State Theater
719 Congress
Project proposed in: 1996
Architect: Sinclair Black
Original cost: $1.9 million
Revised cost: $1.9 million
Current status: mainstage completed April 1999
The State, a movie theatre that dates back to 1935, was a candidate for renovation in 1985, when voters approved $2 million in bond money for the Paramount Theatre next door to turn the dilapidated cinema into a performing arts venue. Unfortunately, the Paramount’s financial troubles and the bust of that decade stopped the plan before it got started. The State sat mostly empty until 1994, when director Don Toner moved Live Oak Theatre into the building. After making some $130,000 in improvements, the company began producing plays there – and trying to get its hands on the bond funds for additional renovations. It took some intense lobbying, but City Council finally turned the $2 million over to Live Oak in 1997, which allowed the company to add classrooms, redesign the auditorium, and open it to the basement of the adjacent Reynolds-Penland Building, which Live Oak had acquired and where it put dressing rooms, a rehearsal hall, and costume and scene shops. Plans for a 90-seat flexible theatre in the Reynolds-Penland Building were put on hold after the bust. Construction took approximately 10 months. Since the theatre reopened in April 1999, Live Oak changed its name to the State Theater Company, Toner left and founded Austin Playhouse, and the State and the Paramount joined forces as the Austin Theatre Alliance, which is now considering selling the Reynolds-Penland Building.
This article appears in February 20 • 2004.