The canopy above our heads in Roy Thomson Hall is heavier than you can imagine! Our champion tour guide Doug gives us all the details.
Douglas Gardner is one in a million. A member, donor, and committed volunteer for over twenty-five years, Douglas is our champion tour guide at Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall. Douglas knows every secret, story, and legend of the Halls, from the ghosts at Massey to the backstage antics of big-time stars. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of Douglas’s knowledge as he takes us, and you, on a tour of some of the most interesting facets of Roy Thomson Hall. We thank Douglas for all of his years with us, and are proud to have him share his stories on Soundboard.
In this video, our champion tour guide Doug tells us a hilarious story about a secret staircase at Roy Thomson Hall.
Douglas Gardner is one in a million. A member, donor, and committed volunteer for over twenty-five years, Douglas is our champion tour guide at Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall. Douglas knows every secret, story, and legend of the Halls, from the ghosts at Massey to the backstage antics of big-time stars. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of Douglas’s knowledge as he takes us, and you, on a tour of some of the most interesting facets of Roy Thomson Hall. We thank Douglas for all of his years with us, and are proud to have him share his stories on Soundboard.
Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall obviously attract great performers; what you may not realize though, is that this talent is not limited to the artists you see on stage. Among our staff – and especially among the part-time, front-line customer service staff – are people with any number of hidden talents. Many of our friendly box office agents and ushers are, in their alternate lives, singers, dancers, actors, artists, photographers, conductors, jugglers, and lion tamers. (Okay, maybe not that last one.) Over the next few weeks we’ll be telling you some of their stories.
The claim tag which you receive when you check your coat comes in a big roll; when the usher removes your tag from the roll, that constitutes a sale. One day, while working in the coat check at Roy Thomson Hall, Alison Hill did something an usher is told never to do:pre -rip those tags. Alison soon began to regret her decision and worried about what would happen if no one wanted to check their jackets this particular evening. Struck by this dilemma, Alison – who is, among other things, an actor, singer, and songwriter – quickly came up with lyrics and melody to a song about her predicament. CONTINUE READING >
Jamie Oliver, coming to Roy Thomson Hall, Sunday November 22 at 2pm, takes questions from Globe and Mail readers and dishes on his kitchen must-haves, simple meals for first-time cooks and why you’ll never, ever catch him at KFC.
You have been such a strong advocate of teaching ordinary people how to cook exceptional meals in their own home. If there were three things that are dead easy to learn, but would improve almost anybody’s cooking, what would they be?
– Jim Smerdon, Vancouver
If you’re starting totally from scratch and have never cooked before, I’d try one-cup pancakes first, because they’re very easy and they give you such a sense of pride when you get something like that right for the first time. I’d also try mini-shell pasta with peas and bacon – the recipe is on my website and in the Food Revolution book, and then parmesan chicken with crispy posh ham. If you go onto YouTube and put in “Mick the miner,” there’s a clip of a 51-year-old bloke who’s never cooked in his life doing parmesan chicken with crispy posh ham. If he can do it, anyone can do it. And that 51-year-old bloke cooked his family’s Christmas dinner last year! CONTINUE READING >
Douglas Gardner is one in a million. A member, donor, and committed volunteer for over twenty-five years, Douglas is our champion tour guide at Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall. Douglas knows every secret, story, and legend of the Halls, from the ghosts at Massey to the backstage antics of big-time stars. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of Douglas’s knowledge as he takes us, and you, on a tour of some of the most interesting facets of Roy Thomson Hall. We thank Douglas for all of his years with us, and are proud to have him share his stories on Soundboard.
Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall obviously attract great performers; what you may not realize though, is that this talent is not limited to the artists you see on stage. Among our staff—and especially among the part-time, front-line customer service staff—lie people with any number of hidden talents. Many of our friendly box office agents and ushers are, in their alternate lives, singers, dancers, actors, artists, photographers, conductors, jugglers, and lion tamers. (Okay, maybe not that last one.) Over the next few weeks we’ll be telling you some of their stories.
