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