Casa Mañana
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| Address | 3101 West Lancaster Avenue Fort Worth, Texas United States |
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| Coordinates | 32°44′46″N 97°21′45″W / 32.7460°N 97.3625°WCoordinates: 32°44′46″N 97°21′45″W / 32.7460°N 97.3625°W |
| Operator | Casa Mañana Musicals, Inc. |
| Capacity | 1,805 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1936 |
| Reopened | July 5, 1958 |
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Casa Mañana Theatre, in Fort Worth, Texas, US, is located in the Fort Worth Cultural District and is also known, in English, as the "House of Tomorrow". Originally an outdoor amphitheater, Casa opened in 1936 as part of the official Texas Centennial Celebration.
After Dallas was selected to be the site of the official Texas Centennial Celebration in 1936, Amon G. Carter began making plans for a celebration in Fort Worth. Several acres of a nearby cow pasture were to become a midway of exhibits, sideshows, a Wild West show and a musical circus. At the center of the complex was to be a large outdoor amphitheatre and restaurant called Casa Mañana, “The House Of Tomorrow.”
Carter hired Broadway producer Billy Rose to produce the “Show of Shows” for Fort Worth. In just a few weeks, the cow pasture was transformed into Casa Mañana, housing the world’s largest revolving stage and accommodating 4,000 guests. A large moat surrounded the stage and fountains projected a wall of water, which doubled as the stage curtain. For the first time, Broadway magic graced Fort Worth. The show was so successful that plans were made to bring it back each summer for four consecutive years. Rising costs and the threat of World War II, however, derailed the scheme, and eventually the entire complex was dismantled and recycled for the war effort.
The dream of Casa Mañana was reborn in the fall of 1957 by the Fort Worth Opera Association’s president, James H. Snowden, Jr., and manager, Melvin O. Dacus. At their request, the city of Fort Worth created a non-profit corporation to build and operate a theatre complex, primarily focused on the production of Broadway musicals. With a budget of $500,000, the project was approved by the city council on January 14, 1958.
Construction began on March 13, and a record-breaking 114 days later Casa Mañana Theatre was completed as a fully enclosed, air-conditioned, aluminum-domed theatre. The theatre’s black-tie opening with a production of Can-Can on July 5, 1958, introduced audiences to the 1,805-seat house and to theatre-in-the-round, a stage configuration featuring a stage surrounded by the audience. With no backstage area, the actors and stagehands would use the surrounding concourse and aisles to move set pieces, props and other materials on and off stage.
Casa Mañana Musicals, Inc., the non-profit organization that managed the theatre, was run by a volunteer board of directors and General Manager Melvin O. Dacus. In 1962, programming was expanded with the introduction of the Children’s Playhouse, a professional theatre series geared toward North Texas children. Each year since, nearly 150,000 parents, children, teachers and students have attended these popular shows.
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