A large slab of concrete steps and a two-story wooden frame can be found on a freshly cleared lot near Daubenspeck Park in Kenai. It’s the future home of Triumvirate Theatre’s new playhouse. The once wooded two-acre piece of land was donated to the theater group by the City of Kenai in the summer of 2021, a few months after a fire severely damaged the building the group operated out of for nearly a decade.
Joe Rizzo is Triumvirate Theatre’s executive director. He says the group’s first order of business after the fire was to rebuild.
“We were faced with a task of raising millions of dollars, which we at first were like, ‘There’s no way. How are we doing that?’ But, it was pretty miraculous, the community stepped up, we found granters that would help us,” Rizzo said.
The company received a million-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office, and another $1 million from the Rasmuson Foundation. More than a dozen other organizations and hundreds of community members donated to the $4.7 million building project.
Once constructed, the 6,000-square-foot facility will have 200 seats, a balcony and a lobby. Unlike the former playhouse, the new building will also have a backstage area with restrooms. Rizzo says that in the former location, which used to be a mechanic shop, actors getting ready for performances had to share restrooms with patrons.
“It’ll be a brand new building, and that’ll be very exciting," he said. "It’s exciting that we’re going to have about 85 more seats than what we had in our other little theater. The downside of it is that it’s not going to be the theater that the kids grew up in, it’s not going to be the theater we all worked on, it’s going to be a commercial building.”
The new playhouse will also incorporate elements of Triumvirate’s Nikiski playhouse, including a salvaged section of the oak floor stage into the new theater’s stage. Rizzo says his favorite aspect of the new theater is its location. He says being closer to the community will better fulfill the nonprofit’s mission of providing youth with performing arts education and opportunities.
“Triumvirate doesn’t just teach kids how to perform on the stage, learn a part or memorize their lines, it provides an avenue for them to build friendships, to make strong connections with mature adults who have their back and can help guide them through the tough times that come inevitably with adolescence," Rizzo said. "It builds memories, that’s what our life is, our life is memories of what we’ve done and what we’ve learned, and that’s what going to go on for generations in that building.”
The theater group is anticipating a grand opening for the new playhouse next April. For more information about Triumvirate Theatre, or to view a schedule of upcoming events, visit Triumvirate’s website.
