State Theater
204 E. 4th Avenue,
Olympia,
WA
98501
204 E. 4th Avenue,
Olympia,
WA
98501
3 people
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Showing 26 - 38 of 38 comments
The Olympian just ran an article about the renovation efforts at the State. You can link to it here:
View link
The story details the campaign to raise money to repair the leaking roof, restore the deteriorating marquee and expand the tiny dressing room. It also addresses the overall state of the theater, and there are some great photos.
I worked as a projectionist at the “State”, before it was purchased by Moyer’s Luxury (Ore-Wash Corp). Back then, it had a huge screen, waterfall curtains, first-class projection system with magnetic stereo sound capabilities. The only time I ever had a magnetic stereo movie in a theatre that had the equipment to run it was at the State. It was in 1978, and the movie was “Capricorn One”.
Dolby stereo had not yet arrived in Olympia, so getting a mag-stereo film was quite an experience. Even though it hadn’t been used in years, with a little TLC, the sound system performed wonderfully!
As is noted here, the theatre was triplexed, and it was a horrible job. The original sloped loge section was closed off to allow for two small screens. The booth was made by framing a floor across the back two rows. It was so cramped that our union business agent had to crawl under the lamphouses to get to the projectors… there was almost no clearance from the lamp to the back wall. The auditorium seats were not realigned, and the screens were located in the corners of the auditoriums. In the right auditorium, you sat facing left and had to look right to see the screen. It was the other way in the Left auditorium. There were plenty of other flaws, but that probably doesn’t matter now… thankfully, that part is history.
Working at the State during that time was an excellent education in how very different theatre owners could be. The Mann company was an excellent operator and employer. They took good care of their buildings and staffs, and budgeted maintenance activities as a normal part of their operations. Their successor was almost 180 degrees from that, though it didn’t seem to harm their business any. They became the only operators in that part of town, and could pretty much set the standard as they wished.
They should restore and use the original free-standing boxoffice. If they can’t get a line of 300 people through the boxoffice in 15 minutes, then they don’t know how to sell tickets.
I hate the fact they gutted the auditorium and removed all the neon. Then they dropped the ceiling so low. Ruined ruined ruined! They bastardized the place in my opinion. It should have never been “converted” to a ‘stage’ house in the first place. Why the hell didn’t they stay in the Washington Center? That’s what the Washington Center was built for. It was explained to the tax payers when the Washington Center was originally being built that ALL performing arts groups would
have their home there. Every time I drive by the State Theater I see a crappy paint job, bums hanging out in front and back of the building, trash all over, grafitti, dilapidated marquee with bird crap running down it. They ruined it.
Harlequin is embarking on a capital campaign to do the following:
-Repair and insulate the roof. The current roof leaks in many places and is basically uninsulated.
-Remodel the current box office space. As it stands right now it is very inefficient for current staff.
-Build dressing rooms into currently dead space (actually, always dead space – not used in the original floor plan but inside the building)
-Build administrative offices
-Install new HVAC
-Rebuild the marquee again
-Retire the mortgage
You can read about it here: View link
It’s wonderful to work in a space that is so loved by so many people. The Harlequin folks really do work harder than has ever made sense because they love being in that space. When so many movie palaces are falling into disrepair, not operating or even being knocked down, to have one be lived in and loved is a wonderful thing, whether it is showing movies or live entertainment. It’s easy to say that you would do a restoration differently, or you would rebuild something that’s currently in disrepair; other people are out there trying to actually do that and I’m glad to help support their efforts.
Yes, Ken, the State’s exterior could use some love!
The “restored” marquee is rusted out and falling apart again. They never addressed the issue of the pidgeons roosting in the “State” channel letters so now it’s all rusted again.
The typical “ban” on showing movies in this theater is for first run product. You can show classics and second run product without any problems.
