Regional Theater of the Week: Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls, SD

BroadwayWorld.com, the largest theatre site on the Internet, is excited to announce a new feature to its comprehensive regional coverage - the Featured Regional Theater of the Week! Each week, BWW will introduce its readers to a regional theater located in one of our (over 130!) coverage cities. By exploring these different venues, their history and showcasing the production seasons, BWW continues its commitment to expand our presence in communities and cities across the United States.

This Week's Featured Regional Theater: The Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

The Orpheum Theater opened in 1913 as a vaudeville house and seats just under 700 (originally seating 1000). The elegant and beautifully preserved theatre served in this capacity until 1954, when the Community Playhouse group acquired the Orpheum for its home.

Known for its superb acoustics, the theater receives over 100,000 visitors each year, and the events there include plays, concerts, community events and private rentals.

The Orpheum Theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The Orpheum Theater Center consists of three distinct (rentable) spaces; The 686-seat Historic Orpheum Theater, built in 1913; the old "Rainbow Bar" that now houses the 450-seat Anne Zabel Studio Theater; and a classroom space that accommodates 75-100 people. Front and back "Link" structures join the buildings together.

The City of Sioux Falls bought the Theater Complex from the Sioux Falls Community Playhouse in the spring of 2002 and hired SMG to manage the property in 2003. Since taking over the venue we have been busy assisting the City with nearly $2 million in renovations and completion of the Link and Studio Theater.

A part of the renovation has been the creation of new office space for Channel 16 (City Link), the Municipal Band and the Sioux Empire Community Theatre.

The final renovations were completed late summer in 2009. A reopening celebration was held to mark the completion of the project. The final phase of the renovation included updating paint and carpeting and installing period correct seating in the main Orpheum Theater.

In the fall of 2009, two of the five original murals were re-installed. When the Orpheum Theater was purchased by the City in 2002, the murals had seen decades of neglect. As renovation and restoration projects took place at the Orpheum, the murals were identified as a key component to the theater's setting. Midwest Art Conservation Center, based in Minneapolis, was brought in to work on the Orpheum Theater murals.The cost for restoring the first two murals was around $40,000. Two of the remaining murals, similar in size to the restored paintings but in better condition, will cost a considerable amount less to restore. However, the largest mural that still hangs above the Orpheum stage, needs to be retouched as well.

For tickets or more information about the Orpheum Theatre, visit: http://orpheum.sfarena.com/orpheum/home

Know of a theater we should feature? Send us your suggestion to christina@broadwayworld.com

To post a comment, you must register and login.