Wortham Theater Center, Performing arts center in Downtown Houston, United States.
The Wortham Theater Center is a performing arts venue in downtown Houston with two main performance spaces. The Brown Theater and Cullen Theater are each designed to host different types of shows and artistic events.
The Wortham Theater Center opened on May 9, 1987, built entirely with more than $66 million in private funds on a design by Eugene Aubry of Morris Architects. The Wortham Foundation gave $20 million from the estate of Gus Wortham, founder of American General Insurance; the Cullen Foundation gave $7.5 million and the Brown Foundation $6 million, and over 3,500 donors contributed. Hurricane Harvey flooded the basement with 12 feet of water in 2017, and the center reopened in September 2018.
The center is home to the Houston Ballet and the Houston Grand Opera, which began their residencies in 1987. The Brown Theater, named for donors Alice and George Brown, seats 2,405 and hosts opera and large ballet productions; the Cullen Theater, named for Lillie and Roy Cullen, seats 1,100 for smaller events.
The Brown Theater seats 2,405 and the Cullen Theater 1,100; the two halls host opera, ballet and smaller events, so check which one a performance is in. The orchestra pits and lower levels sit below ground, reached from the ground-floor lobby. The 88-foot glass entry archway marks the entrance on the downtown block.
The grand staircase is actually a bank of escalators framed by an illuminated installation by New York sculptor Albert Paley. To avoid last-minute debate in the artwork committee, the piece was classified as lighting and electrical design rather than art.
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