By Anne Ruisi
A construction barricade blocks the inside view of the former auction house for now, but by fall a building in downtown Birmingham will be transformed into the new home of Terrific New Theatre.
Work crews are converting the former Alabama Auction Room at 2112 Fifth Ave. North into the theater, a revival of a 1925 building that was vacant for 20 years before John and Louise Beard, local philanthropists and long-time Terrific New Theatre fans, bought it and gave it to the theater as a gift.
“It’s going to be a bigger and better space than TNT had before,” said Tam DeBolt, the theater’s executive director.
The theater is moving into new digs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, DeBolt said.
Lockdowns led to the loss of the theater’s home of about 30 years in Pepper Place as the organization ceased in-person operations in March 2020. With no productions being staged and no money coming in, it was a tough but necessary decision to close down during the pandemic, DeBolt said.
“But it meant the organization could be saved,” she added.
As the pandemic eased, the organization’s leaders realized they’d have to relocate and started looking at available space. They found it at the Fifth Avenue North site in February 2023.
“So here we are, on the verge of reopening in a bigger and better place. Bigger and better for everybody. And we own it, which makes a big difference,” DeBolt said.
Terrific New Theatre opened in 1986 with a mission to promote nonprofit community theater in Birmingham by staging high-quality contemporary programs using local talent, according to its website, terrificnewtheatre.com. That means the actors, designers, lighting designers, set builders and so on, are all local, DeBolt said.
Preservation of Art Deco Details
Construction started Jan. 2 with interior demolition, debris removal and cleaning of the building elements that will remain, such as original Art Deco wall tiles in what will be the entrance lobby area. The terra cotta-colored squares will be painted a dark color, maybe dark green or blue.
“It fits with the time period,” DeBolt said as she offered a tour of the 7,500-square-foot building, which is more than twice as large as the former theater in Pepper Place.
An Art Deco feel to the new theater was the architect’s idea and will be reflected in detail such as the wall sconces lighting the lobby, she added.
The box office is in the lobby, and tucked into a corner will be a small seating area for patrons. Administrative offices will be just off the lobby, and behind the lobby is a hallway with space for four individual, ADA-accessible restrooms.
Past the hallway, the interior space opens up into the wide auditorium, which will consist of the stage, seating and technical booth, an area of about 3,500-square-feet. New drywall is up and clusters of construction material on the floor indicate work that will be done. In May, crews were working on installing heating and cooling ducts and overhead lighting.
As work progresses on the auditorium, which will be in a traditional layout with the audience directly facing the stage, the crew will install 100 traditional-style theater seats, two more than were in TNT’s former home, DeBolt said.
Originally, seats from TNT’s former space at Pepper Place were going to be moved, but one of the theater’s board members heard seats from Guntersville High School’s auditorium were free for the taking. A new high school was being built and the old auditorium’s seats were available, so 100 were secured.
At about the same time, TNTs capital campaign for the new theater was underway, including an option for patrons to buy seats. Sixty-one have been sold so far, raising enough that TNT can buy brand new theater seats.
Those who bought seats via fundraising will either get their names on “their” seat in the auditorium or there will be plaque in the lobby containing all the seat donors’ names, DeBolt said.
Most of the remaining seats will be sold but some will be kept.
“We may use them in fun spots in the theater, like in the back for the actors. We may put up a row of like six seats for them to hang out in the back or we may put a couple in the lobby just for fun to have them as seating,” DeBolt added.
Behind the stage, which has yet to be built, will be a workshop for building sets, storage areas for props and backdrops, two restrooms and two dressing rooms that can accommodate six actors each. There also are kitchen and laundry facilities and a load-in bay.
Having laundry facilities in-house means DeBolt won’t have to lug costumes home to wash, as she did at the former theater.
A new mezzanine is being built over a section of space in the back of the house, which can be used for storage and possibly as office space.
New Show in November
The renovation is expected to be completed by the end of this summer, with final inspections in September, DeBolt said.
“We should get the keys and actually start conducting business in this building in the middle of September,” she added.
Plans call for TNT to open its season in November with the Stephen Sondheim musical, “Sunday in the Park with George.” The remainder of the season is being kept under wraps for now.
“We were in our 34th year when the pandemic hit, so I like to think of our inaugural season in the new building as 34B,” DeBolt said.
