The Elgin and Winter Garden Theater Center

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres are a pair of stacked theatres in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Winter Garden Theatre is seven storeys above the Elgin Theatre.

They are the last surviving Edwardian stacked theatres in the world. The pair were originally built as the flagship ofMarcus Loew's theatre chain in 1913. The building was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, who also built the Ed Mirvish Theatre.

Both theatres were built to show vaudeville acts and the short silent movies of the time. Each theatre was intended to compete in a different market. By 1928, feature-length silent films were popular, but sound films were just coming into their own. In 1928 the lower theatre was converted to show sound films and the upper theatre was closed. The Winter Garden remained shuttered for about sixty years. Left inside it was a large collection of vaudeville flats and scenery, now the world's largest surviving collection. In 1969, Loews sold the Elgin to Famous Players. By the 1970s, the Elgin was showing mainly B movies and soft-core pornography.

The Elgin has dancing cherubs, elaborately decorated boxes, vast expanses of gold leaf and plaster sculpting covered in wafer-thin sheets of aluminum, while the Winter Gardens has hand-painted walls and a ceiling decorated with dried beech leaves.

Teatru Manoel

Teatru Manoel is one of Europe's oldest working theaters -- it was built in 1731 with funds from The Knights of Malta, a Western Christian military order.

Following centuries of unrest and a myriad of conquerors, the rule of the Military Order of St. John brought about a period of unprecedented stability and development to the Maltese Islands. The newly constructed fortified capital, Valletta, administrative centre and home to the variety of nationalities forming the Order, witnessed a further development as the islands’ cultural and entertainment hub. It remained unscathed during both World Wars, despite serving as a bomb shelter during the second, and many original features remain, including beautiful painted wooden panels and the silver leaf-adorned ceiling.

Tampa Theatre

The Tampa Theatre and Office Building is a historic U.S. theater and city landmark in the Uptown District of downtown Tampa, Florida. On January 3, 1978, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The Theatre features a wide range of independent, foreign, and documentary films on a daily basis. It is Tampa's only non-profit movie palace, and operating costs are supported by its members, donors and corporate sponsors, as well as by ticket and concessions sales. It has often been used as a backdrop for movies, music videos and local programming. Tampa Theatre is the work of architect John Eberson, who also designed the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas. Highlights include a 900-pipe Wurlitzer organ and 99 bulbs embedded in the ceiling to resemble twinkling stars.

It was regarded as one of the world's most elaborate theaters when it was built in 1926 and the interior -- a somewhat garish explosion of flowers and angry gargoyles -- resembles a Mediterranean courtyard.

Teatro Amazonas

- is an opera house located in Manaus, in the heart of theAmazon rainforest in Brazil. It is the location of the annual Festival Amazonas de Ópera (Amazonas Opera Festival) and the home of the Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra which regularly rehearses and performs at the Amazon Theater along with choirs, musical concerts and other performances. The theater was built in the late 19th century during a rubber boom and was designed by Italian architect Celestial Sacardim.

Work took 15 years, largely thanks to the decision to source supplies from all over the world: the roof tiles came from Alsace in France, stairs and columns were made of Italian marble and the steel walls came from Glasgow.

Beautiful features include 198 chandeliers, which also came from Italy, and the central dome, covered in 36,000 ceramic tiles painted in the colors of Brazil's national flag.

State Theatre

The State Theatre opened on the 7th of June 1929. The Theatre was the vision of Stuart Doyle, owner of Union Theatres and the esteemed architect Henry White. It was to be seen as “The Empire’s Greatest Theatre” and was designed as a picture palace when such monuments to movies were at their grandest and most spectacular. During its first week patrons were offered “entertainment of unparalleled magnificence”.

The opening night’s performance featured noted bandleader Will Prior who was described in the programme as a conductor capable of lifting “jazz to perfection in a sublime miscellany of melodious rhythm”. The first of countless motion pictures to be shown at the State Theatre was “The Patriot” accompanied by Price Dunlavy billed as a “debonair genius” playing the mighty Wurlitzer organ.Other attractions included Australia’s leading soprano Rene Maxwell & the State Beauty Ballet billed as “a beauty bevy with amazing ability”. The stage was now set for countless performers & films to transport and entertain literally millions of future customers.

It was designed by Aussie architect Eli White, but his decision to base his masterpiece on the work of American John Eberson resulted in a mishmash of Gothic, Italian and art deco styles.

The theater contains the second largest chandelier in the world and a priceless Wurlitzer organ, and is recognized by The National Trust of Australia, which has classified it as "a building of great historical significance and high architectural quality, the preservation of which is regarded as essential to our heritage."

Salle Richelieu

The Salle Richelieu, also known as the Comédie Française, was built in the late 1600s.

The grand staircase is lined with busts of important figures from the theater's past -- the bust of French playwright Corneille is rather worn, due to the belief that touching it will bring good luck.

"It's the archetypal theater -- a womb-like curve of red plush and gold," says professor Jan Clarke at the International Federation for Theater Research.

"It's also a living museum, containing objects, artifacts, paintings and sculptures of huge interest for the history of French theater, including the armchair actor Jean-Baptiste Poquelin used in 'Le Malade Imaginaire' just hours before his death."

National Noh Theatre

-opened in Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan in September 1983. The auditorium seats 591 for performances of Noh and Kyōgen, and there is also a rehearsal stage, exhibition area, lecture room, and reference library.

Forget cement and plasterboard -- Japan's Noh theater was constructed in 1983 from 400-year-old bishu-hinoki cypress trees. 

It's open on three sides and the seating spreads out from the stage in a fan shape.Despite the traditional elements there's plenty of tech -- each seat has a personal subtitling system that can be changed from Japanese to English at the touch of a button.

Noh (meaning "skill" or "talent") is a form of traditional Japanese musical drama, and plays often last all day