Cincinnati Shakespeare Company
719 Race Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
719 Race Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
1 person
favorited this theater
Uniquely situated in a building basement, and next door to beloved dessert destination Mullane’s, The Movies (as best known to Cincinnatians) was a long-running repertory theatre. Initially geared as an art house by the Mid-States Theatres chain, when it was called The Place, it went independent in 1981 with repertory calendar booking under the name Moviola. Tha manufacturers of the Moviola editing device threatened to sue months later, and the name was changed to just The Movies.
Where many other repertory theatres failed after a few months, they managed to hang on for about ten years, often securing high-profile premieres of popular art films, unil closing in 1991. It reopened later that year, under the name The Real Movies, and managed to squeak out another few years of operation, adding midnight shows of “The Rock Horror Picture Show” to the calendar, until closing again for good in 1997.
The location is now the home of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, and live shows take place there. The auditorium has been reconfigured into a 185-seat, thrust-stage performance space.
Contributed by
Marc Edward Heuck
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
Granted, because of its new name perhaps don’t recognize it as the Place or The Movies, but I’m surprised that years after my submission, no one has any comments about this longtime Cincinnati favorite.
As far as I know the theatre still has its original rocking chair seats. It just finished an extended run of a three actor play which involved Sherlock Holmes.
There has been a recent newspaper article saying that the Shakespeare Th. would like to move to larger quarters due to their good attendance. Now I supposed there will be a fund raising event mode to hopefully accomplish that feat. However, they will stay put for the present time.