The Grand Theatre

 The Grand Theatre is an auditorium located in an old public high school so it has no business being and grand and opulent as it is! The theater was part of South Highschool built in 1931. The high school was built with many art deco elements. It served as a high school until 1988. In 1989 Salt Lake Community College purchased it to use as city campus called SLCC South City Campus. It went through a year of renovations.

During the renovations Pat Davis, former Executive Director of Promised Valley Playhouse was brought to the auditorium and exclaimed “What a grand theater!” and the name stuck.

The first performance was Promised Valley in 1989, but was out in the football stadium. The first official Grand Theatre performance in the auditorium was Camelot in 1990.

I cannot find anything that explains why the auditorium is so massive and pretty. I mean, other than we just don't build buildings like we used to.

Now I am curious if East and/or West High schools have such amazing auditoriums They are similarly aged. I know East High School was the set of High School Musical. But, I don’t really have much interest in watching that haha. 

Anyway, we were her to see Odyssey Dance Company’s Thriller.

Quick Details:

Length: Depends on how far away you park, but there is a long corridor to get to the auditorium. 
Trail Type: Find your seat.
Difficulty: DR2. It is paved, with ramps.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: Yes
Dogs? No.
Other Info: Generally a fee area depending on what you are seeing.

To Get Here:

Take i80 to State Street head north. Go about 7 blocks and turn right on Kensington Ave (just after 17th south). Immediately turn right again and park.

1575 S State St, Salt Lake City, UT 84115

Fun low hanging clouds (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

Over a canyon (PSP).

The old Ritz Classic sign (PSP).

The old South High School, now SLCC (PSP). The parking is in back.

Better view of the front side found on Wikipedia.

The Adventure:

The back of the old school.

Center for Arts and Media.

Inside there is a sign pointing us to the right.

Doctor Who Call Box.

Old TV art.

Then down this long hallway.

See, this is way more fancy than it has any right to be.

Zoomed out a little.

Fancy opera alcove. I wonder if they ever use those anymore.

The other one, plus one of the many zombies wandering around.

Poster for the show.

Fancy door frame.

The curtain.

Okay, time to put the phone away until the end of the show.

Thriller was amazing! I enjoyed all of it, particularly the aerial dancers, and the Jason Jam tickled me. And of course, Thriller itself. 

Now that the show is over we did a little wandering around the neat old building.

The hallways are soooo long. My high school was circular so the halls didn't seem so long. But, I wonder if they were straitened out if they would have been?

We wandered up to the main balcony. Neat.

The view of the stage from it.

Again.

I wonder how old these clocks are. It appears to be displaying the correct time.

Fancy metal grate.

The back area of the school looks newer.

Fun souvenirs. I just HAD to have the Jason bear. I mean, look how cute he is!

Well that was a very interesting experience. We have some weird theaters in the valley, but this is the fanciest one I have seen in a high school. Aside from the pretty theater it was neat to explore a little bit of the old school. 10 out of 10 squirrels.

Thriller was really neat too! I have been wanting to come check it out for a couple of years now, so I am glad to finally have that crossed off the list! Also 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, its a modernized building. DR2.

Dogs are not allowed. Be sure to leave Fido home for this.