Avon Theatre, Stratford

The Avon Theatre, Stratford, where we saw The Stratford Festival’s production of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit”.

The Avon Theatre is the only traditional proscenium theater used by The Stratford Festival.

The theater opened in 1901 as a vaudeville house. Upon the death of vaudeville, it became a movie house.

The theater was acquired by The Stratford Festival in 1963, and given its current name (the theater had operated under at least three other names during its first six decades of existence).

In 2002, the theater was extensively remodeled, and given a new—and very displeasing—exterior (the original façade, in late Victorian style, had been constructed of red brick).

The Avon Theatre seats 1090 patrons, and is roughly the size of a Broadway drama house.