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About UsBuilt by Warner Brothers Studios and opened in 1931 as a movie palace, the Warner Theatre - designed by Thomas Lamb - was described then as “Connecticut’s Most Beautiful Theatre.” Rivaling the popular Palace Theatre and Alhambra Theatre, the Warner was Torrington's largest and most up-to-date theatre. Warner Theatre is proud to serve those in the Bristol, West Hartford, Danbury, Avon, New Britain, Waterbury, Farmington, Litchfield, & Torrington, CT areas.
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Who We Are |
The Warner reopened as a performing arts center in 1983 and an $8,700,000 restoration of the art deco main theatre was completed in November 2002.
Following restoration of its main facility, the Warner purchased the adjacent historic Mertz building and embarked on Phase II of its restoration/renovation campaign. In March 2008, the Carole and Ray Neag Performing Arts Center was opened. The Warner complex now includes: a 300-seat studio theatre, an onsite school for the arts, a 1,772-seat historic Art Deco theatre, a 7,500 square foot costume shop and prop/production storage facility and two retail establishments. Today, the Warner Theatre is the largest performing arts center in Northwest Connecticut – over 100,000 patrons attended 200+ public events last season. These included concerts, professional touring theatre/dance, movies, opera simulcast, community theatre, debates, dance recitals, high school graduations and dance competitions. |
Our History |
With the "talkies" gaining popularity after their introduction in the mid 1920's, the Warner Theatre was built with the most advanced sound system for movies available, Vitaphone.
The theatre officially opened August 19, 1931 with the movie "The Star Witness" staring Walter Huston. The Opening Night Celebration was attended by local dignitaries, representatives from Warner Brothers and Governor Wilbur Cross. Over the next two decades the Warner Theatre showed thousands of films, as it quickly became the center for entertainment in Torrington. In 1938, the graduating class from Torrington High School became the first of many classes to come to receive their diplomas on the grand stage. Sold in the 1950’s as part of a federally mandated divestment, the theatre was damaged extensively in the great flood of 1955. With business declining, the invention of television and expenses soaring through the 1960’s and 1970’s, deferred maintenance began to take its toll. Facing certain foreclosure in 1981, the owners closed the Warner and in March of that year put the property on the market for $275,000. With the theatre slated for demolition in 1982, a concerned group of citizens formed the non-profit Northwest Connecticut Association for the Arts, Inc. (NWCAA) to save the theatre. This group led a dramatic grass-roots campaign successfully raising the money necessary to purchase the Warner Theatre. |
