When the railway industry pulled out of Stratford in theearly 1950s, journalist Tom Patterson had an idea for breathing new life into hisnative city’s economy: a festival of Shakespearean theatre.

On January 22, 1952, City Council gavehim a grant of $125 to seek artistic advice in New York. Unfortunately, he failedto connect with Laurence Olivier, his intended target there.

However, Canadian theatre pioneer Dora Mavor Moore subsequentlyput him in touch with legendary British director Tyrone Guthrie. Intrigued by atransatlantic telephone call, Guthrie visited Stratford to see if Patterson’s ideamight be viable – and ended up becoming our first Artistic Director.

The Festival was legally incorporated on October31, 1952. Guthrie rapidly began recruiting actors from across Canada and abroad,including stars Alec Guinness and Irene Worth.

A concrete amphitheatre was builtto hold a revolutionary thrust stage conceived by Guthrie and designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch– the same stage that is the heart of the Festival Theatre today. For the inauguralseason, though, and the three that followed it, the stage and auditorium were housedunder a giant canvas tent.

The road tocompletion was fraught with difficulty. In May 1953, it seemed as if the entiredaring venture would flounder for lack of funds. But building contractor Oliver Gaffneykept his men working regardless until last-minute donations by Governor GeneralVincent Massey and the Perth Mutual Insurance Company saved the day.

On the night of July 13, 1953, we opened ourfirst season with Guthrie’s production ofRichard III,starring Alec Guinness in the title role. The play’s opening lines – “Nowis the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York” – markedthe beginning of an astonishing new chapter in Canadian theatre.

The second of the season’s two productions,All’s Well That Ends Well (with IreneWorth as Helena), opened the following night. It too met with critical acclaim,and the season’s initial four-week run was extended to six. That first season’s company includedseveral young actors who would go on to become major figures on the Canadian culturallandscape, including Douglas Campbell, Timothy Findley, Don Harron, William Huttand Douglas Rain.

Drawing inspiration from the Elizabethan apronstage, the ancient Greek amphitheatres and the Roman arenas, the thrust stage designedby Tanya Moiseiwitsch revolutionized the performance of Shakespeare.

It comprises a protruding platform,a balcony (now removable), trap-doors, nine acting levels and eight major entrances.Seating surrounds the stage in asemi-circular arc, while two vomitoria, or “voms,” run diagonally from the stageinto tunnels under the auditorium.

The theatre seats well over 1,800people, yet no spectator is more than 65 feet from the stage.

In 1956, under Artistic Director Michael Langham,work began on a permanent theatre to house the Moiseiwitsch stage. Designed by RobertFairfield, the Festival Theatre has a circular floor plan and a “pie-crust” roof,echoing the Festival’s origins under canvas.

Despite the challenges posed byStratford’s location in a snow belt, building was completed in time for the nextseason. The new Festival Theatre was dedicated on Sunday, June 30, 1957, and thefollowing night saw the opening of Langham’s production ofHamlet, with Christopher Plummer inthe title role.

Over the ensuing decades, the Festivalattracted some of the world’s most celebrated actors, including Alan Bates, ZoeCaldwell, Paul Scofield, Maggie Smith and Peter Ustinov, and became a long-timehome for such no less stellar artists as Brian Bedford, Brent Carver, Colm Feore,Martha Henry and Stephen Ouimette, to name just a few.

We began renting the disused Avon Theatre in 1956 and purchased it in 1963, whenTanya Moiseiwitsch led the renovations of the interior. A major remodelling in 2002 created a completelynew facade and lobby.

In 1971, we began leasing premisesby the Avon River in Stratford. In 1982, with a new stage designed by Desmond Heeley and seatingfor 410 people, those premises became the home of the Shakespeare 3 Company andits successor, the Young Company. In 1991 thevenue’s name was changed from the Third Stage to the Tom Patterson Theatre.

In 2002, we added a fourth venue:the Studio Theatre. Created in what had been the Avon Theatre’s scene shop (relocatedto premises on Brunswick Street), the Studio contains a smaller, modified versionof the Festival Theatre’s thrust stage, with a pillared balcony and seating for260 patrons.