Miami’s closed Coconut Grove planning to reopen

posted by HowardBHaas on January 16, 2008 at 10:53 am

MIAMI, FL — After almost two years of inactivity, the Board of the Coconut Grove Playhouse is considering how it can reopen.

Working with Miami-Dade County’s Department of Cultural Affairs and consultants at Connecticut-based AMS Planning and Research, board leaders have a draft plan that they will take to theater ‘'stakeholders’‘ — former subscribers and patrons, business and government leaders, members of the theater community, Coconut Grove activists, historic preservationists and the public — in a series of meetings aimed at getting reaction and sharpening the proposal.

The rebuilding plan would bring together three partners: the playhouse, a local college or university and a commercial developer. They would work together to create, manage and finance an institution that would cost an estimated $6.5 million a year to run.

The plan could lead to a standard-setting institution that would help develop new works and new talent, provide technical or design support to smaller area companies and become a magnet for top-level actors, playwrights and directors, including many who have left Miami to pursue their careers in New York or in cities with established regional theaters.

Read more in the Miami Herald.

Theaters in this post

• Coconut Grove Playhouse