Shakespeare by the Sea renovation vote coming to council

To renovate, or not to renovate?

That is the question before city council this week in regards to Shakespeare by the Sea’s burned out building in Point Pleasant Park.

The cost of repairs to the building that was targeted by arsonists almost a year ago is pegged at more than $200,000, and that money wouldn’t even bring it up to code for performances.

Even though there have been delays in the rebuilding process, co-artistic director Elizabeth Murphy says the group now has a better idea of its mission, and how it should be funded.

“And that’s one of the good things that came out of the fire, was formalizing the need to make a plan for the future, because the company’s 22 years old this year, and if it’s going to keep going, it has to have a formalized, structured plan for the next 20 years,” she said.

The renovations before council Tuesday would bring the building up to code only for rehearsals and storage, but Murphy says she hopes to bring the building up to code for performances.

“That involves having a handicap-accessible toilet, toilets for the audience indoors, a dressing room for the actors, about 100 seats for the audience, a lobby for the audience, and so it involves reconfiguring the building a little,” she said.

“And yeah, of course it would be attractive. We want it to be wonderful. We want people to walk by and say, ‘wow, look at that.'”

Murphy says the group is in the process of starting a capital campaign to raise money for those renovations.

In the meantime, the group’s season starts on July 1 with its unorthodox, time-travelling take on ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ and will continue throught the summer with ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ and ‘Antony and Cleopatra.’

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