- October 9, 2024
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The Flagler Education Foundation has donated $20,000 to help the Flagler Playhouse rebuild from the Oct. 30 fire that destroyed the historic building on Moody Boulevard.
The Playhouse held its first fundraising event for rebuilding at Woody’s Bar-B-Que on State Road 100 on Nov. 14. Foundation Executive Director Teresa Rizzo handed the check for $20,000 to Flagler Playhouse President Jerri Berry during the event.
“I've always felt that the Playhouse is kind of like a family,” Berry said. “So seeing how that overflows into the community is amazing.”
Rizzo said a lot of Flagler students and staff participate in the Playhouse, which is a big part of the community.
The Flagler Playhouse is part of our family."
— Teresa Rizzo, Education Foundation executive director
"The Flagler Playhouse is part of our family," Rizzo said.
At the fundraiser, Berry announced that the Playhouse is planning to rebuild and thanked everyone in the community who had offered support. Berry said the playhouse is putting together several committees, including a rebuilding committee which will be headed by Chelsea Barney Herbert.
Herbert, who owns 4Cs Trucking & Excavation in Bunnell, volunteered to lead the rebuilding committee. Anyone in the community who wants to help with the rebuilding efforts can contact Herbert or Berry.
Herbert said she drives past the Playhouse every day on her way to work and had to find a way to pitch in. The Playhouse — as the theater and the historic church — is an important part of the Bunnell community, she said.
“It’s important to me that [the Playhouse] rebuilds in Bunnell,” Herbert said.
Berry also announced that the Playhouse has found new locations for its entire 2023-2024 season of performances by coordinating with Flagler Schools and other community partners.
“It'll be a much shorter production window for each production. However, we get to still continue doing what we do,” Berry said in an interview with the Observer. “That's pretty amazing.”
Matanzas High School will host all of the Playhouse’s remaining shows, starting with “Great American Trailer Park Musical.” Berry said that show is likely to open in the last week of January, though the dates are still being finalized.
Bunnell Elementary — the school Berry works at — will host the Playhouse’s Penguin Project, which works with students with disabilities and their parents and peer mentors. Rehearsals for that will begin sometime in January or February, she said.
The Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center at Flagler Palm Coast High School may not have been able to make room in its schedule to host the Playhouse's shows, Berry said, but the Fitzgerald has offered to cover the Playhouse’s custodial costs at the schools.
“So, we have basically covered our entire season, which is fabulous, and now we can finalize that and focus on rebuild and fundraising efforts,” she said.
“The Play That Goes Wrong,” which was set to open on Nov. 3, won’t be added back to the Playhouse’s season, but the performance isn’t going away, either.
“Our hope is that that is our very first one we open with in our new facility,” Berry said.
Even as planning for the season is underway, local — and some not-so-local — organizations have begun supporting the Playhouse’s future rebuilding efforts.
The Fitzgerald has called all the patrons for “The Play That Goes Wrong” and offered complimentary tickets for the Fitzgerald’s “Almost ABBA” performance if the play’s tickets were donated instead of refunded, Berry said.
Though the Woody’s Bar-B-Que fundraiser was the first, it will not be the last fundraiser planned on behalf of the Playhouse.
Athens Theatre in DeLand will host a fundraiser for the Playhouse on Dec. 6, while the Ritz in Sanford is donating its proceeds from a fundraiser for the Orlando Greek Choir to the Playhouse.
It is crazy. I'm blown away. The community arts and our Central Florida Theatre Alliance group are just so generous in helping us."
— Jerri Berry, Flagler Playhouse president
City Repertory Theatre has offered the proceeds from the last weekend of its Christmas performance. Theater Studio “Palm Coast” Director Steve Kaganovich also announced at the Woody's fundraiser that Theater Studio will donate a portion of the proceeds from its performance of “Eight Loving Women,” by Robert Thomas. That performance will be held on Dec. 10 at Matanzas High School.
“It is crazy. I'm blown away,” Berry said. “The community arts and our Central Florida Theatre Alliance group are just so generous in helping us.”
Berry said that though she has not received the final report from the Florida State Fire Marshal’s inspection, the cause of the fire seems to have been electrical.
“Hopefully soon we'll be able to get in, and — those parts of the building that are salvageable — get in, start the cleaning process, start salvaging items," she said.
One thing she’s been asked a lot is if the steeple will stay in the rebuild. The answer is yes, she said, whether that means replacing the steeple or restoring it.
Berry said the original fabricator of the steeple even reached out when he had heard about the fire. Nothing has been guaranteed, Berry said, but she’s hopeful that even if the steeple does need to be replaced, she knows who the Playhouse can reach out to for cost estimates.
“It's kind of going through the stages of grief. And, you know, we're going to be fine,” she said. “I think we're going to be bigger, better, stronger.”
