On September #, 2001, the lush ruby-red curtain was drawn and music by (person) began to fill the theater. Each of the 2200 seats was filled as they listened in awe and gazed around the French Renaissance-styled room. The finale of the evening’s program featured a prideful rendition of America the Beautiful by the audience and led by Mayor (X). Just days before then, the infamous September 11th attacks had happened on the east coast. The shock was still fresh, but this night was not a night of mourning, but of celebration. After an estimated $12 million and a decade long renovation project, the Orpheum Theater of Sioux City, Iowa was back to its original 1920’s grandeur.
The Orpheum Theater is one of the oldest buildings in the down-town area of Sioux City. Its character and prominence in the city has converted various times over its 80-plus years of being. It began as the state’s only grand theater in 1927 during a time of huge economic growth and prosperity for Sioux City. As hardship and the desire to build new rather than replace old hit the city in the 1960s and again in the early 1980s, the Orpheum’s prominence in Sioux City culture and commerce waned dramatically when it was turned into a crude split-screen movie theater and finally closed in the early 1990s. The patterns of urban growth and decay have had a large impact on the fate of the theater, making the history of the Orpheum Theater an insight into the history of Sioux City.
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The arts were important to the Sioux City area since its founding. Before the Orpheum Theater was built on Pierce street in the 1920’s, there were two other prominent music halls in the downtown area. The Academy of Music was the first concert hall and was built in 1870 on Fourth Street be...
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...cts. Armour & Co., a meat packing company, and the completion of a bridge between Sioux City and Nebraska, helped the city recover financially and stabilize the economy and allow for a huge influx of immigrants into the 1920s (The History of Sioux City). In response to the economic recovery nationally, there was a great “Orpheum boom” across the country as places to perform the popular vaudeville acts and new “moving picture” shows (Poole). Rapp & Rapp out of Chicago were the leaders in designing Orpheum Theaters across the nation, designing theaters such as the Oriental Theater in Chicago, IL, the Paramount Theater in New York City, and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD (Sorensen and Chicoine). As the previous two concert halls in Sioux City had been closed, Sioux City jumped on the Orpheum bandwagon and had Rapp & Rapp design their own to be built on Pierce Street.
Holcomb, Billy. Theater Row Movie Palaces of Denison, TX. Denison: Denison Heritage Inc, 1999. Print.
Lewiston, Idaho, once an important port for miners traveling in search of gold, is now a town of about 30,000 people. Few of the people who live in the Lewis-Clark Valley speak of its over one hundred year history. However, there are still parts of the community where one can explore and see the age of the town. Downtown Lewiston is one of a few areas where people can go exploring. They wander the streets, admiring the buildings that stand proudly above them. One building in particular ties a unique history into the downtown area. Morgan’s Alley stands at the corner of Main Street and D Street, overlooking the cars and people passing by. On the outside, it looks like an ordinary, older building. On the inside, it holds secrets of the past and possibly a ghost.
Concluding the Federal Theatre Project, it has accomplished the goal of introducing theatre to millions who had never seen theatre before. It employed thousands of people, initiated European epic theatre and Living Newspaper theatre techniques to the United States, and for this reason could be seen as a vast achievement.
Theatres and How We Had Fun." Little, Brown, and Company. (Boston, Toronto, London); 1991. P. 139, 144.
Motion pictures from Hollywood had taken Broadway’s place as the king of entertainment. The main reason behind this was that because it was culturally relevant and coming out with new flashy techniques such as Todd-AO and Cinerama.
When modern day people think about “The Theater”, most people think about going to the movies. In earlier times, people thought about one family, The Burbages. The Burbage family was very well known because of their success in the theaters. The purpose of this paper is to give facts about Richard Burbage’s life and to tell the influence he had on the theater.
Pasquarello, M. (2007). The Great Depression and Its Effects on the Movie Theatres of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Available: http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his480/reports/dep-movi.htm. Last accessed 11/03/2014.
Chicago was a thriving city in the late 1800s. In fact, it was the lumber capital of the world. (2) Buildings, streets, and sidewalks were all made of wood taking advantage of Chicago’s abundance
When the lights come up the audience is immediately thrown into an old and dingy movie theatre complete with popcorn strewn across the floor. It is within this set that deep social commentary is made throughout the
Zoglin, Richard. "Theater: That Old Razzle-Dazzle Chicago Was Once A Problem. Now It's A Triumph." Rev. of Chicago. Time 25 Nov. 1996: n. pag. Time. Time. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.
Goodwin, Susan and Becky Bradley . "1960-1969." American Cultural History. Lone Star College-Kingwood Library, 1999. Web. 7 Feb. 2011
"American Cultural History - 1960-1969." Lone Star College-Kingwood Library Home Page. Aug. 2009. Web. 28 May 2010. .
Andrist, Ralph K., and Edmund O. Stillman. The American Heritage History of the 1920s & 1930s. New York: American Heritage/Bonanza, 1987. Print.
Brockett, Oscar G., and Oscar G. Brockett. The Essential Theatre. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976. Print.
My experience watching a live theatre performance on stage was a fascinating one, most especially since it was my first time. I attended a staged performance of “The History Boys” in a small theatre called “The Little Theatre of Alexandria” at 8:00 pm on Wednesday June 8, 2016 in Alexandria, Virginia. The overall production of the play was a resounding experience for me particularly the performance of the actors and the design of the scene made the play seem real.