- December 3, 2024
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During the early and mid-20th century, a movement swept the country. This was before the crazes for Elvis, coonskin caps and hula hoops. Even before TikTok, Americans were subject to fads and manias. Seventy-five years ago, it seems every town wanted its own community theater.
Exactly when and why the Little Theatre Movement started is a subject of extensive debate and scholarship. But the local theater push appears to have been inspired by the European model. It also developed as a form of pushback against the rise of cinema, which was supplanting live theater in the U.S., and later TV.
It was this desire to have live local theater that led to the founding of the Venice Theatre 75 years ago, according to Benny Sato Ambush, the theater’s artistic director.
The first meeting of the Venice Theatre’s organizers was held Nov. 23, 1950. Founders Muriel Olds-Dundas and Sonia Terry took out an ad in The Venice Gondolier that read, “Active memberships, which will cost $5, will be available to those who want to act, usher, take tickets, clean out the place or whatnot.” Participants were incentivized to attend with the promise of a picnic lunch.
Flash forward to 2025. Today, the Venice Theatre is considered the second-largest community theater among the more than 10,000 such institutions in the U.S.
Its first production was George Kelly’s “The Torch Bearers,” a 1922 character-driven comedy about a community staging a play. To celebrate its diamond anniversary in the 2024-25 season, Venice Theatre has revived the play within a play. “It’s our origin story,” Ambush says.
The new production of “The Torch Bearers” runs at the Venice Theatre’s Raymond Center from Sept. 20-Oct. 13.
Normally, a big anniversary is cause for rejoicing and unabashed fundraising for a nonprofit cultural institution. That’s certainly the case with the Venice Theatre. However, the fundraising part took on a new urgency after the theater missed out on a $6 million federal grant earlier this year.
The Sarasota County Commission essentially snubbed the Venice Theatre in May when it decided how to spend more than $200 million in federal funds to help communities recover from Hurricane Ian and prepare for future storms.
The theater was counting on some of that funding to help rebuild its mainstage Jervey Theatre. The Jervey’s fly tower for storing stage equipment and its back wall were destroyed by Hurricane Ian in September 2022.
To add insult to injury, in June Florida Governor Ron DeSantis unexpectedly vetoed $32 million in arts grants for fiscal 2025. The previous year, the state cultural grants program delivered $70,500 to the Venice Theatre.
All told, the cost of rebuilding the 432-seat Jervey Theatre is $25 million, of which $9 million has been raised, including a $1 million donation from Jim and Donna Boldt. That still leaves a $16 million gap.
In the face of such a massive shortfall, Ambush is remarkably upbeat. Clearly, the theater's trouper mentality is deeply ingrained in the veteran arts educator and administrator, who holds an MFA from the University of California at San Diego and a BA in theater and literature from Brown University.
Commenting on the theater’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Ian, Ambush says, “Our community has responded beautifully. Many small donors have come through. The need is for a big one.”
Ambush first came to Venice in 2010 as an adjudicator for WorldFest, an event featuring theater companies from around the globe sponsored by the American Association of Community Theatre that was hosted by the Venice Theatre.
After serving as a WorldFest adjudicator (theater-speak for judge) again in 2014, Ambush returned to Venice full time in July 2021 as artistic director. He originally thought he would be staying for a year to help the company get back on its feet following Covid.
“They invited me to come down for a year only,” Ambush said in a telephone interview. “They asked me to help them plan the next 25 years and upgrade the acting quality.”
Ambush was recruited by producing executive director Murray Chase to replace Alan Kollar, who died in August 2020. Shortly after Ambush helped the Venice Theatre reopen in 2022, Hurricane Ian struck and destroyed much of the structure that once was the winter home of the Kentucky Military Institute.
“There was no rebar,” Ambush says, referring to steel rods that reinforce concrete structures. “It was just cinderblocks and mortar. It just crumbled. Once it crumbled, all that rain and wind came inside. There was a great deal of damage to the roof.”
Ian’s arrival extended Ambush’s run at the Venice Theatre as Chase turned his attention to fundraising and Kristopher Geddie was named executive director in August 2023. Geddie was previously director of diversity at Venice Theatre.
Following the damage inflicted by Ian, the Venice Theatre was able to transform its arts and education building, which was undergoing renovations, into the Raymond Center, which has 130 seats. It also performs in its existing black-box Pinkerton Theatre, which has 90 seats.
Concerts have been taking place in the Venice Performing Arts Center and the Venice Community Center and will continue to do so until the Jervey is rebuilt, Ambush says.
But until that day, the Venice Theatre has 300 fewer tickets to sell to its plays. That creates a deeper financial hole, as production costs are spread over fewer seats than before.
Still, the show must go on, and it will with great fanfare during the Venice Theatre’s 75th season.
The diamond anniversary season schedule has a total of 15 productions, Ambush says. Besides “The Torch Bearers,” other upcoming revivals from the theater’s long history are “Agnes of God,” “My Fair Lady” and “Alice in Wonderland.”
The 75th season also features Venice Theatre’s traditional annual productions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” its Pinky’s Players shows for thespians with mental and physical disabilities and its Silver Foxes offerings by senior players.
For those who want something new, the Venice Theatre is producing three musicals, including “9 to 5,” based on the 1980 film about frustrated clerical staffers who want to get back at their boss. The film’s theme was written and recorded by Dolly Parton.
The other musicals are “The Lightning Thief,” about a youth who learns he has supernatural abilities, and “Don’t Touch That Dial,” which uses TV theme songs to encourage audience participation in a trivia contest.
Also making their debut this season are “The Learned Ladies,” a husband-hunting comedy written by the 17th-century French playwright Moliere, and “Syncopation,” which follows a meatpacker’s effort to find a suitable partner to help him launch a career as a ballroom dancer.
WorldFest is on hold until the Jervey is rebuilt, Ambush says, but other programs central to its mission are ongoing. “Our extensive educational and community engagement programs have continued without a hitch,” he adds. “Those programs will grow once we get back to our plan of renovating our arts and education center.”
In addition to looking for big donors to help rebuild the Jervey, Ambush and his team spend a lot of time educating the public about why they need so much money.
Some patrons and donors have the misconception that insurance covers all the costs of rebuilding after a storm. In addition to inflation, the need to satisfy modern building codes pushes up replacement costs, Ambush notes.
The Jervey Theatre roof, which the Venice Theatre installed for $225,000 in 2016, costs $861,000 to replace today.
One silver lining is that the Venice Theatre already had an architectural and construction team in place to renovate the arts center when Ian struck. That helped the theater quickly pivot to fashioning the Raymond Center and beginning repairs.
As the hunt for big checks continues, does Ambush have a message for the community on the occasion of the Venice Theatre’s 75th anniversary? Yes, he does.
“We appreciate all the love and support we’ve gotten from our volunteers,” he says. “And we wouldn’t be here after 75 years without our audiences. Thank you!”
