Ongoing Efforts Keep Historic Atlas Theatre At Forefront of Arts Community
arts, atlas theatre, cheyenne landmark, cheyenne little theatre players, community, culture, harry woods, national register of historic places,
Cats have nine lives, and sometimes theaters do, too.
Since 1887, the Historic Atlas Theatre has been a downtown Cheyenne landmark. Over the years it has served a variety of purposes, including candy store, vaudeville hall, movie theater and even a disco. But since the early 1970s, when the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players purchased the building for their permanent home, it’s been all theater, all the time.
The building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has undergone renovations over the years, and currently is the subject of a major planning effort for even more significant changes. The Little Theatre Players are working on several ideas, including basics such as structural work like heating and air-conditioning upgrades all the way up to a black box theater and art gallery on-site.
Everyone involved knows that all this will take time, not to mention money, but the group is up to the task, says Harry Woods, managing director.
“The renovation and restoration of the theater is one of the biggest endeavors we have ever mounted,” Woods says. “When completed it will help to expand the theatre company’s goals and five-year plan for expansion.”
If any outfit could pull this off, it’s the Little Theatre Players. The 78-year-old troupe has a long and successful history of providing entertainment and cultural activities to the city’s residents, everything from one-act plays back in the 1930s up to the old fashioned melodrama, comedies, musicals and children’s theater of today. They also operate the Mary Godfrey Playhouse, a 292-seat theater on the site of the former Cheyenne Little Theatre Studio and Virginia Wortley Green Room on Pershing Boulevard.
The players currently produce two family theater performances annually, as well as a holiday production for and involving children. For the past nine years, they also have operated the Cheyenne Theatre Academy, a summer camp for children ages 5 to 16. The regular season includes nine productions, with an audience of approximately 18,000 people per year.
With all this activity, planning a full-scale renovation of a historic structure might seem an awful lot to take on, but Woods says that the end product will be worth it.
“With the renovation and restoration plans for the Atlas having been started, the city of Cheyenne will be provided with a jewel of an entertainment center,” he says, “It will be one that the city can be proud of.”
The project also is being made easier with outstanding support from the community, as well as the city, county and state governments, he adds.
“The community has always been invaluable in their support,” Woods says. “We have been in existence for 78 years and that success always relates back to the community. We could not do what we do without the support of so many volunteers and the support of local sponsors for so many years.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Brian McCord
