By Staci Elder Hensley
The Journal Record

NORMAN – There’s no business like show business, especially when it’s conducted inside one of Oklahoma’s oldest and best-preserved theaters.

Norman’s Sooner Theatre is once again playing a central role in the city’s revitalized downtown arts district.

Originally built in 1929 as one of the state’s first movie houses, the 555-seat theater was designed to usher in a new era of entertainment.

It’s continuing that tradition in the new century, hosting everything from concerts, plays, poetry readings and children’s theater classes to dance recitals, beauty pageants, body-building competitions, murder-mystery dinner theater, weddings and family and community meetings.

The theater sponsored the Main Event Concert Series, featuring nationally known performing artists. Upcoming concerts in April will feature the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

“Our bread-and-butter events are the children’s theatrical programs,” said Executive Director Jennifer Heavner Baker.

Although the performance itself will be at the Lloyd Noble Center, theater staff also are producing the Norman Centennial Follies Sept. 2 around a theme of “100 voices celebrating 100 years of Oklahoma.”

“We are a true community theater,” said Baker, who has been both artistic director and executive director since January 2003. “It’s active, it’s alive, and for people who haven’t been to something here, we’d like to extend an invitation. There’s something constantly going on.”

Like many of the entertainers who graced its stage, the theater has had its share of career highs and lows. Although designed and built as a movie theater, not a performing arts stage, Sooner Theatre’s location next to Norman’s railroad tracks made it an obvious stop for vaudeville performers in the 1920s and 1930s. By the mid-1970s, however, the theater could no longer compete with multi-screen movie theaters, and it lay empty for several years. A fire in the late 1970s caused further damage, and many felt the building should be demolished.

Riding to the theater’s rescue was a group of citizens who persuaded Norman’s leaders to revive the old building.

The theater was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places on Nov. 15, 1978, and massive renovations were completed in 1982, when the theater reopened as a city-owned performing arts center.

Nine additional months of restoration were completed in 2002. Today the theater retains its early-day Spanish Gothic architectural glory, featuring a tile roof, plush carpeting, hand-painted proscenium arch, hand-formed stained-glass windows and chandeliers, capped off by 252 hand-painted Spanish coats-of-arms across the auditorium ceiling. Work is under way to restore and reinstall stained-glass murals.

The theater’s comeback is part and parcel of the general revitalization of Norman’s downtown into a thriving arts and entertainment district.

Theater traffic alone is responsible for a significant increase in business for neighbors such as Coach’s Sports Bar and Bison Witches Bar & Deli.

Summertime brings a focus on children’s theater camps, which offer Oklahoma school children the chance to work with professional actors. It’s something near and dear to Baker, who grew up in Norman.

“We did the play Oliver! last summer and a local 7-year-old was playing the title role opposite an actor who toured with a professional company in The Phantom of the Opera,” she said. “That’s an opportunity I would have loved to have as a child. Now we all have so much fun, and it’s so rewarding.”

Since it’s officially owned by the city of Norman, Sooner Theatre of Norman Inc. pays $1 a year to lease the building and reports to a 14-member board of directors. It has an operating budget of $377,000 with one part-time and four full-time employees. Annual revenue from all events totals just under $200,000, and all proceeds are reinvested into the theater. Fundraisers, such as a murder-mystery dinner theater, are held throughout the year.

Tour groups also are welcome to visit the theater, which is at 101 E. Main St., and is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Inquiries about tours and other events can be made by calling 405-321-9600 or visiting www.soonertheatre.com.