Hippodrome State Theatre, Historic theatre in downtown Gainesville, United States
The Hippodrome State Theatre is a three-story Beaux-Arts building in downtown Gainesville that holds a thrust stage and a small cinema. It operates as Florida's State Theatre, functioning as a professional performing arts venue listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building opened in 1911 as a federal post office and courthouse, serving the local community in that role for decades. In 1979 it was converted into a professional theatre, giving the structure a second life as a performing arts space.
The Hippodrome State Theatre runs a free art gallery inside the building, showing works by Florida artists that anyone can walk in and see. The gallery sits alongside the theatre spaces, making it easy to combine a show with a look at local art.
The theatre sits in downtown Gainesville and is easy to reach on foot from the surrounding streets. It hosts both evening performances and daytime screenings, so it is worth checking what is on before you arrive to make the most of your visit.
Over its history the Hippodrome has produced more than 100 world premiere productions, working directly with playwrights like Tennessee Williams and Paula Vogel to develop new plays on site. This level of original work is rare for a theatre of its size in a mid-sized American city.
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