Live Theater Austin, Austin Theatre Events And Plays In Austin

The Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts (The Long Center)is a sustainably built performing arts venue located located along Lady Bird Lake and is a remodel of the Lester E. Palmer Auditorium that hosts local, regional, national and international artists and performances. The City of Austin leased the Lester E. Palmer Auditorium to the nonprofit group  Arts Center Stage and after ten years of construction, the grand opening of the Long Center took place on March 28, 2008. The funding for this first phase of renovation was exclusively provided through private donations from more than 4,600 supporters and 95% of material from the deconstructed Palmer Auditorium were recycled in the new construction. The circular “ring-beam” around City Terrace and Hartman Concert Park located just outside the Dell Hall overlooking Lady Bird Lake and Auditorium Shores was originally an anchoring structure for the Palmer Auditorium and the colored aluminum panels that were once the distinctive Palmer Auditorium roof were reused for the exterior finish and wall decorations of the Dell Hall. In all five tons of steel from the Palmer Auditorium were melted and reused in the construction of the new Long Center. The Long Center today encompasses multiple technologically advanced performance and event spaces, including the 2,400-seat Michael and Susan Dell Hall and the multi-functional Debra and Kevin Rollins Studio Theatre. The Dell Hall is home to the The Long Center’s Founding Resident Companies, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera and Ballet Austin.

The Paramount Theatre is a classical revival style movie and live theatre built in 1915 located in downtown Austin. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Paramount been home to vaudeville, silent movies and "talkies," music, dance, and Broadway shows for almost 100 years and the performers that have appeared there include Houdini, the Marx Brothers, Helen Hayes, Orson Welles, Sarah Bernhardt, the Ziegfeld Follies, the Metropolitan Opera, Lillian Russell, John Philip Sousa, the Barrymores, Lillian Gish, and George M. Cohan to such modern-day favorites as Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Sarah Vaughan, Lyle Lovett, Gregory Hines, and Mandy Patinkin. The Paramount currently operates along side the State Theatre next door under The Austin Theatre Alliance, anon-profit organization strives to bring the widest variety of entertainment to as many people as possible in its two historic theatres. The Paramount presents comedy, drama, music, dance, spoken word, children’s programming and films including it's classic summer film series and is home to Austin’s red carpet film premieres and is an integral part of SXSW and the Austin Film Festival.