Citadel Theatre Edmonton began on 10 November 1965 with 277 seats, every one of them in a former Salvation Army hall on 102nd Street.
Four partners made it happen. Joseph H. Shoctor, James L. Martin, Ralph B. MacMillan and Sandy Mactaggart bought the old building, which everyone called the Citadel, for $100,000, and the theatre took the name along with the keys. Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened the place, and all 277 seats were filled.
Here’s the number we like best. By the end of that first year, 1,300 people held subscriptions. That’s more than four and a half subscribers for every seat in the house.
Outgrowing the hall
A room that size was never going to hold that crowd. Construction on a new complex on 99th Street began in 1974, and the first phase opened in November 1976 with Romeo and Juliet. The Maclab Theatre followed in 1984. When the building was finished in 1989, the Citadel counted five theatres, an atrium and a nine metre waterfall, and called it the largest complex of its kind in Canada.
The company kept leaving the building, too. From 1968 to 1985 the Citadel on Wheels and Wings took shows to schools and communities, as far north as the Arctic Circle.
Where it sits in Alberta’s stage scene
Edmonton likes its stages. The Edmonton Fringe has run since 1982, and the Edmonton Symphony found its permanent seat in the Winspear. Down the highway, Vertigo Theatre in Calgary has built its own following with mysteries, and the Edmonton Folk Music Festival has been running since 1980.
The Citadel’s website carries the full history, including every artistic director back to 1965, and the current season is one click away.
Quick answers
The Citadel Theatre first opened on 10 November 1965 in a former Salvation Army building on 102nd Street, with Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The current complex on 99th Street opened its first phase in November 1976.
Joseph H. Shoctor, James L. Martin, Ralph B. MacMillan and Sandy Mactaggart bought the old Salvation Army building for $100,000 in 1965. Shoctor is the name most tied to the theatre, and he returned as producer from 1981 to 1984.
The Citadel’s own history says the complex was finished in 1989 with five theatres, an atrium and a nine metre waterfall, and calls it the largest of its kind in Canada. The Maclab Theatre came in 1984 as part of phase two.
Sources: Citadel Theatre, Our History; The Canadian Encyclopedia, Citadel Theatre.
