O'Reilly Theater
Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The O'Reilly Theater is a 650-seat theater building, opened on 11 December 1999, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Located at 621 Penn Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District, the O'Reilly Theater is actually a three-part building: The 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) theater (with a 150-seat rehearsal hall), a large parking garage called Theater Square, and the adjacent 23,000 square feet (2,100 m2) Agnes R. Katz Plaza.[1]
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| Address | 621 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States |
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| Coordinates | 40.4432°N 80.0016°W |
| Owner | Pittsburgh Cultural Trust |
| Capacity | 650 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 11 December 1999 |
| Architect | Michael Graves |
| Structural engineer | DeSimone Consulting Engineers |
| Website | |
| www.trustarts.org | |
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust built the new theater, designed by architect Michael Graves P.A.,[2] to create a downtown home for the Pittsburgh Public Theater theatrical company, as well as to create additional venues for theater, music, and other art performances. The O’Reilly venue features a thrust stage surrounded by the audience on three sides.[1]
To pay for the $25 million cost of construction, gifts to the project included a naming gift in honor of Dr. Anthony O'Reilly from Mrs. Chryss O'Reilly and several current and past senior executives of the H.J. Heinz Company.[1]
The O’Reilly was built by Turner Construction Company,[3] opened on 11 December 1999, with the world premiere of King Hedley II, by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson.[1]
The site of the O'Reilly Theater was previously occupied by the Mercantile Library Hall, which was completed in 1870. The four-story building housed a subscription library, a 1,500-seat auditorium, and commercial space.[4] The Joseph Horne Company department store was a tenant of the building before completing its own building one block to the west in 1893.[5]
The Library Hall was remodeled in 1886, reopening as the Bijou Theater.[6] The Bijou was replaced by a succession of vaudeville and burlesque houses—the Lyceum, Academy, and Variety—and then was razed and paved into a parking lot after being damaged in the 1936 St. Patrick's Day flood.[1][7] Teddy Roosevelt spoke at a national convention of the Order of the Moose at Lyceum Theater on his visit to Pittsburgh in July, 1917.[8]
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