Designed by Siamak Hariri of Toronto’s Hariri Pontarini Architects, the new Tom Patterson Theatre is set to become the Stratford Festival’s new marquee space. Replacing the early 20th century building ? initially constructed as a curling rink ? that has served as the festival’s headquarters for 46 years, the new theatre is being partially funded via a $100 million campaign launched this year.
The new Tom Patterson Theatre. Image courtesy of Hariri Pontarini / Stratford Festival
The campaign kicked off with a private gift of $10 million from Ophelia Lazaridis. The Festival has also been promised $20 million in funding from the federal government and $20 million from the Ontario government. In addition to the leadership gifts from Ophelia Lazaridis and from Dan Bernstein and Claire Foerster, a further $10 million in pledges has already been received ? with details to be announced in coming weeks ? so the campaign has already reached 70% of its goal. Stratford Festival Artistic Antoni Cimolino expressed enthusiasm about what has so far been a very successful campaign. ?We are so grateful to Ophelia for coming forward with such a remarkable gift for this important project. The Tom Patterson Theatre is one of our most treasured creative spaces, but one that is woefully inadequate for the calibre of performance and experience our patrons have come to expect. This campaign will allow us to turn it into a facility befitting the founder whose name it bears. To...