Hershey Theatre is a 1,904-seat

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

in downtown

Hershey, Pennsylvania Hershey is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to The Hershey Company, which was founded by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey. The community is lo ...

. Touring Broadway musicals, concerts, community performances, and dance groups perform at the theater. The Hershey Theatre is also home to the ''Hershey Theatre'' Apollo Awards, which recognizes outstanding high school students in theater and awards scholarships.

History

C. Emlen Urban began planning the building of the Hershey Theatre as a community center in 1915 for chocolate magnate and philanthropist

Milton S. Hershey Milton Snavely Hershey (September 13, 1857 – October 13, 1945) was an American chocolatier, businessman, and philanthropist. Trained in the confectionery business, Hershey pioneered the manufacture of caramel, using fresh milk. He launched t ...

. Milton Hershey began construction of Hershey Theatre in 1929 during the Great Depression. The construction of the theater and five other buildings in Hershey, Pennsylvania gave hundreds of workers jobs during the financial crisis. The Hershey Theatre was opened in September, 1933, as part of Hershey's Great Building Campaign of the Depression. At its opening, the theater was also used as a movie theater, and the original projectors are still used for classic screenings.

Design

The lobby of the theater is inspired by St. Mark's Cathedral in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

. Its "canopy of gold" and pin-point mosaic took German artisans two years to complete. The theater itself is inspired by

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and Venetian themes. The wooden sides of the auditorium are inspired by Byzantine castle architecture, while the proscenium arch and winged lion statues are inspired by Venetian culture. Behind the fire curtain, there is a water color painting of the Grand Canal and Doge's Palace in Venice. Eighty-eight small light bulbs hang from the ceiling, giving the appearance of stars in the night sky. The stage is seventy-five feet by forty-four feet and has five elevators. The theater has forty-four lines for sets and lights and a house sound system. It also features five floors of dressing rooms for performers. The theater features a four-manual, seventy-eight-rank concert organ, made by

Aeolian-Skinner Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts was an American builder of a large number of pipe organs from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972. Key figures were Ernest M. Skinner (1866–1 ...

. It was commissioned by Milton S. Hershey and has over four thousand pipes, the largest more than thirty feet tall.

References

External links

Official website
(archived, 19 Dec 2014) * {{Authority control t Theatres in Pennsylvania Hershey, Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company 1933 establishments in Pennsylvania Theatres completed in 1993