Tim Carroll
Tim Jennings
Special to Niagara Now/The Lake Report

We want to begin with a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share your thoughts and feedback about the plans for the new Royal George Theatre.

Your voices are essential to this project, and we are listening.

Through your emails, conversations, community meetings and participation at our recent Open House, you’ve made it clear how deeply you care about the George — its character, its place in our downtown, and its future.

We’ve heard questions and concerns about the proposed building’s size and appearance, the impact on the neighbourhood, and how decisions are being made. This is all useful feedback, and we are working to incorporate your insights into our next round of plans.

This theatre is not just a place to see incredible art — it’s a cultural cornerstone in our community. A theatre of some kind has existed on that spot almost as long as Canada has been a country.

The Royal George supports our local businesses by bringing more than 100,000 visitors to Queen Street each year, generating over $70 million in economic impact by itself of the total $280 million in economic impact that the Shaw generates for our region.

We want to ensure that the new Royal George honours that legacy and strengthens it for generations to come.

One question we’ve been asked is whether the new Royal George could be built somewhere else. Over the past 15 years, we’ve studied many locations. In 2014, The Shaw purchased the Anchorage Hotel property on the waterfront with this in mind.

But there was strong pushback from local merchants and the town, urging us to stay on Queen Street, where the theatre’s presence is deeply rooted and so economically vital.

Hearing the community, and responding to that strong pushback, we sold the Anchorage site in 2017 and committed to staying on Queen Street.

Knowing that it would not be possible to rebuild the Royal George on its current footprint, we immediately purchased 178 Victoria and later, in 2022, 188 Victoria.

These buildings — like the current Royal George itself — are not themselves designated as historical buildings: all their interior heritage elements were stripped out by previous owners, though of course they are part of the Heritage district.

The hospital site was also investigated a few years ago with the town and for a variety of reasons, from federally imposed height restrictions to various site concerns for our kind of building, to the Queen Street impact issues noted above, was not able to be pursued.

For several years, we have been supporting other community use cases for that site by the area’s smaller non-profits and charities.

They see options for working with the town to make use of the spaces there to advance their own missions while leaving the site as a long-term community asset.

We want to acknowledge that the initial design renderings you’ve seen were prepared rapidly and specifically to meet tight zoning and massing submission timelines after provincial funding was confirmed on April 1, and before the summer meeting hiatus.

They were not intended as final designs.

We are now working to create updated site plans and building designs that reflect the input we’ve received from our public Open House, community groups, individual meetings with local residents and merchants, and ongoing conversations with the town and its heritage experts.

The next round of renderings will offer a fuller picture — complete with streetscapes, gardens, and trees — so you can better visualize the theatre as part of the community fabric, and we are committed to it being beautiful and as in harmony with its surroundings as it can be.

Once they are ready, we will hold another public event to share the updated design and plans that have been derived from the feedback.

In the meantime, we are committed to keeping the conversation open and we want to continue hearing from you.

If you have questions or feedback, please visit our website shawfest.com/royalgeorge or email us at royalgeorge@shawfest.com to schedule a conversation with our team.

We believe the best Royal George is one we create together — a space that honours the past, responds to the present, and serves our community for the next 100 years and beyond.

Tim Carroll and Tim Jennings are the artistic and executive directors for the Shaw Festival, respectively.