The Empress Theatre (also known as Cinema V), is an abandoned Egyptian-revival style theatre located on Sherbrooke Street West in the N.D.G. district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has been closed since 1992.
Video Empress Theatre (Montreal)
History
Built in 1927 and designed by Joseph-Alcide Chaussé, with interiors by Emmanuel Briffa, it is the only theatre in Canada designed in the Egyptian style (inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb). Opened as the Empress Theatre, the building was a vaudeville theatre for burlesque and first-run films. In 1962 it was a dinner theatre called the Royal Follies. In 1968 it became a two-tiered art-movie cinema called Cinema V-Salle Hermes. In 1974 it was briefly named The Home of the Blue Movies and in 1975 it became Cinema V, a repertory cinema. In 1988 it was acquired by Famous Players and showed first-run films. In 1992 a fire caused damage to the theater resulting in its permanent closure.
Maps Empress Theatre (Montreal)
Current state
The abandoned building is slowly deteriorating and its perimeter fenced off. In 2005 community organizers opened a small one room office on the ground floor (left corner of building; location of a former health food store) as a headquarters for the building's restoration. The office was permanently closed by the city in December 2011, leaving the building vacant and continuing to deteriorate. In the years since, vandals have broken windows (now bordered up) and covered the exterior with graffiti.
Uncertain future
Geordie Productions [1], Black Theatre Workshop, McGill Music Conservatory and the City of Montreal had planned to restore the building. The estimated cost was $11.8 million. The theatre was to be used for performance and visual arts and included a cafe/art gallery and a 246-person concert hall. It was to be home to Geordie Productions and Black Theatre Workshop, and the McGill Conservatory had planned to use the theatre for its music program.
In August 2010 the provincial government pulled funding and announced ownership would be returned to the city of Montreal by November. Residents of NDG formed Renaissance Empress, a group dedicated to preserving the theatre and transforming it into a cultural centre, and delayed the move. On August 15, 2011 the city seized ownership, effectively canceling the project.
In January 2012, the borough of N.D.G. announced any non-profit group with a new plan for the building present it by May 11, 2012. The city stated it would not provide any funding for the building.
On September 5, 2012, the borough voted to accept Cinema NDG's proposal. Their plan was to open a movie theater with four screening rooms and set aside 20% of the building for commercial use. Restoration of the building was estimated at $12 million. Cinema NDG was given until December 31, 2013 to find financial backing, but failed to meet the deadline; two extensions were granted during 2014 and 2015 but Cinema NDG failed to meet these as well. On November 2, 2015 the city voted to grant a third and final extension, for June 30, 2016, but yet again Cinema NDG failed to meet the deadline, forfeiting the project.
In late September 2016, in hope of a new start, Cinema NDG submitted a revised and scaled back plan to the city, bringing the estimate cost down to $9.5 million. However the city did not show willingness to accept a new plan, and furthermore stated under no circumstance would it transfer ownership of the building unless Cinema NDG could prove it had secured 100% of the funding.
In October 2017, a new citizens formed group was announced: Friends of the Empress. Expressing a competing interest in reopening the theater, yet with little to no specifics on plans, Cinema NDG had accused it as an attempt to play politics. A week later, the French film company MK2 signed a letter of intent to partner with Cinema NDG (now known as Empress Theater Foundation) to run an 880 seat cinema out of the building, with 5 rooms, a restaurant, a bar and a coffee shop. No financial details have been set yet, nor has the city made any new agreement.
References
External links
- Empress Theatre Foundation
- Article from The Suburban
- Article from The Montreal Gazette, April 13, 2010
- Article from The Montreal Gazette, May 14, 2010
- CTV story
- Empress Theatre / Cinema V on Heritage Montreal's Website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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