KIRKLAND LAKE - Winning a national competition would be a game changer for a Kirkland Lake theatre.
The historic LaSalle Theatre is one of the finalists for the National Trust for Canada’s The Next Great Save competition this year.
The competition allows heritage advocates across Canada to plead their case for $50,000 to help protect, adapt, renew and improve Canada’s historic places. Online voting for the top prize starts today (April 18).
“As cheesy as it sounds, and you hear it every year at the Oscars, it's a thrill to be nominated. But of course we want to win because it just raises our credibility profile. If we go to the gold mines and say we'd like help restoring the whole building for a couple of million are you in, I think we're going to get looked at a little more seriously now,” said Michael Rawley, the theatre's artistic director.
“We realize we're going to get there regardless, but it would just be such a big help, we wouldn’t have to worry over the summer because we'd know the roof would be getting done and paid for.”
The theatre was built in 1939 and is one of the last four remaining streamline modern art deco theatres in Canada. The others are located in Saskatoon and Toronto.
SEE: LaSalle Theatre continuing to raise money to keep its doors open
Back in February, Rawley had just finished setting up a GoFundMe to help pay for a new roof — which is what the money would be used towards if they win — when he found out about the competition from the folks at the Museum of Northern History.
“They said, ‘I don't think we are appropriate to apply for this, but I sure hope you are.’ And so they sent me the link. Just so lovely and supportive of them. I looked into it went, ‘Oh my god, I think we do.’ So I jumped on it and I applied,” Rawley said.
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When the building was purchased in 2013, Rawley said they had a new roof mortgaged into the buying price, but the company didn’t do a proper job on it.
“So last summer, we got bucket of tar and the local company came by and they just slabbed it all over the roof and said, ‘You’ve got a year and that's it.’ We went OK, this is getting really necessary. It was raining on the stage. I mean, not like pouring, but you'd be on the stage during performances and you'd feel drips of water on your head,” he said.
“With the degraded parts of the roof, the inside pipes would freeze and then they'd explode. We had floods and rivers down the back hallways, the furnace room flooded which fried the furnace board, so, you know, we've had our moments with the roof and we thought that's number one. If we can't stabilize that, then we're done.”
If there’s any money leftover, the plaster on the ceiling that was degraded due to moisture and precipitation would be second on the list to be fixed, Rawley said.
“If we get both of those fixed then our insurance premiums will go down and our heating costs go down,” he said.
Even just being a finalist has made up for all of the trials and tribulations since 2013, Rawley said.
“It makes me feel like my 11 years here have been like one fell swoop and worth it. You're working so hard, your nose is to the grindstone, and you're not looking sideways. And then something like this happen. It feels like we've just been validated,” he said.
“It's nice to know that if you believe in something and are passionate about it and keep your head up and keep moving, things will happen.”
Voting is open until May 6. People can vote once a day.
“My recommendation is get up in the morning, get your cup of coffee, and it's the first thing you do. It’ll take less than five minutes. Each person basically has about 20 votes that they could give us,” Rawley said.
The Duncan Train Station on Vancouver Island was the winner last year and received over 76,000 votes, Rawley said.
“Please share with everybody you've ever met in your whole life. Just throw the good vibes and the support our way,” he said. “This wouldn’t just be a win for the theatre, this would be a win for the whole community.”
You can vote here.
