State of the State
Perhaps you think things have been a little quiet where the State Theatre is concerned. After all, wasn’t the renovation of the former moviehouse by Live Oak Theatre supposed to have been completed by this month, in time for the premiere of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde? Is the silence a sign that the project is in trouble?
Hardly. As anyone who has walked past 719 Congress in recent months can attest, “quiet” is about the last word you’d want to use regarding the State lately. Demolition of the theatre interior has been taking place, with plenty of jackhammering and banging and drilling and such being done to rip up and ship out the old concrete, so a new stage floor and stadium-style house seating can be constructed. In fact, theatre PR czar Amy Stinson reports that the concrete has been poured for the main stage floor and the elevator shaft, and the concrete for the house seating is hot on its heels. Also, the light/sound booth and the new School of Acting, to be housed in the old theatre balcony, are being framed, the school stage floors decked, and the catwalk system hung. All that on the inside, plus the restoration of the fa�ade has begun on the outside. Word is that project manager Frank Seely has the renovation on pace. The shift in the schedule resulted from a decision on the part of the theatre company to take advantage of a funding surplus to incorporate into the first phase of the renovation some changes originally planned for the second phase. So far, nothing has been scratched from the theatre season; the announced productions have only been juggled around. My Fair Lady, the Lerner & Loewe musical favorite with which artistic director Don Toner wants to debut the newly made-over State, is now set to run April 9-May 16; a play still to be chosen will follow June 4-27; a production of Noel Coward‘s Hay Fever will run July 9-August 8; then Shakespeare‘s The Taming of the Shrewwill close the season, August 27-September 19.
If part of your concern stems from the fact that you haven’t heard the Live Oak name for some months, rest easy. You simply missed the company’s rechristening. In aligning itself 100% with its new home base, Live Oak officially changed its name to the State Theater Company. And with that classy sign out front getting all spruced up, that’s a move that makes some real sense.
Speaking of the sign restoration, that’s being covered with part of a $25,000 grant awarded to the State from the Hoblitzelle Foundation of Dallas. The grant, which will pay for renovation of the entire theatre fa�ade, including the sign and marquee, is almost poetic, as it comes from the family which originally built and owned the State Theatre building.
Other grants have been coming the State’s way, too, such as the $7,000 award from the Dell Foundation in support of the theatre company’s Theatre Discovery program, which allows Austin-area junior high and high school students to attend live performances at the State. So things haven’t been all that quiet on the funding end. If anything about this project could be considered quiet, it might be the capital campaign, which has been in stealth mode for the past several months. But even that changes this week. Get ready to hear a lot of calls for the public’s support of this renovation. Next Thursday, February 4, Capital Campaign chairman Greg Marchbanks launches the open phase of the campaign with an event at the Metropolitan Club and the re-lighting of the State Theater sign. For more info, call 472-5143.
This article appears in January 29 • 1999 and January 29 • 1999 (Cover).