Creating Quality Theatre in the Tennessee Valley for over 31 years
All seats in all IMPHuntsville venues are reserved; there is no "general admission". This means you don't have to arrive an hour before show time to compete for a great seat. You can buy your tickets online or at the box office prior to the performance. There is no service fee for tickets purchased online. If you buy your tickets online, you have a choice of making a paper copy at home, sending the tickets to your cell phone, or having them held at Will Call.
All IMPHuntsville venues are handicap-accessible.
5000 Pulaski Pike NW, Huntsville
The Dr Mae Jamison Theater is perhaps Huntsville City Schools' newest theatrical venue. We are delighted and privileged to be able to introduce this fantastic space to the community theater patrons in Huntsville. It is equipment with technical amenities that make a professional quality musical productions possible, with a modern electronic-control fly system, and a large stage.
Similar to that of other venues we perform in, the Dr Mae Jemison Theater offers a proscenium stage (a stage area framed by an outer wall which allows the audience to view the action like a painting) and seating for roughly 650 audience members.
2500 Meridian Street N, Huntsville
The Main Stage Theater has all of the technical amenities that make a professional quality musical production. With a modern and up-to-date fly system, ample stage space, a true orchestra pit, and the latest in lighting technology, it is the home of Huntsville City Schools' Theater and Technical Theater Magnet programs. We are extremely privileged to be able to perform on this great stage while at the same time providing an outlet for magnet students to learn and gain experience.
The Main Stage Theater offers a proscenium stage (a stage area framed by an outer wall which allows the audience to view the action like a painting) and seating of approximately 800 audience members. This size house and proscenium style is comparable to the more popular production venues in New York City. When comparing the other venues that are available to the organization in Huntsville, none match the desirability of the Lee Main Stage Theater for those reasons. Although the Von Braun Center has two production venues, it does not offer a theatrical venue with a mid-range seating capacity for the local community theatre groups that is also a procenium stage.
2500 Meridian Street N, Huntsville
The Black Box Theater provides just the right intimate and versatile venue for our smaller productions. Located next to the Main Stage Theater, its seats are designed to be moved and set up in different configurations to accommodate any small theatrical setting. This intimacy gives a "cabaret-like" feeling to musical revues such as Ain't Misbehavin' and Smokey Joe's Café.
Three sections of seats surround the performance area on three sides, leaving the center of the space open for the actors to perform. This is known as a "three-quarter round" configuration. Two "riser" sections each contain 35 seats to which we add eight floor-level seats. A third section is made of portable platform sections with additional seating for a total of about 131 seats, although we occasionally eliminate a few seats on the floor to accommodate entrances for actors or set pieces.
Why does IMPHuntsville perform at a high school?
It is often asked why a community theatre group of IMPHuntsville's caliber chooses to perform at one of the local high schools. The answer lies in our search for the highest quality productions and our desire to reach out to our community and share that quality. IMPHuntsville was founded by Vivienne Atkins, who was an educator with Huntsville City Schools for the majority of her career. Many of IMP's faces - both on stage and behind the scenes - are her former students or their children. As a result, we look forward to performing in spaces that will continue to give tomorrow's generation the opportunity to be exposed to - and participate in - a theatrical production such those we present.
Additionally, given the expense involved in producing quality musical theatre events, cutting production costs plays a big part in maintaining reasonable ticket prices. The cost involved in producing an event at other venues can be significantly higher than the cost of performing in a high school venue.