THE ARTS STAGED
TRANSFORMATION
Theater guild building undergoes
extensive cleaning, renovations
The Vero Beach Theatre Guild is the oldest community
54
theater on the Treasure Coast, offering extraordinary
local entertainment since 1958. From its humble
beginnings when plays were presented at the old
naval base or high schools and props and costumes were kept
in people’s garages to its current state-of-the-art campus,
the guild was built on the generosity of a community with a
thirst for live theater.
Throughout the years, it has undergone numerous transformations,
the latest being in 2016 with the addition of a new
three-story east wing designed to house new dressing rooms,
rehearsal space and costume storage. The next two years saw
many physical changes and finally all items stored off-campus
were moved to the new wing. In 2019, the theater became
a year-round operation presenting seven main stage productions
and three staged readings in the Apron Series. By all
accounts the theater was staged to live happily ever after.
That was, of course, until 2020 when COVID-19 disrupted
the world and the curtain fell, as the guild’s season was suspended
indefinitely after the fourth production had opened.
Not to sit idle, the management team busied itself with
another renovation during the shutdown.
“We took advantage of COVID and literally transformed
the entire building with just the materials we had,” guild >>
Elaborate stage sets
enhance performances
in the newly remodeled
Vero Beach Theatre Guild.
BY KERRY FIRTH
KERRY FIRTH