Performing Arts Centers
Bass Concert Hall
photo by Mark Rutkowski
Completed in 1981, this flagship theatre of Texas Performing Arts is the largest in Austin, with seating for 2,900. The Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Concert Hall boasts a vast stage, an orchestra pit capable of holding 100 musicians, dressing rooms to accommodate more than 100 performers, computerized lighting, advanced sound and rigging systems, and a mammoth backstage area complete with workshops for carpentry, costumes, painting, metalwork and props. Ranking among the finest performance spaces in the country both in size and accoutrements, it is no wonder that Bass Concert Hall attracts the world’s greatest performers and full-scale productions.
Dougherty Arts Center (DAC)
The DAC Theater is an attractive, comfortable 150-seat proscenium theater (3,700 sq. ft.) complete with lighting and sound systems, box office and concession areas, dressing rooms with shower, gallery entrance and outdoor marquee. This centrally located theater also features ample lighted parking for your drama, dance or music events, and is available to non-profit groups at rental rates which fit easily into the starving artist's budget. The DAC also provides a variety of rehearsal and meeting spaces. The DAC Theater is currently accepting reservation applications on a first-come first-served basis. Reservations are accepted year-round. Applications are available at the DAC front desk during regular business hours. For more information on booking the space and/or hours of availability, please call 974-4004.
Esther's Follies
Esther's Follies began as a by-product of a pool parlor, called Esther's Pool, on East Sixth Street April Fool's Day, 1977. Conceived as a combination topical vaudeville/satirical musical comedy revue, Esther's Follies has grown to become the state's premier comedy complex, garnering national praise and a loyal following.
The Hideout Theatre
The Hideout Theatre is an improv theatre offering performances as well as classes for adults and kids. Improvisation, or improv, is a form of live theatre in which the plot, characters and dialogue of a game, scene or story are made up in the moment. Often improvisers will take a suggestion from the audience, or or draw on some other source of inspiration to get started.
Hyde Park Theatre
Hyde Park Theatre develops writers, designers, directors, and actors from within the Austin community, while at the same time producing works by exciting new and established voices of the alternative theatre scene. They will work with a broad and diverse base of local artists to produce theater that confronts, challenges, and entertains. They have a strong commitment to paying local writers, actors, and designers a decent wage for their work, and to expanding the base of working artists in Austin. They hope to diversify and expand the audience for theater in Austin, making theater accessible and essential across lines of income, class, race, gender, and sexual preference.
Long Center for the Performing Arts
The Long Center for the Performing Arts is founded on the belief that the performing arts are essential components in the quality of life of our community. Our performing arts organizations - from the smallest to the largest - deserve and need facilities that reflect their contribution to the culture of our community.
Therefore, their mission is to manage a state-of-the-art, multi-venue facility that will host the broad spectrum of Austin's performing arts organizations.
Zach Theatre
Today, ZACH Theatre creates a year-round season of more than 500 performances, serving nearly 100,000 Central Texans annually, 30,000 of which are children who participate in our education and outreach programs. ZACH productions span a dynamic range of programming that includes both professional Mainstage plays and musicals, and Theatre for Youth. ZACH incubates original work, cultivating, commissioning, developing and producing new plays and musicals by playwrights and composers from Central Texas as well as internationally-acclaimed artists. Producing Artistic Director Dave Steakley is committed to selecting work that is both timely and relevant to Central Texas audiences, re-envisioning ZACH production s in a way that creates meaningful, inclusive dialogues in our community. ZACH’s commitment to artistic excellence and contributions to the theatre field have been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Shubert Foundation, The New York Times, as well as numerous theatrical awards.
The Paramount Theatre
The Paramount Theatre has stood on Congress Avenue in the heart of downtown Austin for nearly 100 years. The site of the Paramount Theatre was once home to Sam Houston’s office and the War Department of the Republic of Texas and later the Avenue Hotel. As Austin’s oldest surviving theatre built in 1915, the Paramount has a long history of entertaining Central Texas audiences.
Originally conceived as a Vaudeville and variety house, it continues to bring a wide array of programming to its stage. The Paramount presents comedy, drama, music, dance, spoken word, children’s programming and films to more than 200,000 Central Texans each year. More than 10,000 of those are children who gain admission for free or at greatly reduced prices because of our youth outreach programs.
