On October 25, the Faculty of Music Undergraduate Association (FMUA) sent a petition to David Lehto, the chief, university planning, design & construction at U of T, on behalf of the Faculty of Music calling on the university to reopen MacMillan Theatre.

Since the theatre closed in December 2023, students and faculty have had to relocate to other theatres across the GTA. They face longer commutes, added costs, and lose out on the experience of performing in an orchestra pit at their university. 

MacMillan Theatre

The MacMillan Theatre — named after former Faculty of Music Dean Sir Ernest Campbell MacMillan — is an 815-seat theatre. It’s one of the few stages in Toronto that can host a full-scale opera production. 

The theatre, a flagship venue for the Faculty of Music, hosted over 600 shows a year, more shows than any other arts organization in the city, according to the university. It features an 80-foot-high fly tower — a system of pulleys and counterweights above the stage — and a 50-person orchestra pit.

The stage has featured many top Canadian musicians, including opera star Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, Grammy award-winning soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, and Academy Award-winning composer Mychael Danna. 

The theatre closed for a remediation project after not having any major renovations since opening in 1964. In an Instagram post on January 19, the U of T Faculty of Music wrote that the theatre was temporarily closed and previously scheduled winter semester performances would be moved to new venues. 

The university is currently seeking proposals from architects for the MacMillan Theatre remediation project with a deadline of November 12. Beyond the project, the university also has a longer-term revitalization project that aims to transform the theatre with additional seating, better acoustics and sightlines, upgrading the lobby, and state-of-the-art technological infrastructure.

“Important space” 

In the petition, members of the Faculty of Music community expressed their concerns to Lehto over the continued closure of the theatre. 

“It has been frustrating and frankly, devastating, to hear announcements of a continued closure without a definite reopening date,” they wrote.

They also highlighted that the closure of the theatre not only leads to students feeling that they are being “disregarded” but students and faculty are now “forced to find new locations to rehearse and perform in.”

“We implore the University to return to the originally planned, eight-week (8) timeline for the reopening of the MacMillan Theater,” they wrote. “We implore the University to find a solution that reopens the MacMillan Theater for the [winter semester] as previously scheduled.”

Students and faculty have had to travel to places such as the Tribute Communities Recital Hall at York University — a 34-minute subway ride from Museum Station — to perform. 

Enquan (Frank) Yu, a first-year masters of music student specializing in opera, spoke to The Varsity about the effects of having to find a new theatre space.

“Because [MacMillan] is closed, we have to move our performances somewhere else… requiring more money because we have to rent those spaces and then [travel] to those spaces to rehearse during the school days,” Yu explained. “That’s not really convenient for any of us, even for the instructors [and] the director, and especially for the students.”

Yu was an undergraduate student at U of T and spent time performing at the MacMillan Theatre. When looking at other venues like York University, he found that other stages don’t compare and that MacMillan Theatre is “a great space for students to grow and learn in.”

“If you look at the situation itself, it’s definitely good to have experience in different theatres, but at the same time, it’s coming at the cost of [not having] access to our own theatre,” said Yu. 

In an interview with The Varsity, FMUA Vice-President Student Life Jay-Daniel Baghbanan spoke about the impacts of the closure. 

“You can’t shut down our curricular spaces and then not give us alternatives, not support us, not even provide us with proper space,” he said. 

Baghbanan added that the alternative theatres don’t have orchestra pits and that “the people performing aren’t getting the proper experience.” 

“They have not given us a clear timeline, and they don’t understand how this messes with so many people’s degrees… like we’ve lost our biggest theatre,” he explained.

In an interview with The Varsity, Gillian MacKay — a professor of music at U of T — also expressed concerns about the continued closure of the theatre and said that, “there’s no particular upside.”

“This is our laboratory space. It’s our performance space, and it’s not just another classroom,” she said. “This is a really important space for us, and I’m not sure that people outside of music necessarily understand that.”

Curtains closed

In a statement to The Varsity about the theatre’s closure, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Music Ryan McClelland wrote that the university had originally projected the theatre to open for the 2024–2025 winter term. 

“After further assessment, we learned that the upgrades are more extensive and complex than first anticipated,” wrote McClelland. “The theatre will remain closed for the remainder of the current academic year.”

McClelland mentioned that he had communicated this delay in a letter emailed to the entire Faculty of Music community in early October. 

When asked about the FMUA’s petition and whether the eight-week timeline for the reopening of the theatre would be considered, a university spokesperson wrote that “the answers to these questions can be found in the statement already shared.” 

“We appreciate everyone’s flexibility as we work together to deliver the best musical experiences possible while undertaking the necessary changes to ensure the space is safe for all who learn, teach, work, and visit there,” wrote McClelland.