JANIE GOULD

The Vero Beach Theatre Guild, a cultural mainstay of the community for more than half a century, is planning to expand.

The guild has launched a campaign to raise $1 million to build a three-story, 5,000-square foot structure alongside the theatre. The new building will provide much-needed space for the work that goes on behind the scenes, from costuming and makeup to rehearsals, workshops and classes, said guild president Mark Wygonik. One floor will be set aside for storage, so the guild will no longer have to spend thousands of dollars each year renting storage units to house costumes and props.

The theatre is on San Juan Avenue, on the northeast corner of the McAnsh Park neighborhood, a stone’s throw from the Indian River County administration center.

When the guild was chartered in 1958 as a community theatre, it was one of only two cultural organizations in Vero Beach, the other being the Vero Beach Art Club. Early plays were staged in the Women’s Club building on 21^st Street. By the time Wygonik moved to town in the early 1960s, the theatre guild’s venue was the auditorium at Vero Beach High School.  That was the “old” high school on 19^th Street, which was later torn down and replaced by the Freshman Learning Center.

“I remember the auditorium there,” Wygonik said. “It was large and wood and scary — and it sloped!”

In the early 1970s, community leaders started raising funds to build a theatre on an undeveloped barrier island park. Riverside Theatre was built in Riverside Park in 1973 as the new venue for the theatre guild. Then, in the early 80s, Riverside Theatre’s board decided to shift to professional productions, using   paid Equity actors rather than community volunteers.

“The theatre guild’s charter was community theatre,” Wygonik said. “They decided they wanted to stay true to their charter and so they looked for another facility.”

It happened that a church building was for sale on Vero’s mainland. As luck or divine intervention would have it, Pastor Buddy Tipton was planning to build a larger complex for his Central Assembly of God church and had put the vacated property on the market.  Church and theatre guild officials came to terms, and, in 1985, the church building on San Juan Avenue became the theatre guild’s permanent home.

There were some grumblings in the community that the theatre guild would never make it in a location considered to be remote from the barrier island. But time has proven the doomsayers to be wrong, as both the theatre guild and Riverside theatre have thrived, offering productions that complement each other and satisfy the eclectic tastes of the theatre-going public.

For the first few years, theatre guild patrons watched shows from pews left behind by the church. Then the guild raised money to renovate the onstage area, adding or upgrading the lights and sound and even moving the stage. Comfortable auditorium seats were installed.

Now, Wygonik says, it’s time to renovate the offstage areas, so that actors can rehearse in a spacious multipurpose room, costume assistants can find a quick replacement for a performer’s ripped shirt, sets can be built and painted, actors can sit privately for work by hair and makeup artists, and an uncluttered and comfortable “green room” will actually let them relax before appearing on stage.
“We have 250 to 270 volunteers working here every year,” Wygonik said. “That’s a lot of people to come through here on a daily basis. The work space we have now is very antiquated. It’s not set up up right. It’s very inconvenient to have people doing hair and makeup out in the hallway, but for the past few years that’s what we’ve been doing.”

So the first floor of the new building will house state-of-the-art dressing rooms. The second floor will have a room that will be larger than the stage, so that rehearsals and plays can be staged concurrently, and the third floor will be used for centralized storage. A “green rooftop,” possibly with gardens and picnic tables for the casts and crews, is being planned.

The impetus for the fund-raising campaign came from a bequest made by the late Betty Abbott, a long-time guild supporter.

“She realized that we really needed to expand the facilities here,” Wygonik said.  “We’ve had some good donations since then, but we’re still a long way from raising all the funds that we need. We need the community’s help. The people on stage are your friends, your relatives, your mail man, the neighbor down the street. That’s who we are. And we believe that community theatre is good for everybody.”

Tony Donadio is the architect for the project and the general contractor is Bill Bryant and Associates. Bev and Marty Paris of Paris Productions have also been instrumental in moving the project forward,  Wygonik said.

The architectural and engineering plans have been completed, and the plans will be submitted to the city’s planning and zoning board for final approval in February. Ground-breaking is planned for March, with work expected to start in early June.  The guild will stage the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta “The Mikado” as a fundraising event in the summer. Naming opportunities are available for donations, from $50 for a star on a wall to $500,000 for the new building.

To find out more about the Vero Beach Theatre Guild: Call 772-562-8330. Send an email to vbtg.net. Write or visit the theatre guild at 2020 San Juan Ave.