NEWPORT – The Newport Opera House Theater, one of the oldest surviving theaters in the United States, will receive an extensive renovation this year, reopening as the nonprofit Newport Opera House Theater and Performing Arts Center in 2017.
The theater, which opened on Dec. 28, 1867, anchors Washington Square in Newport. It was originally designed to seat 1,500 people for live performances, according to a history of the building compiled by the Opera House Restoration Project.
In addition to plays and musicals, the opera house supported performances by musicians and public lectures. Among those who appeared on its stage: Harriet Beecher Stowe, in 1872, and Frederick Douglass in 1873.
In later years, the opera house featured minstrel shows, burlesque, boxing exhibitions and notable performers, such as Duke Ellington. Converted to a motion picture palace in the 1920s, the theater later was turned into a twin cinema, and finally supported three screens. The building closed in August 2010.
Since the 1990s, even before the building closed, preservationists have organized to raise funds for a restoration that would return the historic theater to its original use as a single-stage, live venue.
The $14 million renovation, to be largely privately financed, is assisted through a $4.2 million grant, part of the 2014 Rhode Island Creative and Cultural Economy Bond approved by state voters.
The work is expected to begin this spring and should be completed by December 2017, according to the performing arts center’s website.
The architect is NewPort Architecture LLC. Construction manager is Farrar & Associates. The civil engineer is John Braga & Associates. Landscape architecture will be provided by PLACEstudio Landscape.
