VENICE, Fla. — In its 75th season, going through a chain-link fence is not exactly what Kristofer Geddie envisioned he would do to showcase the Venice Theatre’s main performance space, the Jervey Theatre.

What You Need To Know

  • The Venice Theatre continues to rebuild its main stage following the major damage that was dealt from Hurricane Ian

  • A major concern for the theater was that more damage might've happened when Hurricane Milton made landfall

  • Kristofer Geddie, the theater's executive director, says the theater essentially suffered very little damage from the storm and they're able to still do performances in their two smaller venues

  • According to Geddie, he hopes to reopen their main stage during their 76th season in 2026

Each time he opens this gate, it’s a reminder of what happened.

“The trauma, the daily trauma, is something that I can’t deny,” said Geddie, the executive director of the Venice Theatre. “It’s every day.”

Because through the construction, the site is the empty shell of the Jervey. When Spectrum Bay News 9 visited the space a year ago, there were still some walls here and pieces of memories from shows gone by.

Now, that’s all gone because of the destruction from Hurricane Ian.

That major storm destroyed the roof, blanketed the space in water and left the Venice Theatre with a new and unanticipated $14 million project.

“The walls have been taken out from last year, but the progress is slower than I would like,” Geddie said.

There were some delays, which Geddie says they anticipated, but the last thing they wanted to see was another hurricane, this time, named “Milton.”

“We at one point thought it was going to be a direct hit to Venice, and we didn’t think we would have survived that,” Geddie said.

While storm surge and damage impacted most of Venice, with branches and debris on many street corners, the Jervey, for the most part, made it through unscathed.

“We didn’t suffer as much as so many folks here in Venice,” Geddie said.

Even with that minor bright spot, a lot more work is left to be done. Geddie says they need to keep raising money to fund the rebuild.

One way they’re doing that is by following the number one cliché in theater: “the show must go on.”

“We use it a lot, but that is the word resilience,” Geddie said. “To know how quickly our team came up with an idea, came up with a plan and executed that plan to make this into a workable space.”

They’re using a building that was intended for educational courses to hold performances.

Right now, “9 to 5: The Musical” is in the spotlight, giving folks a reprieve from the trauma outside.

“Folks are losing their homes,” Geddie said. “People are losing their businesses. We haven’t had that release to laugh.”

While this space is far smaller than the Jervey, just having a place for art to flourish is what excites Geddie about the future of his theatre.

Because soon, the chain link will be gone, and the shows will be back in the Venice Theatre’s main house.

Geddie expects the main stage at the Venice Theatre to reopen in 2026, during the theater’s 76th season.