CBYE Media Releases - August 11, 2008

Ballet head sees Tivoli rising again

Four years after the front of the Tivoli Theatre complex began to collapse, the leader of a local ballet company remains confident about plans to bring it back to life.

"It is on track. I feel much better now than I did a year and a half ago," said Belma Diamante, president of the Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble, which acquired it for $1 in 2006. "The Tivoli will be restored, I can tell you very confidently."

A leading expert in the field of historic theatre restoration who has been studying the project not only believes the Tivoli can come back, but that it should.

"I think it's a very handsome theatre, and well worth the effort to preserve it," said Janis Barlow, whose Toronto firm specializes in bringing old theatres back to life.

"Historic movie palaces are where art and heritage intersect, and both are critical to your identity as a community."

Barlow has been working with the ballet company since last fall. She is charting a course -- commercial, architectural and creative -- to help a revitalized Tivoli find a new place in the blossoming arts district of James Street North.

Last month, the Toronto firm won the League of Historic American Theatre's 2008 Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution.

Barlow was project manager on the $30-million restoration of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, Canada's largest heritage theatre restoration.

She says the Tivoli -- with elements dating as far back as 1875 -- can be saved with the right plan and the right funding, and that it can serve a vital purpose in Hamilton and in its neighbourhood.

"There's nothing that turns a can't-do community into a can-do community faster than reviving something that's important to you. It makes you feel like you can remake yourself -- that you can save what's important and be proud of it."

As is typical of movie houses of its era, she explained the Tivoli's stage is too shallow to permit full productions of classical ballets.

Instead, she thinks the auditorium is better suited to smaller dance productions and to musical and theatre performances.

Barlow's Toronto-based company is developing three options for the Tivoli, including:

• A multiuse residential, commercial and theatre complex on the current site.
• A multiuse complex built in combination with a neighbouring property.
• A standalone entertainment complex with a main auditorium of 600 to 700 seats and a smaller, studio theatre with 100 to 200 seats for rehearsals and small shows.

The third option appears the most viable, mainly because it is simpler, especially in light of zoning restrictions, Barlow said.

It's too early to estimate the cost of any of the options, she said.

whemsworth@thespec.com

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