The New Orleans theater company Southern Rep has long looked for a permanent home since its theater space got taken over by a fancy movie theater. Today the company, along with other organizations, announced it will be a part of a conversion of a vacant Treme church into a performing arts hub.
Southern Rep, plus Rose Community Development Corporation and Alembic Community Development, are launching the Bayou Tremé Center campus development project, which will convert the Gothic Tudor-style St. Rose de Lima church at 2545 Bayou Road, plus two former Catholic schoolhouses across Columbus Street, into a performance and education space.
The project calls for a 13,400 square-foot theater complex run by Southern Rep that will include a black-box stage, an outdoor space for pre-show events, rehearsal space and a bar/cafe. One of the schoolhouses will serve as "new space for a school operator," and the other will be office space.
The plan to create the performing arts hub at the old church was announced before, but previously Southern Rep was not connected to the project.
At one point, the company eyed a spot in the Lower Garden District that currently houses several film production-related businesses.
The group aims for construction to begin in 2017, with a projected opening date in 2018.
· All Treme coverage [Curbed NOLA]
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