Stratford Festival Theatre inspired Little Library unveiled on Ballantyne Avenue

Jeff Stacey poses with his creation, the newest little library inspired by the Festival Theatre located in front of 176 Ballantyne Ave.

By: Lisa Chester

A gathering of neighbours and friends helped celebrate the unveiling of the newest little library on Ballantyne Avenue on the last Sunday in June. The library was conceived, designed and constructed by Jeff Stacey fulfilling the years’ long promise to Angie Dornai that he would make one for her.

This special addition to the front yard began construction while Stacey was enrolled in the artistic welding workshop hosted by Off the Wall Stratford Artist Alliance as part of the Theatre Production Arts program.

Since 2005, Off the Wall has served as the bridge between the professional artistry of the Stratford Festival and the next wave of theatre creators.

“The design was brought to life through his work with a man named Frank Holt,” said Dornai in a greeting to guests. “Frank was the teacher from Off the Wall who also made the sculpture at the festival of William Shakespeare. Jeff took the welding course and that is how he came up with the idea to create the base a couple years ago. Then he looked for opportunities to come up with the next big inspiration.”

As an engineer by trade with a bit of an artistic side enough to bring him to Stratford, Stacey was inspired to sign up for the artistic welding workshop because of the enthusiasm and inspiration of Michele Boniface, who serves as the board chair of Off the Wall.

“You see lots of examples of things around town, a lot of lawn sculptures. Our neighbour built a mobile sculpture that he built in Off the Wall, I met him during my course, but mostly it was Michele and Ted saying come on out and spread your wings, do something fun in the town,” said Stacey.

Knowing that he didn’t want a wooden post, he pondered making it from metal. Before starting the class, each student needs a rough sketch of what they want to build in order for the instructor to order the correct amount of metal.

“We’re close to the Festival Theatre so I thought I better come up with something that looks like Shakespeare. Also, it’s the love of Stratford. Someone joked already that with all the books we are going to have to build another one and that will have to be the other theatres,” laughed Stacey.

The metal base created in the artistic welding workshop is adorned with the silhouette of Shakespeare, masks of comedy and tragedy and in tribute to any number of kings celebrated in plays, there are crowns. The wooden box atop the post has been repurposed, with two large plexiglass doors upon which sits the roof, fashioned after the Festival Theatre that at night lights up with sparkly lights powered by solar energy.

Guests on hand filled the newest little library on Ballantyne Avenue with books they loved or were meaningful to them. David Stones, Stratford’s Poet Laureate, recited his poem “Redaction” written in honour of the compelling documentary The Librarians,  screened at the Stratford Film Festival earlier this year.

“That film is about book banning and the removal of books from our libraries and specifically the persecution and arrest of librarians for having the audacity to and exercising of freedom of speech. This is happening through the bible belt of the United States, but you can also see it happening in Alberta now and even in Ontario. It was a very powerful film, and I called my poem ‘Redaction’ dedicating it to librarians everywhere,” said Stones.

Stacey hopes there will be a massive surge of books going in and out of the little library. There is a lot of foot traffic on the street of people going to the theatre and kids like to check it out as well as adults.

“I’m hoping there’s more going out than coming in and then we can just stock it. Amongst our friends that bring out their own books it can become a hub. There are lots of other lovely little libraries around here too, and we’ll sort of share with them too,” Stacey said.

For more information about Off The Wall, visit stratfordoffthewall.com.