{"id":2544,"date":"2024-08-25T14:22:32","date_gmt":"2024-08-25T18:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2025-08-07T08:27:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T12:27:31","slug":"the-history-of-the-theatre-of-living-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/eternal-2544-the-history-of-the-theatre-of-living-arts","title":{"rendered":"The History of The Theatre of Living Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Theatre of Living Arts, located in Philadelphia, first opened as a theater in 1908. Since then, the venue has served as a concert hall and a movie house, experiencing periods of both decline and revival. Over the years, audiences have watched everything from classic plays to horror films within its walls. Find out more about the venue&#8217;s history at <a href=\"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\">philadelphia-trend<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Opening and the Road to The Theatre of the Living Arts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Known as one of the best concert venues in the United States, its story began with the opening of the 700-seat <strong>&#8220;Crystal Palace&#8221;<\/strong> in 1908. By 1927, the establishment had been converted into a concert hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beginning in 1941, it was managed by the Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corporation. At that point, the former theater and concert hall became a movie house. The new management changed its name to the <strong>New Palace Theatre<\/strong>. The venue was quite popular, but attendance began to gradually decline in the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 1960s marked a new chapter in the venue&#8217;s history. In 1963, the building was purchased by Celia Silverman and Jean Goldman. The two Philadelphians decided to house a new non-profit theater company there: <strong>The Theatre of the Living Arts<\/strong>. To do this, they started with a reconstruction of the building. Philadelphia architect Frank Weise created the restoration plan, and designer Wolfgang Roth brought it to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The former theater space was expanded, creating a 431-seat auditorium with a thrust stage. The new theater&#8217;s artistic director was <strong>Andre Gregory<\/strong>, with Celia and Jean serving as producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new theater achieved success and popularity in Philadelphia. The company prepared up to ten plays per season, each one earning praise from audiences and critics alike. The company&#8217;s actors included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Danny DeVito;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Morgan Freeman;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Judd Hirsch;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ron Leibman;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sally Kirkland.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This era came to an unexpected end. In 1967, Gregory clashed with the venue&#8217;s board of directors. He subsequently resigned, and the company disbanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Further Transformations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Soon after, the building was acquired by another company and renamed the <strong>Bandbox Living Arts<\/strong>. They aimed to create a &#8220;beatnik house,&#8221; but the idea failed to attract an audience. As a result, the theater was closed in 1969.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next buyer was entrepreneur Al Malmfelt. He purchased the theater in 1970 and reopened it as a movie theater a year later. His goal was to show films that were not in wide release but were of interest to viewers. Over the course of a week, the venue might show up to 20 different films. The movies ranged from classic to controversial, and they even showed TV series. The &#8220;Midnight Monsters&#8221; series was dedicated exclusively to horror films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1976, this was the venue that hosted the Philadelphia premiere of <strong><em>The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em><\/strong>. The film gained extraordinary popularity and was shown weekly for a period of time. Audience members came to screenings dressed as their favorite characters, creating a live show right in the theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>American Theatre Arts for Youth<\/strong> used the building for several productions in 1978. At that time, they staged <em>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer<\/em> and <em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1980, the venue once again became unprofitable and was closed, but in 1981, the building was acquired by <strong>Stephen Starr<\/strong>. He was looking for a larger space for his nightclub. However, such a radical transformation of the old theater was not to be. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board prohibited this use of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The entrepreneur then opened a movie theater and named it <strong>The Palace<\/strong>. It operated for six months before closing again. A new team\u2014Claire Kinter, Eric Moore, and Ray Murray\u2014began developing ways to revive it. They organized Repertory Cinema, Inc. and planned to exchange films with New York to make the cinema profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was at this time that VCRs and cable television were becoming popular in the U.S. Cinema attendance was declining. The new team did not despair; instead, they pivoted, creating <strong>TLA Video<\/strong> and opening video rental stores. The first was located next to the theater, followed by four more stores. They operated successfully until 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1986, the building hosted the premiere of Jean-Luc Godard&#8217;s <em>Hail Mary<\/em>. The film sparked protests from Philadelphia&#8217;s Catholic community, who picketed outside the theater for the entire run of the film. The following year, the venue began to decline again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Allan Spivak<\/strong> became the next owner of the building. It was soon renovated and converted into a live performance venue. The first show audiences saw on the updated stage was the musical <em>Lady Day<\/em>. In 1986, this production won an Outer Critics Circle Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Theatre of Living Arts in the 21st Century<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>From the late 1980s until 2006, the venue operated as a concert hall. In 2006, it was acquired by <strong>Live Nation<\/strong> and renamed <strong>The Fillmore at TLA<\/strong>. The theater&#8217;s interior was also updated at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps one day, live theater will return to this building, but for now, since 2008, the venue has operated under the name The Theatre of Living Arts, specializing in a variety of shows and events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Theatre of Living Arts, located in Philadelphia, first opened as a theater in 1908. Since then, the venue has served as a concert hall and a movie house, experiencing periods of both decline and revival. Over the years, audiences have watched everything from classic plays to horror films within its walls. Find out more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":2545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[1586,1587,1589,1592,1585,921,1567,1580,1581,1588,1590,1591,1583,1582,1584],"motype":[160],"moformat":[545],"moimportance":[32,35],"class_list":{"0":"post-2544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-teatrs","8":"tag-allan-spivak","9":"tag-andre-gregory","10":"tag-danny-devito-morgan-freeman","11":"tag-jean-luc-godard-hail-mary","12":"tag-live-nation-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-theater-history","14":"tag-philly-music-venues","15":"tag-repertory-cinema-history","16":"tag-rocky-horror-picture-show-philly","17":"tag-south-street-philadelphia","18":"tag-stephen-starr","19":"tag-the-fillmore-at-tla","20":"tag-theatre-of-living-arts","21":"tag-tla-philadelphia","22":"tag-tla-video","23":"motype-eternal","24":"moformat-c-l","25":"moimportance-golovna-novyna","26":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2547,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/2547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia-trend.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}