Nearly four years after Hurricane Ian tore through its main stage, Venice Theatre is closing in on a comeback. The nonprofit is targeting a February 2027 reopening for its 432-seat Jervey Theatre, with construction crews having finished the main stage walls and a final public tour scheduled for 10 a.m. on September 24 before the building reopens for good.
The storm's Category 4 winds collapsed the theater's rear fly tower wall and flooded the main stage back on September 28, 2022, according to WUSF. As reported by FOX 13 Tampa Bay, Executive Director Kristofer Geddie said he is thrilled by the construction progress and called restoring the theater an extremely emotional process. Magnum Builders of Sarasota is leading the rebuild of the venue, which has served as a community beacon for 75 years.
“This building is for the community,” Geddie said, per the FOX 13 report. Those wanting to see the progress firsthand can join the final two-hour public tour before the theater's official reopening, though attendees must RSVP by emailing [email protected].
A $25 Million Price Tag, With $5 Million Still to Go
The rebuild has cost $25 million so far, and Venice Theatre still needs to raise another $5 million to complete the restoration, according to the FOX 13 account. That total ballooned after a string of financial setbacks: an anticipated $6 million HUD grant through the Resilient SRQ relief plan fell through, promised commercial bank financing evaporated, and the cost of a replacement roof jumped from $225,000 in 2016 to $861,000 after the storm, the station's report notes.
The nonprofit has also had to navigate state-level funding cuts. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis line-item vetoed $250,000 in state funding earmarked for the theater's rebuilding and education studio plans in June, following a broader veto of cultural grants in past budget cycles, per the same account from WUSF. The theater had relied on state cultural grants for more than 25 years before those recent eliminations.
To help close the gap, the Venice City Council approved a $125,000 municipal matching grant in May, challenging community members and local donors to match the city's contribution dollar-for-dollar. City leaders have framed the theater as a cornerstone of historic downtown Venice, and an Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County study found the reopened Jervey Theatre will generate nearly $50 million in total annual economic impact for the local economy, according to WGCU News.
Named Seats and a Symbolic Season Opener
Donors can still claim a piece of the rebuilt theater directly. Venice Theatre is offering named seats in exchange for $7,500 donations, and those pledges can be paid in installments, per FOX 13.
Construction crews marked a major milestone in October 2025 with a traditional topping out ceremony, placing a pink crepe myrtle tree on the final steel beam before hoisting it to the highest point of the rebuilt structure, WGCU News reported. In the meantime, the organization has kept mainstage productions and education programs running by converting a nearby former law office and former public library into a temporary venue known as the Raymond Center, according to WUSF.
When the Jervey Theatre finally reopens in February, it will do so with Kinky Boots — the same musical that was in active rehearsals at Venice Theatre when Hurricane Ian struck in 2022. Founded on November 23, 1950, Venice Theatre is recognized as the second-largest community theater organization in the country and the largest per capita, typically drawing more than 65,000 patrons a year. Following the storm, longtime Executive Director Murray Chase shifted into a dedicated Restoration Supervisor role to oversee construction, while Geddie, formerly the theater's Director of Diversity, was named executive director in 2023.
Venice Theatre's recovery also lands amid a broader rebuilding of Sarasota County's performing arts infrastructure, with the Sarasota Players set to open their new home at Payne Park Auditorium in January 2027, just weeks before Venice Theatre's own reopening. Across the region, the return of Kinky Boots to the Jervey stage stands as a marker of how far the community theater has come since the storm first cut its curtain short.
