- [Reporter] Take a look at the cars.

Now they're all bunched into each other over there.

- The wind continues to ramp up.

- But we're gonna get smashed here.

There are downed trees literally everywhere, all over this area.

- Got a text message, just said, "What happened to the theater?"

Less than a minute later, he texted me, "We will find a way."

(bright upbeat music) Venice Theater was founded in November of 1950, so the seats were actually borrowed from the local funeral home and they hoped that nobody died during the run of a show because they had to go move the chairs back and forth.

This building is one of the original buildings of the city of Venice.

It was the basketball gymnasium and armory for KMI, for Kentucky Military Institute, or had been.

In terms of the theater's value to the community, I would invite them to envision it without it.

The restaurants are full, they're double staffed, when we have performances.

- Join us.

♪ If you can be anything be kind ♪ - It's the second largest community theater in the United States.

It's also the social heart of the community, the cultural heart of the community.

It's the first thing you see when you enter the city of Venice.

It's what sets the tone for what you're going to see the rest of your stay here.

(dramatic music) - Hurricane Ian has moved on tonight, after stamping an indelible mark of death and destruction across Florida.

- [Murray] The day after the storm was a war zone.

It looked like some of those buildings that you see on the video highlights from the Russian bombing.

The fountain next to the building was full of debris.

Pieces of the building were lying across the street, on the street.

Curtains were were hanging limply because they'd been torn off or the just soaking wet.

There were some shocks, there were some tears.

There were some numbness from seeing what we were seeing.

I've been so proud of everybody, the staff, the volunteers.

I've never seen a group of people as good in a crisis as they've been, through the devastation that we all experienced, the gut punch of Hurricane Ian.

There's never been a doubt that we'll be back and be stronger than ever before.

Immediately somebody said, "You know we could do and we could transition.

We've got the other building.

We haven't started reno yet," and within 10 or 15 minutes we started putting together a plan of how we were gonna do this.

Everybody's saying we'll be back.

Donations began the next day.

So a 13 year old girl put up a lemonade stand in less than three hours, raised over $700.

High school students from Booker High School raised $10,000 on their own for the theater.

We have already spent 2.2 million just to get us to this point.

We took exactly 50 days to reopen in the Raymond Center after the storm.

(choir vocalizing) - [Dianne] There's something about theater people.

They are a family.

They come together.

- You ain't getting 88 cents from a Rose.

- Then I'll get it someplace else, but I'll get it.

I play Mama Rose in "Gypsy," at Venice Theater.

"Gypsy," is about a mother who has ambition to make her daughter a star, at any cost.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to tackle Rose and in this particular space, because usually "Gypsy's" on a big prestigious stage and it's thought of as this big classic musical with the big numbers.

I love that it's intimate.

(audience claps) I love the opportunity I've had to do this.

This particular experience has been wonderful.

You know, you do these shows and you spend so much time together and you are vulnerable together and it becomes this really safe cocoon.

And then you go back to your lives but you don't ever spend this time together with this same group of people again.

And that's the tragedy and the beauty of theater.

- [Murray] I couldn't be more proud of the organization.

It's a group that will not put its head down.

It will not bend to disaster.

We will hopefully reopen in late spring of 2024, if construction begins on schedule in June, 2023.

I believe that the arts are not just a good thing to have.

I believe they're integral to human life.

Community theater is the most inclusive of all art forms.

More people participate and see community theater nationally than any other genre, that's part of America.

And thus, it has the opportunity and the responsibility to answer to the betterment of a community, to be a part of the center of it.

We call it the soul, being the soul of the community.

We don't feed you, but we feed your soul.

(bright music)