The Teatro Tapia, in San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

, is presumed to be the oldest free-standing drama stage building

Theater (structure)

A theater or theatre is a structure where theatrical works or plays are performed or other performances such as musical concerts may be produced. While a theater is not required for performance , a theater serves to define the performance and audience spaces...

 still in use in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is named after the poet and dramatist Alejandro Tapia y Rivera

Alejandro Tapia y Rivera

Alejandro Tapia y Rivera was a Puerto Rican poet, dramaturg, essayist and writer. Tapia is considered to be the father of Puerto Rican literature and as the person who has contributed the most to the cultural advancement of Puerto Rico's literature...

 (1826-1882).

Location

The theater faces east, across from Plaza de Colón, on Fortaleza Street, and was constructed in 1824. It was designed in the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 style as a horseshoe shaped opera house

Opera house

An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...

 with three tiers of boxes. A block south lies a brick-shaped original Casa de camineros; house of road-maintainers. To the North-east lie a string of cultural institutions: the restored Casino de Puerto Rico, the YMCA

YMCA

The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

, the Carnegie library

Carnegie library

A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems...

, the Ateneo Puertorriqueño, and Moorish-inspired Casa de España

Casa de España

Casa de España is the headquarters of a private social organization whose members are those of Spanish descent in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Calle Ponce de Leon. The building was designed in a Moorish Revival style by Pedro de Castro. The building dates from 1932...

. In the North seaward cliff, sprawls the historic and labyrinthine fort of San Cristóbal. The original landward gate of old San Juan lay just east of this site on Calle Fortaleza.

Significance

For over one hundred years since it was built it was the center of cultural life in the city. Famous soprano Adelina Patti

Adelina Patti

Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...

 sang there in one of her earlier tours of the Americas during the mid nineteenth century. Other notable performers to have graced its stage include the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.

About the theater, it is written that "the most significant moments of Puerto Rico's musical history are associated with...Teatro Tapia... and have been carefully documented by...Emilio Pasarell

Emilio J. Pasarell

Emilio J. Pasarell was a Puerto Rican short-story writer, novelist, and essayist. He was also an accomplished historian.-Origin:...

 and Antonia Saez.

History

Initially named the San Juan Municipal Theater, it was named the Antonio Paoli Theater in 1935. It was then officially renamed the Teatro Alejandro Tapia y Rivera in 1937. After years of neglect during the forties, the former Mayor of San Juan Felisa Rincón de Gautier

Felisa Rincón de Gautier

Felisa Rincón de GautierThis name uses Spanish marriage naming customs; the first is the maiden family name "Rincón" and the second or matrimonial family name is "Gautier"...

 (who served from 1946 to 1969) pushed to save the theater from demolition. It was restored in the late forties and has subsequently been used to provide a venue for musical theater, drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

and other cultural events. With a maximum capacity of 700 people, this 19th century theater serves as an arena for cultural events and enchanting ballet performances. The interior audience hall is remarkable for the period -- copies of wood chairs and its three tiers of boxes. Subsequent restorations (in 1976 and 1997) returned its old charm.