The Ron Maslin Playhouse

From the beginning the members of Kanata Theatre cherished the dream of their very own performing space. In 1993 several major developments brought the dream closer to reality. The group conducted a feasibility study that convinced the members to spend Kanata Theatre’s $300,000 reserve fund on a playhouse project. On Kanata Theatre’s initiative the City of Kanata allocated roughly half of its new federal/provincial infrastructure funding to that project, set aside land at Walter Baker Park, and gave Kanata Theatre the right to manage the building under a lease. By the spring of 1994 the project was under way.

Peter Smith of the firm of Lett/Smith, Governor General’s award winner for his restoration of London’s Grand Theatre, designer of Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre, and long time architect for the Shaw Festival, was chosen to design the building.

Kanata Theatre took possession of its new home in March 1996 and in May of that year staged its first production in the Playhouse, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. The move to the Playhouse was followed by a large increase both in the group’s membership and its audience. In 2001 the Playhouse was expanded by the addition of a rehearsal studio, postponed for budgetary reasons from the original construction, an expanded lobby and other facilities. Kanata Theatre covered the entire cost of this expansion.

Kanata Theatre occupies the Playhouse under a fully prepaid fifty- year lease that expires March 14, 2046. It manages the Playhouse, allocates its use, pays all operating costs, and receives all revenue from rentals.

The Playhouse is located at 1 Ron Maslin Way in Walter Baker Park, just off and clearly visible from Terry Fox Drive. It comprises about 14,000 square feet. The auditorium seats 350 in a 13 row continental seating arrangement on one raked level. There are four wheelchair accessible spots. There is a spacious lobby with floor to ceiling windows, a dramatic curved display wall, and access to an outdoor patio on the south side. The cloakroom and washrooms, including a dedicated handicapped washroom, are