About Trustees Theater
When Trustees Theater opened on Valentine’s Day 1946, it boasted all the trimmings of a top-line cinema of Hollywood’s golden age: a screen among the largest in the South, adjustable air conditioning, and the best “projection and sound devices,” as press coverage reported at the time. Eighty years later, SCAD continues this legacy of cutting-edge cinematic excellence. Following extensive restorations and renovations that modernized the theater while maintaining its original décor, the 1,105-seat theater now features state-of-the-art 4K projection and Dolby Digital 7.1 surround sound. Open year-round, Trustees Theater is home to the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, as well as a frequent schedule of screenings, concerts, lectures, conferences, and live performances.
Meet the Trustees Theater team
Christina Routhier
Senior executive director
Trustees Theater history
A glimmering, state-of-the-art historic landmark on Savannah’s Broughton Street, Trustees Theater harkens back to the golden age of Hollywood while paying homage to the stars of today. Built in 1946 during the construction boom that followed the end of World War II, the theater was designed in the Art Moderne style by McKendree Tucker and Albert Howell, an esteemed architectural team from Atlanta.
One of several theaters built by the Weis family, the Weis Theater was an engineering marvel at the time of its opening event, a screening of Lew Landers’ The Enchanted Forest. The theater boasted one of the largest projection screens in the South and was the Southeast’s first cinema to feature adjustable air conditioning, while its neon-lit marquee — with three-quarters of a mile of cathode tubing — lured moviegoers to Savannah’s grand theater district.
The theater’s mid-block location positioned the auditorium parallel to Broughton Street, and its streamlined, rounded wall returns and recessed lighting reflects the later phase of Art Deco architecture. An expansive gold-leafed medallion, anchored high above the 1,105-seat auditorium, radiates a warm metallic glow that illuminates the stage and patrons below.
The Weis presented both films and live shows until 1980, when it closed as part of the mass exodus by audiences from downtown theaters to suburban cineplexes. SCAD acquired the defunct theater in 1989 and, after significant structural, aesthetic, and technical renovations and restorations, reopened the rechristened Trustees Theater in May 1998 with an inaugural concert by legendary singer Tony Bennett.
Open year-round, the theater is home to the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, as well as a frequent schedule of screenings, concerts, lectures, conferences, and live performances. The rehabilitation of the historic Trustees Theater greatly contributed to the ongoing revitalization of Broughton Street, which now home to a bustling expanse of restaurants, boutiques, coffee shops, the university’s Press and Jen Library, and more.
About SCAD
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