The Royal & McPherson Theatres Society announced last Wednesday that they will be commissioning a feasibility study to consider potential expansions of the Royal Theatre, located on Broughton Street.
Stakeholders were invited to share their input and ideas on any future renovations at a meeting on February 19th.
“There has been conversation and discussion for years about the [Royal Theatre], its functionality, and what could be done to modernize it or expand it to continue to meet the needs of audience members and the community,” Franz Lehrbass, Executive Director of the Royal and McPherson Theatres Society, told Victoria Buzz.
“In one of these discussions, some members of our board and a local philanthropic foundation got chatting about potential expansions – out of that basically came the opportunity to explore some of these ideas through a feasibility study.”
When asked the details of the feasibility study, Lehrbass explained that there are three stages.
“The first stage is information gathering — taking a look at documents about the building, interviews, talking to owners and stakeholders, community demographics — that kind of thing,” he says.
“The second stage is a space program. Not to be confused with NASA! We basically transform the ideas from stage one into a report that details what spaces are most necessary and needed in the theatre.”
“The third phase is taking all of those different spaces and figuring out how they would work together, relate to each other. We will draw up conceptual drawings and a budget.”
The feasibility study has been funded by an anonymous donation.
Lehrbass is looking forward to the possibility of renovations, calling it “serendipity” that these events could come together to make it happen.
