Area Stage’s Swan Song

Area Stage Company Needs to Find a New Home

February 2020

The Area Stage Company, occupying the old Riviera Theater, has been a fixture on Dixie Highway for a dozen years. Alas, no longer. With the building of a new Publix at that spot, the theater company and educational conservatory has been forced to look for a new home. Its last professional production took place Sunday, Feb. 2, a performance of “Peter x Wendy,” a story that, ironically, ends with its characters all suffering homesickness.

The last conservatory production for their young actors-in-training (“Oliver!”) will take place in March – about other urchins in search of a home. By April, the ASC will relocate to a 7,000-square foot facility in Sunset Place, which will give them rehearsal space, studio space, office space and a black box space.

“It’s going to be a temporary space,” says Rebecca Ashton, the Conservatory Education Manager. “We are still searching for a permanent home. But for the time being it’s a good transitional spec, and a lot of kids hang out there [Sunset Place] anyway.”