Orlando Shakes knows a thing or two about enforced nomadry: The theater company had to present several of its 2024–25 shows across the lawn at neighboring Orlando Family Stage while its own facilities were being renovated.
Now the Shakes is paying it forward by extending the same courtesy to another temporarily displaced outfit. While The Winter Park Playhouse undergoes a lengthy renovation of its longstanding home at 711 North Orange Avenue, it’ll be performing its 2025–26 season in the Shakes’s 100-seat Mandell Studio Theater.
The Shakes will even be providing an ancillary bar for Playhouse patrons near the entrance to its proscenium-style black box space, thereby replicating one of the more popular amenities offered to patrons of the rollicking musical-theater venue.
This fortuitous arrangement will, hopefully, mark the beginning of the end of what has been a period of uncertainty for the Playhouse. In March 2023, the beloved nonprofit venue faced the prospect of having to vacate the storefront that it had occupied since its founding in 2002 when the landlord decided to sell the property.
Several options were explored for the Playhouse, including building an entirely new home as part of the emerging (and nearby) Seven Oaks Park. Ultimately, however, the theater and the city partnered and applied for (then won) a grant from the Orange County Tourist Development Tax.
The TDT funds enabled the city to purchase and renovate the current building—construction is set to start in July—and then lease it back to the always-packed Playhouse. Says Heather Alexander, the theater’s executive director and co-founder: “The last two years have been quite a wild ride, and we’re incredibly grateful to Orange County and the City of Winter Park.”
The theater’s home-away-from-home season will begin in August with a production of Jerry’s Girls, a swing through the songbook of celebrated Broadway composer Jerry Herman (Mame; Hello, Dolly; La Cage aux Folles; Kiss Me Kate). Playhouse Artistic Director Roy Alan will direct the ensemble of seven women while Christopher Leavy will act as music director.
The Winter Park Playhouse plans to hold a grand opening of its freshly upgraded digs sometime during the summer of 2026. In the meantime, regulars simply have to become accustomed to driving a few more blocks west and a few more blocks south. The laughs will be as hearty as ever and the bar will still be waiting.
Orlando Shakes is located at 812 Rollins Street, Orlando. For more information, call or visit the website.
