Doors Open Toronto
I decided to spend the bulk of Saturday downtown for the annual Doors Open event. For those who don't know what that is, it's a weekend festival where the city (in conjunction with a bunch of partners) opens up over 100 old buildings, museums, and private workplaces to the public, all free of charge. This year saw the opening of 175 venues; obviously, there's no way I could see them all, so I had to pick and choose where to go.
My original plan was to leave the house at 7:15, so I could get downtown for the first opening at 9: a tour of the Canon (formerly Pantages) theatre, then walk a block south to tour the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres (only open at 10), walk back up to Dundas and take the streetcar out to the Don Jail, then continue on to the tours of both open TTC facilities. If I still had time after that, I would try to check out city hall (never been inside before) and the Union Station tour.
I left at the planned time, arriving outside the first theatre with half an hour to spare. Got a heads up about huge linueps for the Jail (who knew so many Torontonians wanted to go to prison?) from the others in line; it turned out this was just a self-guided tour of the auditorium and lobby, nothing special considering I've been there before (years back for Phantom). The chandelier was gone and the pit was covered up, but that seemed to be it.
The 10 am tour had a growing lineup, fortunately the theatre had promised that everyone would get in, so I got some breakfast from a street vendor before I joined. At that point, the lineup hit the end of the block and wrapped around onto Queen St. When the tour began, it stretched around onto the back street behind the theatre (Victoria), and everyone was ushered through the lengthy lobby into the Elgin Theatre, where we were given a presentation on the facility by one of the managers. The theatre was a magnificent shade of red, with fabric walls, gold trim on the box seats, beaded light fixtures applenty, and a ceiling meant to appear as an architectural feature (though it was "completely fake", not being part of the roof it was supposed to look like, since it had to hang from the stacked theatre above).
The room was restored back in the late 70s after the provincial government bought the site, after having been repainted beige 27 times (and then black on the ceiling), losing most of the lights, the fabric on the walls, fire curtain, and the gold trim on the box seats. Most of the restoring work was based off of archive photos (in black and white), and a few strands of the old walls found behind a few remaining fixtures. Following this presentation and a bit of Q and A, we were led up the many stairs (7 floors) to the lobby for the Winter Garden Theatre. There were three escalators, but they got crowded quickly, so I took the stairs, an altogether exhausting experience. Entering the theatre itself greeted us to a ceiling covered in garden lanterns and leaf-covered branches/twigs. When I moved closer to the stage to grab a seat, the walls and fire curtain were noticeably covered in murals of flowers, hills, and an evening sky, complete with a glowing moon.
Unlike the Elgin, which had been redone and painted following the decline of the stage and its transformation to a movie house, the Winter Garden Theatre was simply closed, had its chairs sold off, and abandoned, leaving behind the original fire curtain, walls, lanterns (but most were missing), and ceiling (which had to be replaced due to extensive damage). Most of it was cleaned up with bread dough (to get rid of dirt and grime without damaging the watercolours underneath), and replacement seats were bought from a theatre in Chicago (another staff member pointed out that one seat was used by bank robber John Dillinger when he saw his last film).
The tour ended with a return to the lounge where a gift shop was set up, and I returned to street level and went to the Jail. Unfortunately, it weemed to have far too long a lineup, so I skipped it in favour of the TTC Greenwood shop. I arrived just before opening, lined, and got in for a self-guided tour (employees were around to answer questions, and a lot of stuff was brought out so we could see various subway parts). Someone brought a border collie down that seemed to enjoy the tour a lot.
I decided to skip the bus version up in Scarborough, and went back downtown to tour city hall and Union Station (a lot bigger than I thought, even when I've used it before, since we covered the office wings too), grabbed supper, and returned home exhausted. I skipped out on the jail today too, just from being so tired.
All in all, it was a fun trip.
My original plan was to leave the house at 7:15, so I could get downtown for the first opening at 9: a tour of the Canon (formerly Pantages) theatre, then walk a block south to tour the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres (only open at 10), walk back up to Dundas and take the streetcar out to the Don Jail, then continue on to the tours of both open TTC facilities. If I still had time after that, I would try to check out city hall (never been inside before) and the Union Station tour.
I left at the planned time, arriving outside the first theatre with half an hour to spare. Got a heads up about huge linueps for the Jail (who knew so many Torontonians wanted to go to prison?) from the others in line; it turned out this was just a self-guided tour of the auditorium and lobby, nothing special considering I've been there before (years back for Phantom). The chandelier was gone and the pit was covered up, but that seemed to be it.
The 10 am tour had a growing lineup, fortunately the theatre had promised that everyone would get in, so I got some breakfast from a street vendor before I joined. At that point, the lineup hit the end of the block and wrapped around onto Queen St. When the tour began, it stretched around onto the back street behind the theatre (Victoria), and everyone was ushered through the lengthy lobby into the Elgin Theatre, where we were given a presentation on the facility by one of the managers. The theatre was a magnificent shade of red, with fabric walls, gold trim on the box seats, beaded light fixtures applenty, and a ceiling meant to appear as an architectural feature (though it was "completely fake", not being part of the roof it was supposed to look like, since it had to hang from the stacked theatre above).
The room was restored back in the late 70s after the provincial government bought the site, after having been repainted beige 27 times (and then black on the ceiling), losing most of the lights, the fabric on the walls, fire curtain, and the gold trim on the box seats. Most of the restoring work was based off of archive photos (in black and white), and a few strands of the old walls found behind a few remaining fixtures. Following this presentation and a bit of Q and A, we were led up the many stairs (7 floors) to the lobby for the Winter Garden Theatre. There were three escalators, but they got crowded quickly, so I took the stairs, an altogether exhausting experience. Entering the theatre itself greeted us to a ceiling covered in garden lanterns and leaf-covered branches/twigs. When I moved closer to the stage to grab a seat, the walls and fire curtain were noticeably covered in murals of flowers, hills, and an evening sky, complete with a glowing moon.
Unlike the Elgin, which had been redone and painted following the decline of the stage and its transformation to a movie house, the Winter Garden Theatre was simply closed, had its chairs sold off, and abandoned, leaving behind the original fire curtain, walls, lanterns (but most were missing), and ceiling (which had to be replaced due to extensive damage). Most of it was cleaned up with bread dough (to get rid of dirt and grime without damaging the watercolours underneath), and replacement seats were bought from a theatre in Chicago (another staff member pointed out that one seat was used by bank robber John Dillinger when he saw his last film).
The tour ended with a return to the lounge where a gift shop was set up, and I returned to street level and went to the Jail. Unfortunately, it weemed to have far too long a lineup, so I skipped it in favour of the TTC Greenwood shop. I arrived just before opening, lined, and got in for a self-guided tour (employees were around to answer questions, and a lot of stuff was brought out so we could see various subway parts). Someone brought a border collie down that seemed to enjoy the tour a lot.
I decided to skip the bus version up in Scarborough, and went back downtown to tour city hall and Union Station (a lot bigger than I thought, even when I've used it before, since we covered the office wings too), grabbed supper, and returned home exhausted. I skipped out on the jail today too, just from being so tired.
All in all, it was a fun trip.