Nightwood's FUTURE home at 877 Yonge street
Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre are building a new collaborative space for the performing arts at 877 Yonge Street.
Since August 2022, Nightwood has been without a venue, forced to rely on renting rehearsal and performance space and working primarily remotely. Six months into our search for a new space, we discovered a City of Toronto-owned building run by St. Clare’s that had a viable space in need of dramatic renovation available.
In June of 2023, we shared with you that Nightwood Theatre and our partner at Tapestry Opera had received special funding from the City of Toronto to develop a new facility at 877 Yonge Street. Just north of Yonge and Bloor, the new facility will be a bold step towards establishing the centre of Toronto as the next great destination for artists and audiences and as an inspired space designed by Hilditch Architects to create new, vital Canadian works.
The vision is to create two new state-of-the-art venues, a 2,600 square foot performance hall and a 775 square foot rehearsal and recording space, complemented by a greenroom and offices to support Tapestry Opera, Nightwood, artists and independent producers using the venues. The facility will be 6,500 square feet, over three times the space we previously ran in the Distillery Historic District Artscape spaces.
The new build and vision will encompass a performance space that features a fully equipped theatre for recitals with the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano, black box performances featuring lighting, audio and video systems, and a turn-key audio-video recording set-up. The rehearsal space will support multiple activities simultaneously and act as a dressing room during show runs. We are excited to be working closely with Remington North Services in devising and delivering our Theatrical vision.
Check out the Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre”s very own website here!
CONSTRUCTION UPDATES
Now that the construction of our new theatre and office space at 877 Yonge Street is well underway, things are moving quickly. We hope you love a work-in-progress as much as we do. Follow along as we post updates!
December 2024
Happy New Year! We are excited to bring you the December construction update, which includes details on the tech booth in the new theatre and the gorgeous colours of our new space.
Performance Hall
Our theatre is coming to life!
You can now see the skeleton of the tech booth at the north of the space. You can already see the rectangular windows! We are thrilled to be able to have a dedicated tech booth in the theatre, as this will facilitate not only the discrete running of lighting, projections, and sound but it is also a soundproof space from which we can record professional audio. This booth will significantly improve our capacity to self-produce dynamic shows for a smooth and enjoyable audience experience!
Office space
The walls and door frames of our office space are also beginning to take shape. It is very exciting to vision how our team will gather in this space afresh!
Colours! Finishings!
We have decided on the final colours for our new space, and we’re thrilled! Clay Jones and Naz Afsahi have worked to share the name of the space associated with the colours.
October 2024
Construction is in full swing! Now that we have handled the water remediation work, we are full steam ahead with creating the new venue. The large room opposite the theatre is divided into a rehearsal studio, a green room, and Nightwood and Tapestry’s offices. We have exciting developments about framing, final paint, millwork, colours, and finishings.
Performance Hall
Photos of Andrea Donaldson, Jaime Martino and Remington North touring the performance hall.
Office and Rehearsal Studio
This space is being turned into Nightwood and Tapestry’s offices, our rehearsal studio, and our green room. As we have only ever seen this space as a large activities room, the effect of delineating the space with framing is immense. The window section along the east wall has gotten bigger—yay, more light for our future office!
The walls and framing are up in the rehearsal studio, both private offices for Tapestry and Nightwood leadership and the green room.
Behind the scenes
We’re picking swatches!
A walkthrough shows new framing as the space takes shape.
August & September 2024
In our last update, we found water everywhere, so read on to learn about the remediation work in the previous two months.
Performance Hall
Under Slab Water
After record-setting heavy rainfalls this summer, the team found evidence of water seepage under the concrete slab. While this is unwelcome news, it was better to have found it at this stage with everything demolished and not later when we have our shiny new flooring and are open. The remedial work included installing weeping tile under the slab, increasing the drainage outside the building, and a new sump pump system. Since the work took the better part of August and continued into September, our timelines have shifted slightly – but we will still be opening in early 2025, so never fear!
