According to the date on a stone at the rear of the old building, Mrs. Norris
commenced construction of The Kitchener, as it was first known, in 1913. Used
to entertain troops stationed on the Commons during World War I, it officially
became The Royal George, a silent film house, under the ownership of Mr. George
Reid and operated as such into the 1920s. It ran under different ownership as
The Brock Cinema until 1972 when the theatre was sold to the Canadian Mime Company
as their "black-box" performing space. Under
the new artistic direction of Christopher Newton in 1980, the Shaw Festival purchased
the building. Renovations began to transform the building into a replica of an
Edwardian opera house, and it became the Royal George Theatre once again. The
building's three sets of double doors open onto Queen St., Niagara-on-the-Lake's
main street. The pedimented, low-pitched front gable, wide frieze board and Ionic
pilasters are classically Greek in style. The entire structure, with its two-storey
front and rear theatre fly-tower, is finished in stucco with wooden siding on
the front. The
interior's balcony, intimate seating, raised proscenium stage and gilded decoration
recreates the atmosphere of turn-of-the-century European music houses. The
Royal George Theatre is just one of the Shaw Festival's three theatres in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The Festival Theatre opened in 1973 at the corner of Wellington St. and Queen's
Parade, and The Court House Theatre, housed in the historic Court House on Queen
St. | 