Many years ago, when Elizabeth Muir found out that the building campaign for Roy Thomson Hall included a public seat endowment program, she decided that one of these would make a great tribute to her mother, and purchased one in row U on the main floor. As head of the music department at Havergal College, Elizabeth also persuaded the school to purchase the three adjoining seats, and helped organize an intense fundraising campaign to finance the cost of doing so. (Each seat was $1000.) CONTINUE READING >
Roy Thomson Hall is one of the architectural jewels of the city. Designed by the late Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, its distinctive diamond-patterned glass canopy is instantly recognizable. But there are places and spaces and stories behind those panes at Roy Thomson Hall that even our most regular patrons probably don’t know about.
Hidden away between behind the stage itself is a small ladder that allows passage from the choir loft to the organ loft. Before our Enhancement Project in 2002, a tiny, twisty staircase stood in its place, one that always reminded me of some Gothic Phantom of the Opera-type drama. It was one of two spiral staircases—one at stage left, and one stage right—used by organists to get from the stage level to the organ loft. These are needed because an organist may be directing a choir in one piece (from the stage) and playing the organ (from the loft) in another piece shortly thereafter, and must be able to get from place to place quite quickly. In 2002 we embarked on an Enhancement Project, including the installation of a new, and very heavy (thirty tonnes!) ceiling canopy. One of the staircases had to be removed so that the canopy’s counterweight system could be installed, and was replaced with the aforementioned ladder. (The second spiral staircase is still in use.) CONTINUE READING >
Though TIFF feels like a permanent fixture on our cultural landscape, the festival has undergone a great deal of change over the years. When it opened in 1976 it was as The Festival of Festivals, and a much smaller version of its currently world-class self. Back in those days the festival was run out of the Windsor Arms Hotel, tucked away just south of Bloor near Yorkville.
Since then, TIFF has grown to become the most successful public film festival in the world. But just because TIFF is open to the public, doesn’t mean there aren’t delightfully, tauntingly exclusive events, complete with red carpets, paparazzi, autograph-hunters, and all the rest of the flash that comes with a major film festival.
One such red carpet is permanently fixed at Roy Thomson Hall for the duration of the festival. It’s the one celebrities will walk on their way to Gala Presentations throughout TIFF’s ten day run.
Roy Thomson Hall exterior set-up for TIFF 2008: Ticket holders enter the secured area by way of the Bell arch to queue for Gala presentations.
Toronto is nearing the peak of its annual obsession with all things TIFF. The full Toronto International Film Festival Programme Book and order form became available last Monday, and ever since then film fans of Toronto have had their noses buried deep inside, trying to make their selections. (The Programme Book is not unlike a far-too-heavy university text: reading it is a pressure-filled, time-sensitive race to find the right answers.)
For years Yorkville has been considered the central hub of the festival, but if you’re celebrity-hunting you may want to take that with a grain of salt. More than once I have found myself perched on the big rock across the street from Sassafraz, people-watching diligently, and seen more people trying to look famous than people who actually are famous. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, but more likely I’ve been in the wrong spot: the true focal point for many festival-goers is Gala Headquarters, also known as Roy Thomson Hall. This is the place that the CBC called “ring one of the festival circus” during one year’s frenzy. CONTINUE READING >
Yesterday was THE big day for any performing arts organisation: the season announcement. This was the day that The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall announced to the world what’s coming up for the 09 | 10 season.
This is also, as Caroline captured in her post earlier this week, the time of year we’re all most anxious about deadlines. Starting in late June and up until writing this very post, I have been writing, editing, and pestering everybody (sorry guys!) to please get their changes in to me by deadline, and using a carefully crafted system to keep track of all those changes as I go. I am, needless to say, extremely grateful for my colleagues’ relentless proofing. It takes a village! (And you thought that just applied to children. Press releases count too, I assure you.) CONTINUE READING >
Soundboard is the official community of musicians, music fans, and friends of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Canada. It’s your behind-the-scenes source for related music news, recommendations, and rewards.
