Doors Open - Toronto

This weekend was Open Doors weekend in Toronto. This is where a number of businesses open their doors for the public to have a look around. Usually behind the scenes. This weekend I was able to get to 3 different places.

Union Station where we went up into the roof of the Great Hall and walked along the Glass Floor and along the Balcony. Most people who use Union Station dont know that they exist. Mainly because they dont look up. The Union station is huge. We walked along long empty corridors and up and down several sets of stairs. The corridors had NO doors at all.

Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People. This is a professional theatre that produces and creates plays for children ranging from 4 year olds to high school students. We went behind the scenes, saw the green room - where the actors wait before they go on stage. The tour guide said that every theatre has a green room. We also went down to the basement and saw the workshops - the costume shop, the wardrobe room and the set workshop. We could not see the Theatre/Stage because there was a rehearsal going on.

The last place I was able to see was the Canadian National Ballet School (NBS). Apart from a 30 minute wait to get in (The line was very very long) this was a most enjoyable tour. We saw several ballet studios - some empty and some in use with a ballet class (even though it was the weekend), the school classrooms and the large cafeteria. We also saw the NBS residence building where students from outside of Toronto, live when they are not in school. There are about 120 full time students at the NBS going from grade 6 (12 year olds) to grade 12 (17 year olds) with roughly 20 students per grade. All the students learn french, music and ballet, as well as other Ontario educational requirements. We even got to see the school science laboratory.