The Historic Asolo Theater

The Historic Asolo Theater is an 18th Century Theater from Asolo, Italy. The Asolo Theater was originally built in 1798 within the castle of exiled Queen of Cyprus, Caterina Cornaro. The Ringling Museum’s first director, A. Everett “Chick” Austin, Jr. made the theater a part of the Museum collection in 1950. It has since made an impression on many generations of Sarasota residents and tourists until it was closed to the public in the late 1990s. It was removed from its former building and has been under restoration for nearly two years. It was earmarked to be re-installed in the Museum’s new Visitors Pavilion after being completely restored as part of the Master Plan. The theater’s reveal is a highly anticipated event scheduled for June 29th. Theater patrons can look forward to a varied schedule of theater, music, dance, film, family programming and lectures to begin in the fall.