{"id":180045,"date":"2026-03-06T00:27:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180045\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T00:27:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:27:32","slug":"tampa-theatre-closing-duncan-auditorium-for-7-month-24-5m-renovation-ahead-of-100th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180045\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Theatre closing Duncan Auditorium for 7-month $24.5M renovation ahead of 100th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The The Tampa Theatre gets ready for a makeover<\/a> <\/p>\n

Starting next week, the Tampa Theatre will begin a seven month renovation in preparation for its 100th birthday celebration. FOX 13’s Ariel Plasencia takes us backstage for a look.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Following WineFest this Friday and Saturday (March 6\u20137), Tampa Theatre\u2019s historic Duncan Auditorium will go dark for seven months to undergo extensive renovations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Everybody looks good in candlelight!” joked John Bell, President and CEO of Tampa Theatre<\/a>. “The building’s underlying architecture is just spectacular, right? So, people come in, and it’s a dimly lit, romantic courtyard. But when you shine the lights, it’s like, Oh yeah, this needs work!”<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Starting March 10, the auditorium will close for the first phase of the $24.5 million Second Century Campaign, a project aimed at preserving the beloved cultural hub before the theater turns 100-years-old on October 15.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

While a team of artisans will spend time restoring the decorative walls\u2019 failing paint and plaster, some of the biggest changes will happen behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

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“This building’s 100 years old. It will be in October,” Bell explained. “If you own a 100-year-old house, you know the plumbing, the electrical, the HVAC\u2014all of that stuff has to be replaced.”<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

In 1926, the Tampa Theatre was the city\u2019s first public building to feature air conditioning. Remarkably, parts of that original A\/C system are still chugging along today.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“So putting new highly efficient systems in is going to reduce our operating costs and overall make the experience much better for people,” Bell added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Other renovations will focus on upgrades to stage lighting, sound, and production systems.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Funding for this campaign came from donations and the City of Tampa<\/a> Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). According to the theater, this project is also sponsored in part by the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources and the State of Florida<\/a>, and the Hillsborough<\/a> County Board of County Commissioners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

While the Duncan Auditorium will be closed for the next seven months, the community won’t be entirely locked out.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The John T. Taylor Screening Room\u2014a 43-seat microcinema adjoining the historic lobby\u2014will remain open for films and events throughout the renovation process.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this story comes from interviews done by FOX 13’s\u00a0Ariel Plasencia.<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Theatre gets ready for a makeover Starting next week, the Tampa Theatre will begin a seven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-180045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}