Houston’s Theater District |
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StubDog.com :: Event Information And Articles :: Houston’s Theater District
Houston is one of only five cities in the United States with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines of opera, ballet, music and theater. More than two million people visit the Houston Theater District annually to experience its magic and excitement. With 12,948 seats for live performances and 1,480 movie seats, the Houston Theater District ranks second behind New York City for the number of theater seats in a concentrated downtown area. Let us introduce you to the main performing art ensembles and venues.
The Alley was founded over sixty years ago as Houston’s
theatre company. It offers a wide variety of work including new plays,
classics, the re-discovered and the rarely-performed, and new musical
theatre, with an emphasis on new American works – to provide the inspirational
and the provocative – to make audiences think, feel, dream and be entertained.
One of the few American Theatre companies that supports a company of actors,
designers, artisans and craftspeople throughout the year. The productions
are built and rehearsed in the Alley Theatre Center for Theatre Production
– a 75,000 square foot facility adjacent to the theatres themselves (the
824 seat Hubbard Stage and the 310 seat Neuhaus Stage), one of the largest
facilities of its kind anywhere. The Alley is also home to educational
programs, such as From Stage to Page, HYPE (Houston Young Playwrights
Exchange) and the Young Performers Studio. Throughout our history, Theatre
has earned a national and international reputation for artistic achievement,
including the Tony Award, and Alley artists have garnered praise from
audiences across the country.
Da Camera of Houston, founded in 1987, was created with
the intention to produce a series of thematically programmed concerts
designed to attract new listeners to the concert hall. Members of the
Houston Symphony and faculty of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music,
University of Houston’s Moores School and others are often included in
Da Camera programs, expanding the opportunities for locally based musicians
of national acclaim and enriching our community by enhancing the musical
life of artists who choose to live here. Under the artistic leadership
of Sarah Rothenberg (an acclaimed pianist widely regarded for her innovative
and thoughtful programs) since 1994, Da Camera maintains its commitment
to this high caliber of musicianship brought together to perform in its
Houston-based subscription series at the Wortham Theater Center and The
Menil Collection; its extensive education and outreach activities; and
its regional, national and international touring initiatives.
In 1995, Da Camera of Houston produced the first of its acclaimed “Music and the Literary Imagination” programs, conceived and directed by Ms. Rothenberg, launching the organization’s national profile as a leader in innovative concert programs with a series at New York’s Great Performers at Lincoln Center. Since the outstanding success of Marcel Proust's Paris (which debuted in Houston and went on to be performed a dozen times for nearly 5,000 people in three different languages) subsequent programs bringing together music with works of such writers as Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann and Anna Akhmatova have been performed across the country to sold-out houses and widespread critical acclaim.
In 1955, the founding members of Houston Ballet Foundation
had a vision for dance in Houston: to create a resident ballet company
and to start a school, which would train its dancers. Houston Ballet Academy
was established that same year under the leadership of Tatiana Semenova,
a former dancer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In 1969, the professional
company was founded, under the direction of Nina Popova, a former dancer
with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and American Ballet Theatre. Houston
Ballet Foundation has seen the fulfillment of its goals: an internationally
acclaimed ballet company which is now America’s fourth largest and an
academy which supplies over 40 percent of the company's dancers. The New
York Times has hailed Houston Ballet as "one of the nation’s best ballet
companies." The company is comprised of 54 dancers, including artists
who have won gold and silver medals at major international ballet competitions.
In July 2003, the acclaimed Australian choreographer Stanton Welch assumed
the leadership of Houston Ballet as artistic director. Mr. Welch, who
has created ballets for many of the world's leading companies, has choreographed
thirteen works especially for Houston Ballet. The Financial Times of London
has praised his leadership of Houston Ballet, citing "a strong, invigorated
company whose male contingent is particularly impressive, a well drilled
corps and an enviable selection of soloists and principals."
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) was founded in 1955 through
the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and Houston cultural leaders
Mrs. Louis G. Lobit and Edward Bing. With a current annual operating budget
of approximately $20 million, HGO has grown from a small regional company
to become an internationally recognized industry leader in artistic excellence
and innovation. Regarded as one of the world’s principal commissioners
and producers of new works, HGO has introduced thirty-eight world premieres
and six American premieres since 1973. HGO has received a Tony Award,
two Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Grand Prix du Disques; it is
the only opera company in the world to have won all four honors. HGO cultivates
a varied repertoire that features traditional pieces, rarely performed
masterworks, contemporary opera and new commissions.
HGO was among the first companies in the U.S. to embrace the use of supertitles: beginning in 1984, HGO used supertitles on all foreign language operas and now uses them for all operas, including those in English. Each year HGOco’s touring group, Opera to Go!, presents shortened versions of traditional and new repertoire for more than 50,000 children and families at schools and community centers throughout the greater Houston area.
Founded in 1913, the Houston Symphony is one of America's
oldest performing arts organizations, with a rich history of musical excellence.
The orchestra has experienced steady artistic growth under the direction
of distinguished leaders. Maestro Hans Graf, who took the podium in September
2001, is the Houston Symphony's 15th music director. The Houston Symphony
fills each busy season with more than 170 concerts attended by an estimated
350,000 people each year.
Society for the Performing Arts brings a broad selection
of performing artists and companies from around the world to complement
Houston's own theater, dance, and music offerings. The goal of the organization
is to present a wide range of the highest quality national and international
caliber of classical performing artists and companies, ranging from traditional
to contemporary, large orchestras and dance companies to recitalists and
solo performers, new artists and art forms to multi-cultural attractions.
Additionally, Society for the Performing Arts seeks to provide a variety
of learning experiences for adults and children and to develop bridges
between the performing arts and other interests within the greater Houston
community and throughout the state of Texas.
Founded in 1968, Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) is Houston’s
acclaimed non-profit musical theatre company and is currently under the
direction of President and CEO John C. Breckenridge. TUTS was the first
theatrical organization in Houston to perform free to the public in 1968
at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park, and is the only Houston arts
organization that has performed there free to the public every year since
the building opened. Since its founding by Frank M. Young, TUTS has produced
more than 300 musicals including many local, national and world premieres
such as Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as well as International tours
including Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Juliet Prowse
in Mame, Robert Goulet in Man of La Mancha, the Tony Award-winning revival
of Carousel and the Deaf West Theatre production of Big River.
Uniquely Houston ® is an innovative program established
by the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts to provide a home venue for
Houston’s smaller and mid-sized nonprofit performing arts organizations
in the Theater District. This collaboration provides partner organizations
with access to technical, marketing, public relations, and operational
expertise in addition to assistance with the overall production quality
of each presentation. A central element of Houston’s cultural landscape,
Uniquely Houston® supports the region’s exceptional artistic talent with
programs that appeal to diverse audiences. The Uniquely Houston® series
represents a vital component of the Hobby Center’s founding vision and
is the reason why Zilkha Hall was built.
