Tampa’s historic movie palace, the Tampa Theatre, recently underwent a multi-million dollar first phase renovation. They have replaced seats and carpets. Then, the 40-year-old red stage curtain closed for the last time and was replaced with a peacock blue, pinstriped grand drape and new hand-painted valances. The artists from EverGreene Architectural Arts and iWeiss Theatrical Solutions were able to replicate the original striped drape and take inspiration from a 1926 set piece built into the proscenium arch to create the bold new valance.
Rather than scrap the well worn red curtains, the Tampa Theatre was happy to donate the old fabric and have a little piece of history live on in Tampa’s artistic community.
The main red curtains have been donated to Riverview High School’s award-winning theatre program. The curtains were featured as a backdrop in The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) which was performed in early February. They will be featured again in A Chorus Line which will be performed on Thursday, February 15, Friday, February 16, and Saturday, February 17. The shows will be performed at Riverview High School’s Theatre located at 11311 Boyette Rd in Riverview at 7 p.m.
Casey Vaughan, Theatre Director for Riverview High School said, “We are incredibly grateful for the donation from the Tampa Theatre.” Vaughan added, “We are hopeful that after its life onstage, we may be able to repurpose the material for much needed sound paneling around our auditorium. Currently, we are not sure exactly how we are going to do that as the curtain is red and does not match the school colors, but we are figuring it out. Mostly, we are just blessed to have this amount of fabric donated, as we raise all of the money for the in-class and extracurricular requirements of the program by ourselves.”
Vaughan, who is a graduate of Riverview High School, is in her fifth year of teaching. She has been with Riverview High School for four years.
For more information on the Tampa Theatre, please visit www.tampatheatre.org. For more information on Riverview High School’s Theatre program, please call 671-5011 or email rvhstheatre@gmail.com.
