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Mind-changing leads Theatre Guild to new home
The Dayton Theatre Guild has been a bit like a shopper who buys one item, sees another he likes better on the way to the checkout and later drives past another offer that makes all previous choices seem not so desirable.
Its pending purchase of the Dayton Gym Club 430 Wayne Ave., has made both the former Foundry nightclub and its own vacant lot at Patterson and East Fourth streets expendable.
Leaders of the 63-year-old community theater expected they would be opening the 2008-9 season in the old Foundry, 26 Wyandot St., when they announced a season opening with “Outward Bound.” They had a verbal agreement to buy the place at the time, but no contract ever materialized.
It wasn’t the first time plans had to change during the 11 years they’ve been seeking a way to move downtown.
A placard has identified the lot at Fourth and Patterson as the DTG’s “future home” for more than four years. More than $700,000 was raised to build a new structure there, designed by Dayton architects Dale D. Smith and Joe Mitolo.
But as the cost of that building escalated more quickly than contributions did, the Guild kept looking.
When the Gym Club, with its “Bingo Tonite” sign out front and a façade bearing frescoes of a boxer, baseball player, weightlifter and baskeball player, became available, they jumped at the chance to hang their name on the outside, as shown here in a rendering.
That made sense for a number of reasons. If all goes well, the sale will be final on Thursday, Aug. 14. The Guild will be doing theater there as early as January 2009, or as late as the start of the 2009-10 season. But “Outward Bound” is going to be done at its home of 45 years on Salem Avenue at Elsmere Avenue.
The Guild suffered through a few lean years around the time it began planning its move. But attendance is on the upswing. It has developed a small but loyal audience willing to take chances with seasons dominated by local premieres, plus the occasional modern classic.
Intimacy, a much praised but rarely encountered quality in local theater, has been part of the charm. The building on Salem has just 92 seats, which surround a long, narrow stage on three sides. The new home one the eastern edge of the Oregon District may have as many as 120 in a similar configuration.
That’s a considerable leap that will likely present a challenge similar to the one in the plot for “Outward Bound,” in which a group of travelers board a cruise ship for an unknown destination.
It has already been a long, strange trip, but every stop and non-stop has paved the way. There will be a public open house and season preview at the Gym Club/Theatre Guild at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 23.
For more information about the Theatre Guild, call (937) 278-5993.
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