Theatre in the Round began performing in the YWCA at 12th and Nicollet in downtown Minneapolis. It performed at 1308 Stevens Avenue (currently occupied by the Convention Center) from 1963-68 and moved to its present location in 1969.
The structure dates from 1910, when a building permit records a stone foundation laid for a “new brick store building”.
The last tenant before TRP was Bimbo’s Pizza Emporium & Old Tyme Saloon, a bar-dance hall that was boarded up after a fire in 1968.
In 1969, TRP moved into Cedar-Riverside, a neighborhood infamous for panhandlers and hippies. In the years that followed, so many other groups moved in — Dudley Riggs, the Guthrie Lab, Mixed Blood, and others — that the City designated the area the West Bank Theatre District in 1985.
A nonprofit corporation, Theatre in the Round Players owns its building and land.
In 1985, the theatre painted its facade with a mural of its blueprint. This bright blue design was featured in national press, including the cover of the magazine Theatre Crafts. The front entryway built for the 50th anniversary season realized part of that blueprint.
TRP’s seats came from the Cedar Theatre, a movie theatre two blocks away that was converted to the Cedar Cultural Center in 1989 (so TRP could finally replace the seats it had gotten from the bankrupt Leola Movie Theatre).
TRP is one of very few local theatres with all operations under one roof. Its 27,500+ square feet houses the stage, rehearsal space, makeup and dressing rooms, a scenic shop and storage, costume shop and storage, props storage, lighting and sound work areas and storage, a recording studio, offices, a library, meeting rooms, and more.
MORE FACTS ON:
50 Years on the West Bank: CLICK HERE
TRP’s Restoration and Mural Project: CLICK HERE