An update on the downtown performing arts centre in St. Catharines

This past Tuesday evening, I attended the Annual General Meeting of the St. Catharines & Area Arts Council, of which I am a proud member, and along with the usual dry business conducted at these things, there was an enlightening discussion on the (hopefully) soon to move forward performing arts centre in downtown St. Catharines. The usual general meeting stuff I won't go into here; if you are at all interested you likely attended the meeting, and if you don't, well, you likely didn't.

That being said, this was a decidedly well-attended event this year, with standing-room only inside that smallish office in the Charter House on James Street downtown. When the subject of the performing arts centre came up, people were all ears. After all, the St. Catharines & Area Arts Council has been a big booster of this project from the very beginning.

Speaking about the progress of the new downtown venue, we heard from Dr. Rosemary Hale, that indefatigable supporter of the centre and Dean of Humanities at Brock University; Alexandra Hlinyanszky; and Greg Redden of the City of St. Catharines Downtown Development and Revitalization Committee. All three spoke openly about the project and whatever obstacles we still may face in its construction, but it was Dr. Hale, whose enthusiasm knows no bounds, who kept everyone entertained and informed throughout the talk.

It was interesting to finally get some detail about what the actual makeup of the venue will be, as it will house both the performing arts centre and the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts at Brock. What we'll see is a 900-seat main theatre, plus a couple of smaller spaces for local theatre and dance events more suited to the smaller space. The larger theatre would obviously be used by the Niagara Symphony, Chorus Niagara and other groups, along with roadshows that might be passing through on their way to another date elsewhere. I can see great potential here, and an opportunity to expand the number of events available to the public on a regular basis, although I think the suggestion we could have something booked into one of the theatres almost every night is a little overly optimistic at this point.

One question came up about the small space provided (200 seats) for local theatre, which would be a shared space for dance performances. The concern appeared to be the fact it would only seat 200 people. Well, local theatre operators will tell you some weeknight performances would be lucky to have even that many bums in the seats; and as a result I think the size is certainly sufficient. If need be, the larger theatre might even be available should the ticket sales warrant it.

My main concern has always been and continues to be the cost of operating such a venue. I have seen through personal experience while regularly visiting the other downtown performing arts centre I have used on occasion for comparison purposes, the River Run Centre in downtown Guelph, it can sometimes be too costly to rent for the groups it was intended for. Most seasons, for example, the Guelph Chamber Choir splits up their performance season at the River Run Centre for almost guaranteed sellouts like Handel's Messiah at Christmas, and local area churches for other performances. Such will be the case when the choir performs Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 on May 1st at the large and warm-sounding Church of Our Lady in downtown Guelph. I don't know if it is a fact in this case the cost of the River Run Centre prohibited the performance taking place there or simply the choir wanted to to this work in a church setting; but I know there have been instances in the past when this has been the case for groups that should be using the Centre and are not always doing so. In that case, we have to be very careful we don't price this new venue of ours out of the local marketplace.

Of course, we are getting ahead of ourselves here, as we don't even have the proverbial shovels in the ground yet. But hopefully soon, if the remainder of the funding comes forth from the provincial government for the Brock portion of the complex. So we have lots of time to work out the problems, but let's start sooner rather than later in this regard. After all, there would be nothing worse than seeing an empty complex downtown more nights than when it is occupied.

Now, if we can only draft Rosemary Hale to run the place once it's built...

April 9th, 2010.