TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Tampa Theatre leaders just debuted their new micro theatre now open to the public. The micro theatre is the first of several new features at the Tampa Theatre.
A hallway now connects the smaller theatre to the main lobby, opening the door to seemingly endless possibilities ahead of Tampa Theatre’s upcoming centennial celebration. “It’s very exciting,” Tampa Theatre’s President and CEO John Bell said. “This is the first expansion of Tampa Theatre in its 98-year history.
” Now, concertgoers can expect to rock through the main auditorium entrance while movie buffs head into the new John T. Taylor screening room and sit down for a film. The new space has room to seat 43 people.
“So if you haven’t heard about the Tampa Theatre you need to come down because it’s the greatest thing that downtown has,” Donor, John Taylor said. Not much has changed since the theatre’s 1926 opening. As a downtown staple, it’s going to stay that way.
So we asked what the $20 million of repairs would look like. “They come in with the spray guns and spray the entire room a base color and they’ll start doing what the artists in 1926 would’ve done,” said Jill Witecki, Tampa Theatre’s Marketing Director. World-class architects will then paint layers upon layers to match the original colors.
“To get back to exactly what this auditorium looked like in 1926,” Witecki said. Cracks in the walls, faded banisters, and broken historical water fountains wi.