Musical Theater at Winnipeg's Rainbow Stage
Kildonan Park and Canada’s Longest-Running Outdoor Stage
May 14, 2009
Sometimes, something good can come out of a disaster. When a devastating flood hit Winnipeg, Manitoba, and other areas along the Red River in 1950, few people would have thought that anything good could come out of the destruction. Homes were damaged, offices and stores ruined, and the bandstand at Kildonan Park in Winnipeg’s North End had been washed away. When the mess the flood had left was cleaned up, city planners began to ask the question of how to replace the ruined bandstand. Soon, they came up with a new, more ambitious idea.
The Construction of Rainbow Stage
As the official history of Rainbow Stage indicates, the brass and concert bands that had entertained passersby in the park since the 1940s had been popular on a small scale, but the plan for a full-sized open-air theater was much more elaborate. With newspaper columnists and the musicians’ association promoting the project, there was soon support for the building project, complete with funding and an architectural plan. The name for the new stage came when someone likened the stage’s proposed shape to a rainbow. Construction on the new 3000-seat stage began in 1951, and the first performance was in 1953. The addition of a roof did not detract from the outdoor atmosphere but helped make the theatre comfortable even on rainy evenings. Although it is protected from the worst of the elements, the theater can become quite cold later in the evening; most audience members wear warm clothes and take blankets along with them, as well as protection from the mosquitoes which can sometimes be quite troublesome.
The Musical Tradition at Rainbow Stage
With the expanded stage, a new kind of entertainment came to Kildonan Park. Instead of holding instrumental concerts, the organizers began to put on musicals, generally choosing popular, family-friendly productions like The Sound of Music and Peter Pan. Winnipeg’s official website on cultural activities describes Rainbow Stage as the largest and longest-running open-air theater in Canada, and the musicals continue to attract people night after night during the summer months. A further innovation in 2009 is the addition of a winter production, to be held indoors at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in downtown Winnipeg. Most of the performers and musicians for these productions are amateurs, but the quality of the performances is high. Year after year, the musicals continue to attract visitors to Kildonan Park and to give them a chance to enjoy the beautiful setting the park offers.
Features of Winnipeg’s Kildonan Park
Because of the long winters in Manitoba, with months of snow and cold, Winnipeggers tend to spend as much of the summer outside as possible. Besides the theater, Kildonan Park has something for everyone to enjoy, from an outdoor swimming pool and playgrounds to picnic areas complete with fire pits for cooking meals and shelters for rainy days. Bicycle and walking paths are busy during the summer, while ski trails allow people to continue using the park in winter. The outdoor skating rink formed from a summertime pond is also popular for people of all ages.
The beautiful setting of Kildonan Park and the fun of the musicals themselves make visits to Rainbow Stage enjoyable for people of all ages. An evening at the stage is an experience no visitor to Winnipeg should miss.
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