The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati, billed as the oldest professional theater for young audiences in the country, is launching a $48 million capital campaign to renovate Over-the-Rhine's Emery Theatre.
Construction is slated to begin in November, according to Kim Kern, managing director and CEO.
"With a 12 to 15 month construction timeline, we anticipate the project being completed in February of 2025," Kern said during a launch event in the auditorium.
The Emery Theatre, located at Walnut and Central Parkway, has fallen into disrepair. Previous attempts to purchase, rent or rehabilitate the space haven't been successful. Now, The Children's Theatre says it has an agreement to purchase the space and expects to close on the deal in October 2023.
"Over the last 53 years, this beautiful theater has fallen into disrepair," said Roderick Justice, artistic director. "But ... we are storytellers and we like to use our imaginations quite often, so we want to reimagine how this theater is used. In its time, Mary Emery wanted something that was state-of-the-art and unlike anything else in the region, and that's exactly what we are going to do in this space."
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The auditorium was commissioned by Mary Emery and built by the famous architecture firm Samuel Hannaford & Sons in 1911, opening in January 1912. It was originally the auditorium for a trade school, the Ohio Mechanic Institute.
The auditorium was hailed for its near perfect acoustics and unobstructed sight lines. It has been home to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and hosted numerous famed performers including Bette Davis, dancer Anna Pavlova, and composer George Gershwin, who played his famous "Rhapsody in Blue" there with the CSO shortly after its New York debut. Eleanor Roosevelt and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are among other dignitaries to have graced the Emery's stage.
The Children's Theatre also called the space home from 1949 to 1969.
"One of the many, many things that we did in our due diligence related to this building was analyzed parking," Kern said. "We found that actually, there's significantly more parking around the Emery than in our current location at the Taft.
"We also did an existing conditions assessment and found that much of the damage that you see to the building, all of the damage that you see to the building, is cosmetic and that the bones are sound, which we were very happy to hear."
While there isn't much wing space adjoining the stage, there is a lot of space above and below it for scenery and set changes. The plans call for utilizing image projection mapping to visually extend the stage, creating an immersive feel. It will seat around 1,600.
The total cost of the renovation project is $43 million, with an additional $5 million to cover expanded programming and to build the Theatre's endowment. Kern says the project is 60% funded. The project is also expected to receive $10 million in new market and federal historic tax credits.
Kern says the projected economic impact for nearby restaurants is $500,000.
