Cleveland’s Historic Allen Theater

Photos of Cleveland Ohio’s Allen Theater on the first day of renovation.  Built in 1921 as a 3000 seat movie theater, the Allen closed “officially” in 1968.  Seeing spotty use there after, it was very close to becoming yet another parking lot.  Now completely renovated, it brings Cleveland’s Playhouse Square holdings to roughly 10,000 seats.  The second-largest performance arts center in the United States.

In the grand Allen foyer, demolition workers had started to take out the brass stairway railings, which was very disturbing to see. The ironic part is that they had to re-install them once the theater’s future was secured.

Lastly, the first day of renovation was not without incident. We were very eager volunteers and while messing with a very old and very heavy external stage load-in door, it came crashing to the ground, or more specifically on a car below. We thought it was a car from someone associated with the (original) Cleveland Ballet.

2B - AZooNY Overlooking Stage
2B – AZooNY Overlooking Stage

View from the original balcony

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3B - Allen Theater Hallway
3B – Allen Theater Hallway

Notice the temporary strung lighting and detailed plaster work.

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4B - Allen Theater Carpet Paint
4B – Allen Theater Carpet Paint

Another hallway. The white specs on the red carpet are paint chips and fallen plaster from above.

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5B - Allen Theater House
5B – Allen Theater House

5B-Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue The front hallway looking South towards Euclid Avenue.

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Allen Theater Lobby Today
6B – Allen Theater Lobby Today

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For more theater fun, check out AZooNY’s Mars Opera comical production!