Slide Show: Vineyard Playhouse Renovations

Renovating a building is always a big job, renovating one that’s nearly 200 years old, rightly borders on adventure. Starting last year, the began what will be, when all is said and done, a top to bottom renovation.

Interestingly enough, most of the renovations to the Playhouse won’t be obvious when sitting inside the theater itself. “We’re really doing it to make it more user friendly and safe,” said MJ Bruder Munafo, Executive and Artistic Director for the Vineyard Playhouse. While the new plan increases the size of the building itself, it does not increase the size of the stage or the number of seats. “It’s more about increasing the efficiency, safety and comfort of building,” said Munafo.

So what exactly will change? “The dressing rooms will be moved upstairs next to the stage so the actors will no longer have to run up the main stairs to get to the stage. And while there’s some charm to thinking about all of that, in reality it was a little crazy,” said Munafo.

Other changes include removing the two exterior staircases and replacing them with interior ones, which means no more going up to the theater in the rain. There will be a new elevator, rebuilt public restrooms and a workshop area. A new basement will house all of the building’s systems– including new electrical and sprinkler systems.

The lobby will look different, as it will be expanded and the box office will no longer be in the middle of the room. “Basically, the entrance and exit to second floor will be better for everybody,” said Munafo.

The beginning stages of the renovation happened last year when the Tisbury Preservation Committee gave the theater money to refinish the three sides and the gable trim visible from the street. With the three exterior walls finished, work began on the inside.

The building, originally built in 1833, has not had much done to it over the last 100 years. And, if you’ve ever renovated anything, you know there are always some surprises as you begin to peel away old layers. “The original foundation was held up by rocks that had no mortar or anything between them,” said Munafo. “And that meant we had to shore up the foundation of the old building before putting on the new addition.”

But, Munafo explained, the biggest surprise was how well the building has held together over the years. “It really is in such great shape, it was made very safe to begin with. It was used as hurricane way station, it’s never flooded, and it’s survived three fires. We consider ourselves stewards of this old building and it’s our responsibility to fix it up for future generations. It is one of the few buildings on the Island that has been used constantly for it’s original purpose and this will allow it to stay that way long into the future.”

The completion date for the renovations has not been determined yet. Munafo has been documenting the renovation from the beginning and shared some of her photographs with MVPatch. She promised to continue to send them to us as they go forward.