The Colony Theatre is a performing arts venue located on

Lincoln Road Lincoln Road Mall is a pedestrian road running east–west parallel between 16th Street and 17th Street in Miami Beach, Florida, United States. Once completely open to vehicular traffic, it now hosts a pedestrian mall replete with shops, rest ...

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. The theatre first opened as a

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

movie house in 1935 with a capacity to sit 1,200 people. From the 1950s - 1990s, it functioned back and forth as a movie house and a live performance space. As of 2020, the Colony Theatre is a 417-seat performance venue managed by South Florida theater company, Miami New Drama. It hosts music, dance, and theater performances as well as Miami New Drama's theatrical season.

History

Early years

built the Colony Theatre in the 1930s, an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

movie house on

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

. At the time, the theatre was known to many as the "Beauty Queen." The opening night of the movie theatre was said to be well attended, with guest appearances from movie stars such as

Carole Lombard Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard ...

. Notable films that played at the movie house included ''Alfie'', ''The Sound of Music'', ''Doctor Zhivago'', and ''The Great Race''.

1950s

The theatre is transformed from a movie house into a live performance venue.

1960s

Architect, Morris Lapidus, remodels all of Lincoln Road in Miami Modern style of architecture, and the theatre goes back to being a movie house.

1970s

Samuel Kipnis purchases the theatre in 1971, and hosts the Greater Miami Educational Cultural Series, a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

that supplied films from his private library.

1980s

Miami City Ballet takes over operations of the Colony Theatre, turning it into a live performance space.

Renovation and new management

In 2006, under the ownership of the City of

, the Colony Theatre underwent a $6.5 million renovation to return it to its original

style and update stage and technical equipment such as lighting, rigging, and sound equipment. Under the city's ownership, the theatre was used as a rental space for live performances such as theatrical productions, music concerts, and dance recitals. On October 1 of 2016, the City of Miami Beach announced that Miami New Drama, under the Artistic Direction of Michel Hausmann, was taking over operations of the Colony Theatre. Since then, the Colony Theatre was named the 2018

Miami New Times The ''Miami New Times'' is a newspaper published in Miami, Florida, United States, and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami metropolitan area, and is headquartered in Miami's Wynwood Art District. Overview It was acquired ...

Best Theater for Drama, and Miami New Drama won two Knights Arts Challenge awards and a Knights New Works Miami award from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Colony Theatre has also collaborated with national organizations such as Asolo Repertory Theatre and Tectonic Theatre Project.

Management

As of 2020, Michel Hausmann is the Artistic Director of Miami New Drama, the resident theater company at the Colony Theatre. The Managing Director is Nicholas Richberg, the General Manager is Jessica Kaschube, the Director of Programming is Claudia Urdaneta, the Director of Education is Vyana Preti, and the Operations and Production Manager is Steven Nuñez.

References

{{coord, 25.79029, -80.13979, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-FL, display=title Theatres in Florida Miami Modern architecture Art Deco architecture in Florida Art Deco cinemas and movie theaters Cinemas and movie theaters in Florida Former cinemas in the United States 1935 establishments in Florida Theatres completed in 1935