Dock Street Theatre

Dock Street Theatre (Charleston, South Carolina). An announcement in the South Carolina Gazette in 1736 read: “On Thursday, February 12, will be opened the New Theatre in Dock Street in which will be perform'd ‘The Recruiting Officer’.” The house became known as the Dock Street Theatre for the two years it was in operation. It closed in 1738 and burned in the great Charleston fire of 1740. Two more playhouses were built on or near its site, one in 1754 and a second in 1766, then a hotel was built in its place. In 1937, using funds and people from the Works Progress Administration, a replica of the original 1736 interior (with seating for 563 spectators in pewlike seating) was constructed inside the crumbling hotel. Owned by the city, the restored theatre opened, as its ancestor had, with a production of The Recruiting Officer. The Dock Street Theatre (which is actually located on Church Street, the name having changed in 1809) was an outgrowth of the little theatre movement.

Dock Street Theatre
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Dock Street Theatre
Location:	135 Church Street Charleston, South Carolina
Coordinates:	32°46′43″N 79°55′48″W / 32.77861°N 79.93°W / 32.77861; -79.93
Built/Founded:	ca. 1809
Added to NRHP:	June 19, 1973
NRHP Reference#:	73001684

Dock Street Theatre is a theater in in the historic French Quarter neighborhood of downtown Charleston, South Carolina. It was the first building in America designed for use as a theater. ^[1] It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The theater is currently in the final stages of a $20 million renovation that includes major improvements in resistance to dangerous seismic activity and hurricane wind events, the addition of elevators to make the facility fully wheelchair accessible, and greatly improved amenities for the audience. Dock Street Theatre is currently scheduled to reopen in May 2010.

References

1. ^ Dock Street Theater

External links

• [1]
• Historic Charleston's Religious and Community Buildings, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary

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