Royal McPherson Theatres Society, Victoria, 1997-99
Royal Theatre renovation

Part 1 (1997-98)
(with Proscenium Architecture + Interiors)


Built in 1913 as a vaudeville/opera house, the theatre became, like so many others of its generation, a cinema from the 1930s until 1977 when it was obtained by the municipalities of Victoria, Saanich and Oak Bay. In the two decades since, it has been debated whether the region would be better served by a new performing arts centre or a renewed Royal Theatre. Meanwhile, the theatre has been the subject of several studies around this question, and has received a number of improvements, largely to improve accommodations for the audience. The most recent of these studies, by Proscenium Architecture + Interiors, proposed significant improvements from the proscenium line back, all intended to make a performing arts centre of the Royal in deed as well as word. Lamont Management was engaged to review Proscenium's plan (known colloquially as "The Red Booklet Plan") within the context of Greater Victoria area's inventory of professional performance spaces and the needs of the region's performing arts organizations and their audiences, and to comment on the operational aspect of the plan.

The Royal has three principal users; the Victoria Symphony, Pacific Opera Victoria and the commercial presenters who bring performances ranging from "the arts" to "popular entertainment". These users have had a consistent shopping list for improvements to the Royal. It was not difficult to confirm the need to expand the size of the stage (it's currently too small for many touring shows), modernize it's equipment (it is uneconomical and sometimes impossible for shows to play one of the few remaining hemp houses in North America) and replace the seating (indeed, some seats are inadequate to provide any comfort to a normal-size person).

Three questions posed by the Royal's manager, the McPherson Foundation, regarding the Red Booklet plan needed particular focus during the study.

The plan included the provision of office space for the McPherson, the Symphony, the Opera and made an assumption that other arts organizations would find the space attractive as well. As it turned out, there was virtually no interest in office space in a refurbished Royal. Moreover, the market for office space in downtown Victoria (described as "aggravated") did not support the concept. Construction of office space was not recommended.

While it was clear that the Royal would need a large rehearsal studio to accommodate the Symphony and the Opera's rehearsal requirements, particularly when another show was onstage, there was a notion that a second studio would not only create more flexibility in scheduling, it would also serve the needs of the alternate and small theatre community and as such, would truly make an arts centre of the Royal. In fact, deliberate consultation with the small theatre community revealed that they would prefer to make their home in space that was more in keeping with the R&D spirit of their undertakings. The second studio was not recommended.

This provided the flexibility to deal with the third question, loading access. The options were to load off the street beside the theatre (an inefficient method requiring everything to be double handled) or to load directly off the street behind the theatre (a change which the refurbished Royal could accommodate). Clearly, a solution which could save the theatre's clients substantial sums would make it more attractive and thus more marketable to promoters, to the benefit of audiences in the capital region. Loading access off the street behind the theatre was recommended.

Lamont's work helped to clarify planning for the transformation of the Royal Theatre into a performing arts centre for the Capital Region by focusing on how operating efficiency will improve the marketability of the theatre. Indeed, by filling about 10% of dates which are currently dark, the Royal will be able to offset increased operating costs resulting from the improvements to the theatre.

Part 2 (1999)

Midway through 1999, the Royal McPherson Theatres Society was between Executive Directors and needed to get its plans for the rehabilitation of the Royal Theatre moving forward. Lamont Management was engaged to work with the Society and its partners in the project, the Victoria Symphony and Pacific Opera Victoria.

Ketchum Canada had been hired to conduct a campaign readiness study to determine how the community was likely to respond to a fundraising campaign, and the partnership needed help co-ordinating its input to the Ketchum study, which Lamont Management provided. The results of Ketchum's work were reasonably encouraging, to the extent that Lamont Management was asked to pull together the efforts of the partnership and the project's architect, Proscenium Architecture, to solicit the support of the Capital Regional District for the project.

During this process, the Royal McPherson engaged a new Executive Director, and by the end of the year, he was sufficiently ensconced that Lamont Management was able to hand over the management of the Royal rehabilitation project to him.