Insulation
The team at StructCon is currently installing insulation in the Theatre, which you will see on either side of the photo below. This is exciting progress as we see the shape of the walls and the envelope of the space emerge. Incredible to think of this space full of people and art and beauty in just a few short months!
Office and Rehearsal Studio
Water remediation work took place in our Rehearsal Studio space in August and September, but it didn’t slow down the framing (much). It’s been so long as an open space we’d gotten used to it, but it is tremendously exciting to see the walls coming up to demarcate the spaces – it’s really starting to feel real. As you can have seen on the floor plan, there will be two private offices, and those are the spaces that you can see in this photo of the framing. This section of the floor also bore the brunt of the water work, so you can see evidence of that too!
Behind the scenes
Panoramic view of construction in full swing in the performance hall.
JULY 2024 UPDATE
We have officially broken ground on creating the theatre, offices and rehearsal studio at 877 Yonge Street. Having completed the demolition and asbestos removal earlier in the spring, it is full steam ahead to create an accessible and affordable theatre in Toronto.
Performance Hall
After the demolition work was completed, we found some water behind the drywall, which is to be expected with a building of this age. While we move ahead with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing rough-ins, we’re also working hard to address the leaks, springs, and drips that have made themselves known.
Office and Rehearsal Studio
The construction team has started with replacing the ventilation system and ductwork. The team raised the pre-construction ceiling by nearly three feet, and we were delighted to discover its full height—dancers using the studio will be happy, too!
As of January 2024, asbestos remediation was completed, and in early March so was demolition, setting up the runway for construction!
After being forced to leave a community built over 20 years from the ground up, the companies embark on the next chapter. As we did in the Distillery District, we are poised to create a new vibrant arts community and an innovative partnership with the affordable housing organization St. Clare’s. Just north of Yonge and Bloor, the new facility will be a bold step towards establishing the centre of Toronto as the next great destination for artists and audiences and as an inspired space designed by Hilditch Architects to create new, vital Canadian works.
While Toronto experiences a drought of arts venues, Tapestry and Nightwood are creating a stable and exciting new arts complex in the heart of Toronto, close to public transit access.
With the help of Councillor Dianne Saxe, the ABC Residents Association (ABCRA), and The Greater Yorkville Residents Association (GYRA), the City of Toronto has allocated $1.25 million in Section 37 funds from 1 Bloor West to build the dynamic arts facility by the 2024-2025 season. Additional funding has come from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, St. Clare’s, and our generous supporters. The ABCRA has also initiated a fundraising campaign to raise $250,000 for the project with a match of the first $25,000.
With these new investments, the vital first phase of construction at 877 Yonge Street will be fully funded, and the project scope has increased from $1.4 million to $4 million.
After 20 years sharing the Ernest Balmer Studio, we are excited to continue partnering with our friends at Tapestry Opera. Tapestry Opera was founded in 1979, and is the only Canadian company solely dedicated to the creation and performance of original Canadian opera. With a mandate to create powerful opera that reflects and changes the world around us, Tapestry brings together art forms, creators, and communities to create boundary-pushing work.
“Following years of Toronto losing vital arts spaces, we are proud to announce the creation of a new facility in the heart of Toronto that is also easily accessible by public transportation,” notes Michael Hidetoshi Mori, Artistic and General Director. “This new space will provide affordable space not only for Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre,” says Executive Director Jaime Martino, “but, just like our Ernest Balmer Studio in the Distillery, it will create low-cost, accessible space for the greater performing arts community in Toronto.”
Nightwood’s co-executives Andrea Donaldson, Artistic Director, and Naz Afsahi, Managing Director, added: “The energy and generosity that this new venture has attracted has been astonishing. We are so grateful to St. Clare’s and to the numerous individuals and partners who are making this (necessary) dream a reality. We see great benefit in sharing resources with not only each other as arts organizations, but with another non-profit as a creative and exciting way forward in addressing the social needs of our city. We are very close to our goal and welcome those who want to support growing culture in Toronto to reach out!”
Edina Cavalli
John Dalrymple
Monica Esteves
Barbara Moses
