Overview

The 1,230-seat Bama Theatre opened in mid-April 1938 with the movie Bringing Up Baby (1938)  starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. The $200,000 theatre building project was joint-funded by the City of Tuscaloosa and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The theatre building also housed new City Hall offices.

The building has an Art Moderne exterior, however the interior is a very late Atmospheric design with a Spanish courtyard theme. The lobby is specifically styled after the Davanzati Palace in Florence.

As part of the WPA program, local artists and craftsmen were employed in the construction and decoration of the theatre. Scenic designer Navino Nataloni painted the mural panels in the auditorium, which according to the theatre’s website , “are painted to appear three dimensional with objects in the background appearing lighter, and, as a result, further away from the viewer”. In addition to the murals there were vines, trees, and flowers.

The twinkling lights in the auditorium ceiling, representing stars, were reported to “glow with the utmost reality by reason of the fact that an authorized astronomer was consulted as to the proper position of the stars in the sky”.

In the mid-1970s the theatre was converted into a performing arts center and has been home to the Tuscaloosa Symphony , Theatre Tuscaloosa , and Tuscaloosa Children’s Theatre , among others.

The Bama Theatre is managed by The Arts Council , established in 1970 by a group of citizens dedicated to the arts, and whose mission is to promote and encourage the arts and humanities in Tuscaloosa County.