The Richmond CenterStage, formerly known as Carpenter Theater (also spelled Theatre) for the Performing Arts, is located at 600 E. Grace Street in downtown Richmond, Virginia

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

. Originally known as Loew's Theatre, the movie palace

Movie palace

A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...

 was developed by the Loew's Theatres

Loews Cineplex Entertainment

Loews Theatres, aka Loews Incorporated , founded in 1904 by Marcus Loew and Brantford Schwartz, was the oldest theater chain operating in North America until it merged with AMC Theatres on January 26, 2006. From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The...

 company and was designed by John Eberson

John Eberson

John Eberson was an American architect best known for his movie palace designs in the atmospheric theatre fashion.Born in Czernowitz, Austro-Hungarian Empire , Eberson went to highschool in Dresden and studied electrical engineering in Vienna. He arrived in the United States in 1901 and at first...

. Construction of the building began in 1927 and its doors were opened in 1928.

Physical Description

Largely known to Richmonders as the Carpenter Center, the structure occupies the 600 block of historic Grace Street, a one-way road traveling west through Richmond. It is surrounded by Broad Street to the north, Seventh Street to the east, Grace Street to the south and Sixth street to the west.

Its location is currently being proposed as an addition to the Grace Street Commercial National Historic District. It is not located in a City of Richmond Local Old & Historic District.

History

As a prominent New York architect, John Eberson conceived a design for the Loew's Theater Corporation influenced by both Moorish and Spanish baroque structures. According to architectural historian Calder Loth, "Loew's was considered the most up-to-date theater in the South when it opened on April 9, 1928." Eberson was famous for having invented the "atmospheric theatre

Atmospheric theatre

An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace which has an auditorium ceiling that is intended to give the illusion of an open sky as its defining feature...

" design in which the theater walls resembled an elegant villa or streetscape under a night sky. The Carpenter Theater design evokes a Spanish setting with a faux sky ceiling containing stars and moving clouds.

Current Use

Acquired in the 1980s by the Virginia Center for the Performing Arts (now known as the Richmond CenterStage Foundation), the Carpenter Theater was renamed the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts. In May of 2000, the Alliance for Performing Arts conducted a feasibility study from whence major plans for restoration and rehabilitation ensued.

The structure reopened to the public on September 12, 2009 as Richmond CenterStage. Nine performing arts groups based in Richmond use the structure as a performance venue: African American Repertory Theatre, Elegba Folklore Society, Richmond Ballet, Richmond Jazz Society, Richmond Shakespeare, Richmond Symphony, SPARC (School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community), Theatre IV

Theatre IV

Theatre IV is The Children's Theatre of Virginia. It is the second largest children's theatre in the nation and the largest in-school touring theatre company in the nation. In 1975, Theatre IV was founded by Bruce Miller and Phil Whiteway, becoming the state's first professional theatre for young...

– Barksdale and Virginia Opera. The facility has the capacity to hold smaller groups for local and regional performances as well as very large audiences for national performing acts.