Nice color scheme on this photo:
View link
I am grateful that Harlequin took over this one-time movie gem. When I attended school in Thurston County in the early 1990s, my friends and I made many treks to the State to see movies for $1. While we loved seeing movies for cheap, we hated walking into theaters that smelled like urine. The seats were falling apart, and our feet would stick to the floor. And we were afraid of what filth we couldn’t see in the dark. But then we were so sad when the theater closed.
As a theater student, however, I had the good fortune of touring the theater one afternoon when Harlequin was considering buying it. I got to walk in the projection booths and see areas of the State I’d never seen. Oh, the potential! (I also got to see some of that filth my friends and I were afraid of. Yuck. And I got to see how really poorly the “tri-plexing” was done.)
It’s such a treat now to see plays at the State Theater, to see how it’s been lovingly restored and to see this wonderful space being used at all.
Oh, and the inside does preserve some of the original architectural elements. The art on the walls was restored as part of the remodel, and the light fixtures on the walls are original. The original chandeliers have been stored in the old projection booth, and if you saw the production of The Constant Wife last season, you saw one of them used as the chandelier on-set. The lobby was also lovingly upgraded, though again with original elements such as the drinking fountain. The new mural ‘Phoenix Rising’ on the celing commemorates the rebirth of the space.
The theater seats 212 in the current configuration, 80 in the center and 66 on each side. There are also a few seats in the gallery, mostly reserved for ushers although a few have been sold at the day of show for sold out shows. The two side theaters no longer exist and have been removed. Since the theater was never a vaudeville house, it does not have much backstage space, so some of the old back seating is used for office and technical space, along with costume and props storage. The old projection booth still exists and is currently used as an extra dressing room for large shows. The marquee was rebuilt along with the restoration, and the ticket booth was left as is. Currently they don’t have a use for the ticket booth, though from time to time we try to come up with one.
As part of the terms of the sale, Harlequin is not allowed to show movies there, so it will never be a movie theater again. However, as a live theater space it is quite nice, with the semi-thrust stage raised 16 inches at the start of the last season to add even more intimacy. Harlequin puts on six shows a year as part of their normal season, and other user groups put on shows ranging from a single show to an entire week throughout the rest of the year.
Harlequin is currently undergoing a capital campaign to perform some needed upgrades and maintenance to the building. The primary focus of this is replacing the HVAC system and repairing or replacing the roof. There are a lot of buckets currently hidden in the catwalks and the structure above the false roof.
The official site (just updated) is at http://www.harlequinproductions.org/
After ActIII owned and operated it as a $1.00 theater, it quickly became rundown and uncared for (I know, I worked there in high-school in the late 80’s). Soon, ActIII walked away, closing the State Theater, and leaving it in a state of disrepair.
Along came Harlequin, a group of both public and private investors, and they bought the theater and gave it new life in the late 90’s
They converted it into a live-theater showplace (they even added the small neighboring space that was being used as a pottery business, using this new space for ticket sales.)
The inside is quite small now, as much of the space has been closed off, but it makes a nice, cosy place to see live theater. The main theater now seats around 250-300 (only a guess), and the two side-theaters are inaccessible to patrons, probably used for “back-stage” type stuff.
I had the opportunity to see a play there over Xmas, 2001 and was quite happy to see the theater given new life, especially after spending so much time there in high-school when ActIII owned (and neglected) it.
Opened Nov. 22, 1949
Closed June 15, 1996
Architect: Joseph Wohleb of the firm of Wohleb & Wohleb
First operated by Evergreen Theaters, then Fox-Evergreen, then Fox West Coast Theaters, then Mann Theaters, then Tom Moyer Luxury Theaters, then T.P.M. Theaters (Thomas P. Moyer, Jr.), then finally Act 3 Theaters.
Theater was a 1,000 seat stadium seat single screen when it opened in 1949. In 1977, when it was operated as a Tom Moyer Luxury Theater, it was chopped up (quite badly) into a 3 plex. In 1983 it switched to second run and became a dollar house until closing.