Halloween is right around the corner and you can already see leaves falling, showing signs of the coming masquerading holiday. My daughter just received her costume for the Renaissance Fair she will be working at back in Kansas, it's an amazing costume btw. It made me look around for a costume shop in Connecticut and it didn't take long at all for me to find not only a very unique one, but the largest in the state.

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According to their website, the Warner Theatre was built by Warner Brothers Studios themselves way back in 1931. At the time, it was a nice place to see a movie and was described as "Connecticut's Most Beautiful Theatre." It was sold in the 1950s after suffering extensive damage in the flood of 1955. I was surprised to read that it was almost demolished in 1982 after facing foreclosure in 1981. The theatre suffered years of neglect due to soaring expenses and that new-fangled thing called television coming along and taking away a huge chunk of the moviegoers.

YouTube/WTNH News8
YouTube/WTNH News8
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Thankfully, a group called the Northwest Connecticut Association for the Arts, Inc.(NWCAA) was formed by some concerned citizens and the theatre was saved. They started a complete renovation of the building and reopened as a performing arts center in 1983. After 20 years, the complete restoration was finished in November of 2002 with a big celebration on Main Street in Torrington.

The Warner Theatre Costume Shop is the point of this whole article, so let's get back to that. It's located at 69 Main Street in Torrington and is the largest costume shop in Connecticut with 8000 square feet of space. They have everything you could imagine, vintage and contemporary costumes, individual costume rentals, theme parties, and weddings. Needless to say, it's the perfect place for Halloween and they even have design services to help you create your own costumes. Putting on your own shows?...they have backdrop and prop rentals to put those finishing touches on your production.

YouTube/WarnerTheatre CT
YouTube/WarnerTheatre CT
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YouTube/WarnerTheatre CT
YouTube/WarnerTheatre CT
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In addition to the costume shop, the Warner Theatre is in operation all year with more than 160 performances and 100,000 patrons visiting. Several upgrades to the building and theatre are continually being made and they have educational programs that affect thousands of K-12 age kids each year. Warner Theatre has secured a strong financial pipeline to provide for all the improvements and programs. Here are a couple of pics from some of their productions at Warner Theatre.

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It never ceases to amaze me what the state of Connecticut has to offer. Thanks for hanging out and I look forward to talking to you soon.

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