Teatro La Perla

Teatro La Perla is a historic theater in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Inaugurated in 1864,[3] it is the second oldest theater of its kind in Puerto Rico,[4] but "the largest and most historic in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean."[5][6] The theater was named La Perla in honor of the Virgin of Montserrat (Spanish: La Virgen de Montserrat), known as "The Pearl of the Mediterranean."[7][8][9] It is located in barrio Tercero, in the Ponce Historic Zone.

Teatro La Perla
La Perla
Teatro La Perla
AddressCalle Mayor and Calle Cristina (NE corner)
LocationPonce, Puerto Rico
Coordinates18.01200°N 66.61198°W / 18.01200; -66.61198
OwnerAutonomous Municipality of Ponce
OperatorCarmen Martinez Aja, director[1]
TypeIndoor theater
Genre(s)music, concerts, theatre
Seating typesoft seat, reserved seating
Capacity1,047
Construction
Broke ground1860
Built1860-1864
Opened28 May 1864[2]
Closed1918-1941 (earthquake)
2006-2008 (renovations)
Reopened2008
ArchitectJuan Bertoli Calderoni
Tenants
Festival Luis Torres Nadal

Design

The theater was designed in the 1860s by Juan Bertoli Calderoni (a Ponceño of Italian heritage resident of the city) and it bears a neoclassical structure with an impressive six-column entrance. The building was badly damaged by the 1918 earthquake. However, it was rebuilt in 1940 using the original plans and reopened in 1941 with better acoustics technology. It closed in 2006 for renovations and reopened on March 14, 2008.[10]

History

Teatro La Perla was built under the initiative of Francisco Parra Duperón and Pedro Garriga in May 1864.[11] It was inaugurated on 28 May 1864 with the play La campana de la Almudaina of the Majorcan writer Juan Palou y Coll by the theatrical company of Segarra & Argente.[12]

Teatro La Perla served as a stage not only to give life to the theatrical artistic culture in the region, but it also served as a place of assembly for those who were dedicated to the social issues in Ponce and in Puerto Rico as a whole. It served this function both at the end of the Spanish regime and in Puerto Rico's early years as a United States territory.[13]

In this theater, in 1901, Frenchman Eduardo Hervet showed the first silent film ever to be run in Puerto Rico.[14] The theater's first illumination technical director was Félix Juan Torres Ortiz.[15]

It was reconditioned between 1977 and 1979 at a cost of over $500,000.[16]

Capacity and museum

The theater has a seating capacity of 1,047 and is now a regular venue for concerts, opera, plays, and various civic and educational activities such as school graduations.[17] The lobby of the theater has a small museum dedicated to the history of the building and past shows.

Prominent events

Teatro La Perla has been host to several significant events, among them:

  • 1887-03-7 to 03-09: Political assembly that gave birth to the Puerto Rico Autonomist Party.[18]
  • 1896-04-26: Juan Morel Campos suffers a stroke while performing on stage and dies 3 weeks later
  • 1987-02: Inauguration of the Festival de Teatro Luis Torres Nadal[19]

See also
  • List of theaters of Ponce, Puerto Rico

References
  1. A regañadientes teatristas ponceños llegan al Teatro La Perla: buscan revivir el desaparecido Festival Luis Torres Nadal. Agustin Muñoz. El Sol de Puerto Rico. 24 October 2019. Accessed 4 November 2019.
  2. Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla, y la campana de la Almudaina: Historia de Ponce desde sus comienzos hasta la segunda decada del siglo XX. Page 574. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Gobierno Municipal de Ponce. 1992. Impreso por Editora Corripio, C. por A. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana. LOC Catalog Number: 85-90989. Registration Number: TX-1-977-212.
  3. Ponce: La Capital del Sur de Puerto Rico Archived 2 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  4. La Perla Theater. Puerto Rico Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  5. Teatro La Perla. Frommer's Puerto Rico. By Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince. Page 182. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  6. Frommers. Ponce. Walking Tours.
  7. Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla, y la campana de la Almudaina: Historia de Ponce desde sus comienzos hasta la segunda decada del siglo XX. Page 111. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Gobierno Municipal de Ponce. 1992. Impreso por Editora Corripio, C. por A. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana. LOC Catalog Number: 85-90989. Registration Number: TX-1-977-212.
  8. Government of the Municipality of Ponce. Ponce Walking Tour. At VisitPonce.com Archived 16 March 2010 at WebCite
  9. Government of the Municipality of Ponce. VisitPonce website > Disfrutalo > Ponce es para Ti > Paseo de Arte y Cultura> Teatro La Perla.
  10. Grand Inauguration for Ponce’s La Perla Theater. LetsGoToPonce: Insider's Guide to South Puerto Rico. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  11. Acosta, Ivonne (29 September 2008). "Teatro La Perla" (in Spanish). Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  12. Socorro Girón. Ponce, el teatro La Perla, y la campana de la Almudaina: Historia de Ponce desde sus comienzos hasta la segunda decada del siglo XX. Pages ix and 574. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Gobierno Municipal de Ponce. 1992. Impreso por Editora Corripio, C. por A. Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana. LOC Catalog Number: 85-90989. Registration Number: TX-1-977-212.
  13. Functional Use of the Theater
  14. Historia del Cine en Puerto Rico
  15. Llega Festival de Teatro Luis Torres Nadal . Sandra Torres Guzmán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Year 32. Issue 1577. Page 24. 19 February 2014.
  16. Carmelo Rosario Natal. Ponce En Su Historia Moderna: 1945-2002. Published by Secretaría de Cultura y Turismo of the Government of the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 2003. p. 145.
  17. Let's Go:Home > North America > Puerto Rico > Southeast > Ponce : Sights. Archived 4 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  18. Reinaldo E. Gonzalez Blanco. El Turismo Cultural en Ponce durante el Plan Ponce en Marcha, 1990-2000. Neysa Rodriguez Deynes, Ed. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Professional Editions. 2018. Page 13. ISBN 978-1-64131-139-7.
  19. Carmelo Rosario Natal. Ponce En Su Historia Moderna: 1945-2002. Published by Secretaría de Cultura y Turismo of the Government of the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 2003. p. 148.

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