I went by this theatre today — pretty much done for, even as a commercial building. The alleys are all fenced off, and there are no active tenants in the building, exits are sealed other than the front. The block is completely industrial now. There are two roof sheds on top with their doors hanging open (visible from the car dealer next door’s driveway). The building next door on the left side is still there, and a car dealership is now on the right. Both alleys are blocked/gone.
I added a few photos from today— January 2018. The arcade is still very much intact, and it looks like the salon on the left is using that exterior lobby for extra space. The shops on either side go back into the arcade quite a ways (if not all the way), and have doors both outside on the street and inside the arcade/outer lobby. I see the theatre doors at the back of the arcade, but the front doors were locked, so I couldn’t go in. Im going to be asking around to see if the theatre is still in tact.
I’m a BAM employee front-of-house, and just added a few photos I had.
The basics of the renovation — The large box office area (now the “outer lobby”) was originally the (only) lobby. When you take a right and enter the ever larger interior lobby, you are standing at the back of the original orchestra section.
The house is now made up of the old mezzanine and upper balcony, and the stage was bumped out past the proscenium, and raised to meet the old mezzanine. Under the apron of the current stage, you have the old front orchestra. It’s now used for stage trap doors, etc. I believe part of it can be lowered to serve as an orchestra pit.
The original director that brought the first show in for the re-open by BAM was Peter Brook, and the renovation mirrored a project of his in Paris — the crumbling portions of the theatre were pulled down, surviving ornamentation was left. That is, rather than creating a new “fake” skin for the theater, the ruin was stabilized and the ornamentation that survived stayed put. Where there were new walls, they were painted to match the authentic distressed walls.
The technical systems were completely replaced, since it needed to be a working, modern performance space. I believe the roof was completely rebuilt too.
The seating in the orchestra was replaced last year (the original seating was long gone), and two functional sort of right and left boxes were added over top the exit voms.
I’ll try to remember to get some more detailed photos. I’m there all the time.
I went by this theatre today — pretty much done for, even as a commercial building. The alleys are all fenced off, and there are no active tenants in the building, exits are sealed other than the front. The block is completely industrial now. There are two roof sheds on top with their doors hanging open (visible from the car dealer next door’s driveway). The building next door on the left side is still there, and a car dealership is now on the right. Both alleys are blocked/gone.
I added a few photos from today— January 2018. The arcade is still very much intact, and it looks like the salon on the left is using that exterior lobby for extra space. The shops on either side go back into the arcade quite a ways (if not all the way), and have doors both outside on the street and inside the arcade/outer lobby. I see the theatre doors at the back of the arcade, but the front doors were locked, so I couldn’t go in. Im going to be asking around to see if the theatre is still in tact.
I’m a BAM employee front-of-house, and just added a few photos I had.
The basics of the renovation — The large box office area (now the “outer lobby”) was originally the (only) lobby. When you take a right and enter the ever larger interior lobby, you are standing at the back of the original orchestra section.
The house is now made up of the old mezzanine and upper balcony, and the stage was bumped out past the proscenium, and raised to meet the old mezzanine. Under the apron of the current stage, you have the old front orchestra. It’s now used for stage trap doors, etc. I believe part of it can be lowered to serve as an orchestra pit.
The original director that brought the first show in for the re-open by BAM was Peter Brook, and the renovation mirrored a project of his in Paris — the crumbling portions of the theatre were pulled down, surviving ornamentation was left. That is, rather than creating a new “fake” skin for the theater, the ruin was stabilized and the ornamentation that survived stayed put. Where there were new walls, they were painted to match the authentic distressed walls.
The technical systems were completely replaced, since it needed to be a working, modern performance space. I believe the roof was completely rebuilt too.
The seating in the orchestra was replaced last year (the original seating was long gone), and two functional sort of right and left boxes were added over top the exit voms.
I’ll try to remember to get some more detailed photos. I’m there all the time.