Arneson River Theater - A Stage Across the Water

Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Antonio River Walk and the Alamo, a free self-guided tour.

Find a seat on the grassy steps and look across the river. You are sitting in the audience of the Arneson River Theater, one of the most unusual stages in the country: the performers are on one bank, the audience on the other, and the river runs between them. Tour boats glide right through the show.

Robert Hugman, the architect who dreamed up the River Walk, designed the theater, and it was built around 1939 to 1941 by the Works Progress Administration. It is named for Edwin Arneson, the local WPA official who helped Hugman win federal money for the River Walk but died before construction began. The grass-covered steps hold more than 800 people.

The theater hosts more than 200 performances a year, from folkloric dance and mariachi music to concerts, plays and weddings. Look behind the stage for the bells hung in the stone arches. If there is a show tonight, it is well worth coming back.

Getting here: Walk through La Villita toward the river; the theater's grass-step seating sits on the La Villita side, facing the stage across the water.

Did you know?: The little arched footbridge beside the stage is Rosita's Bridge, named for singer Rosita Fernandez, who crossed it while performing in the Fiesta Noche del Rio for 25 years.

Photo op: From the top row of the grass steps, frame the stage, its arches and the river with a passing boat.

More on Wikipedia: Arneson River Theater · Robert H. H. Hugman · Rosita Fernandez

Arneson River Theater - A Stage Across the Water

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