Young Centre for the Performing Arts

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The Young Centre for the Performing Arts is a theatre in the Distillery District in downtown Toronto, Canada. It is a brand-new theatre built into 19th-century-era Victorian industrial buildings. It is home to the Soulpepper Theatre Company and the theatre school at George Brown College.HistoryGooderham and Worts was founded by James Worts, a British immigrant, in 1832. The company became one of the world's largest distilleries, and in 1859 it constructed the largest distillery in Canada, also one of the largest in North America. This distillery is what remains today of the ‘Distillery District’ at the bottom of Trinity Street in Toronto, Ontario. In the first year of the new distillery, G&W produced 849,700 U.S. gallons of proof spirits, a value equivalent to one quarter of the entire Canadian production at that time. What is now known as the Young Center For the Performing Arts was originally built as tank house 9 and tank house 10, part of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery. The buildings were constructed in 1888 following the 1885 passage of the Canadian law which required that all whisky must be aged for two years before being consumed. Prior to this law change, whisky was often consumed quickly after it was distilled; the law change meant that Gooderham and Worts needed to increase storage space for their product. Both structures were designed by David Roberts Jr., who designed many of the Distillery’s buildings.Current useCurrently the two tank houses with their additions/renovations house a performance center which combines studio spaces with theatre spaces. The building is a partnership between the Soulpepper Theatre company and the George Brown Theatre School. The building houses four theaters and four studio spaces, all of which are shared by the two entities that make up the owners of the complex.