Stratford Festival $20M closer to new Tom Patterson Theatre

The provincial government has announced a $20-million grant for the Stratford Festival, which will go towards helping rebuild the Tom Patterson Theatre.

The current facilityis "coming to the end of its useful life" after 45 years, the artistic director Antoni Cimolino told CBC News.

"It was built a century ago as a curling rink," he said of the theatre named for the festival's founder.

• Timing right to replace Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford Festival head says

"This investment by the Government of Ontario is a huge step forward in our replacing this facility and creating a really beautiful area for the city of Stratford."

The full project is expected to cost $60 million, Cimonlio said. The festival is asking the federal government to match the provincial grant, and the remaining funds would come from private donors.

If the funding comes through, the festival hopes to start work in the fall once this summer's season has wrapped.

He describes the new theatre's location as a "theatre in a garden," which will keep the current intimate feeling while making the Tom Patterson more comfortable and modern.

The revived Tom Patterson Theatre couldalsobecome a home for the festival's Forums, he said. Forums bring in accomplished people from a variety of fields for special events, such asamock trial with Supreme Court of Canada judge Beverley McLachlin scheduled for September, 2017.

"We're looking to create a place here at the Tom Patterson which would have a home for Forum events, a home for educational activities, which will be digitally enhanced so we can broadcast these events around the world," Cimolini said.

• Is there space for amateurs in a new Tom Patterson theatre in Stratford?

The new theatre wouldn't be much bigger, he said, expanding the capacityfrom its current size of fewer than 500 seats to a little more than 500.

"We want to hold on to the intimacy that really makes that space work"Cimolinosaid. "People come to Stratford from all around the world, and they come for something they can't get back home."