Alliance is more than just our schools and our sports teams. Our community is full of creativity, and small businesses who show the true, and beautiful colors of our town. When you drive or walk downtown you can’t miss the crown jewel of our town, the Alliance Theatre. It’s hard to miss and if you asked anyone who’s been here long enough, you wouldn’t want to.
The Alliance Theatre is owned and operated by Courtney and Edison Rednest. They work hard each day keeping our astonishing theatre running, and clean. Courtney Rednest a current owner, has had a history with the theatre, working for the previous owner as an employee. She has always had a love for our theatre, and back in 2019 when she had heard that the theatre was going to be sold. She jumped at the opportunity to buy it.
When diving into the history of theatres in Alliance, there wasn’t only – what it was known when it first opened – the Imperial Theatre. There were two other theatres known as the Empress Theatre and the Crystle Theatre. However, they were both closed down by the owner in 1916 after Harry A. Dubuque bought the Imperial Theatre. This was because he wanted to focus on the Imperial Theatre to make it the best possible. It’s quite easy to say he achieved that with how our theatre reflects its past with how it looks now.
The Imperial building wasn’t always a theatre though, and was used as a hotel in its early days. In 1919 it had a major overhaul with Denver architect Frank E. Edbrooke, and relaunched the same year. They did so with a show “ One Week of Life ”, along with a few live vaudevill acts that night. Current owner Edison Rednest has stated that if he could alter any part of the theatre, that it would be to bring back the original show stage to revive the theatre’s past of live shows and music, this, of course, wouldn’t change their showings of movies weekly.
Another theatre was opened in Alliance in 1923, and both were sold to Fox West Coast Circuit in October of 1929. Fox decided to completely remodel and gutted the inside of the Imperial, bringing new life to it. As tribute to the theatre’s previous owner, Harry A. Dubuque and his wife were invited to the reopening of the venue on November 23, 1937.
The theatre was then inherited by the United Artists after they took over Commonwealth Circuit. The latest change to the theatre after this was the addition of the balcony in 1990. Since then it’s evolved to a triplex, and has become a five screen operation.
Our theatre is ever growing, and the community hopes to never see the beautiful building leave. The current owners Courtney and Edison Rednest have done wonderful things with our theatre, and the community has high hopes to see how it continues to change and progress.
