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The Pantages Playhouse Theatre () is a former
Built in 1913-14 and opened on 9 February 1914 as the Pantages Theatre, the building is located in Winnipeg's
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
theatre in downtown Winnipeg
Downtown Winnipeg is an area of Winnipeg located near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. It is the oldest urban area in Winnipeg, and is home to the city's commercial core, city hall, the seat of Manitoba's provincial government, a ...
, Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
The two-storey building features a decorative façade
A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'.
In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...
with a lit marquee across the front, as well as classical decorative elements such as columns, brackets, frieze
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
and cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
. The building continues to feature original interior layout and original lobby decor such as marble sheathing and decorative plaster ceiling.
Of the 75 theatres once found in Pantages
Alexander Pantages (Περικλῆς Ἀλέξανδρος Πανταζής , ''Periklis Alexandros Padazis''; 1867 – February 17, 1936) was a Greek American vaudeville impresario and early film producer, motion picture producer. He created ...
' chain, the theatre in Winnipeg is one of the few that have survived.
History
Built in 1913-14 and opened on 9 February 1914 as the Pantages Theatre, the building is located in Winnipeg's Exchange District
The Exchange District is a National Historic Site of Canada in the downtown area of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Just one block north of Portage and Main, the Exchange District comprises twenty city blocks and approximately 150 heritage buildings ...
. The theatre was originally the ninth theatre built in the Pantages chain of eighty-six theatres. The theatre was designed by architects George W. Northwood and B. Marcus Priteca
Benjamin Marcus Priteca (23 December 1889 – 1 October 1971) was a Scottish architect. He is best known for designing theatres for Alexander Pantages.
Early life
Benjamin Marcus Priteca was born into a Jewish family in Glasgow on 23 December 1 ...
and built for the Pantages Company. The company, a major American vaudeville chain, built the facility to present live theatrical, musical and vaudeville performances, including live performances by Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
, Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was one half of the comedy double act, duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Ha ...
and many others. Winnipeg was a proving ground for performers. Alexander Pantages was quoted as saying, "all my acts originate in Winnipeg and move around the circuit."
The theatre was host to the first ever jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
concert in Canada, with the Creole Band performing here in 1914.
In 1923, the theatre company moved to the Capitol Theatre, and the city of Winnipeg acquired the building, renaming it ''Playhouse Theatre'' and using it as a venue for live theatre. The last vaudeville show in the Pantages Theatre was 23 June 1923. The conversion to live theatre was not successful, and it eventually reverted to a format of vaudeville, tabloid musicals and motion pictures.
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America.
History
It was founded in 1939 as the "Winnipeg Ballet Club" by Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Farrally (who also fou ...
made its premier performance on the building's stage in June 1940 and continued there until the Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall was constructed in 1967.
The City Finance Committee sold the building in 1943 to a new owner intent on using it for vaudeville and motion pictures, but the city seized it for taxes in 1945. In 1948, the theatre began to feature amateur performers and spawned the Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1956.
In the 1980s, the theatre's auditorium was repainted, and the seating and draperies were replaced by salvage from a cinema. In 1993, under a tripartite agreement with the Provincial and Federal Governments, the City of Winnipeg acquired the Main Street frontage and added a new entrance and lobby to the theatre, as well as adding improvements to the backstage.
The Performing Arts Consortium of Winnipeg, Inc. assumed responsibility for the management of the theatre in February 1998.
The City of Winnipeg agreed to sell the theatre to Alex Boersma and Lars Nicholson in 2019 for $530,000, although the sale was held up on account of negotiations for easement
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...
s to retain a monument to the 1919 Winnipeg general strike on the corner of Main Street and Market Avenue. In July 2020, the theatre was then sold to the Performing Arts Coalition (PAC) for $1, with Boersma's company retaining a slice of land alongside the theatre for housing development. PAC intends to raise between $10 million and $15 million to restore the historic venue and install a management team to operate it.
References