By Sharon Geltner
The 101-year-old Lake Worth Playhouse is being fast-tracked for a $1 million state grant by next September, said Rick Gonzalez, a West Palm Beach architect and a member of the Florida Historic Commission — which selects the recipients.
He said the momentum is due to the Playhouse’s historic importance and how it boosts the city’s economy.
“I’ve strongly encouraged Lake Worth Playhouse to submit a grant application by next June and told them I will rank them very highly,” Gonzalez said. “Historic structures that bring economic activity to downtown, similar to the nearby Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, are very advantageous. I give them a plus, plus, plus. People go to the art shows and performances, then shop and go out for dinner.”
Gonzalez, who owns REG Architects, is an historic preservation expert, whose firm usually works on a dozen such projects around the state at any given time. He was the lead architect for the 1922 Lake Worth Casino Building and Beach Complex.
Gonzalez reviews 60 FHC grant applications annually (where he has been on the board 15 years) and is a past president of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation board. The Playhouse is top of mind for Gonzalez, as he just completed an historic resources and feasibility report for it.
The catch? This is a matching grant. To qualify for that $1 million in state funds, the Lake Worth Playhouse must raise an additional $1 million on its own.
“I’m hoping this encourages an angel or two on the ocean to roll up their sleeves. This theater is a jewel, it needs angels like the Glazer family,” Gonzalez said.
He referred to Glazer Hall, in the redeveloped Royal Poinciana Playhouse site in Palm Beach. Glazer Hall will be a 24,000-square-foot cultural arts center with a 400-seat theater, the latter set to open in December.
“The Lake Worth Playhouse will need $3 to $4 million to bring the building up to snuff,” Gonzalez added. “It’s a beautiful structure. It is really worth the effort to maintain it because it is an exceptional building. However, any building that age needs work; structural and cosmetic.”
Lake Worth Playhouse CEO Shoshana Davidowitz confirmed that she will apply for the grant by the June 2026 deadline. In the meantime, she plans to spend $18,000 to replace the four mostly nonworking neon horizontal strips with LED, to light the exterior of the building and match the marquee that was added last year.
“This should take place before Christmas,” Davidowitz said. “We have a donor who is interested. Our building is yellow and blue. This will add to the existing colorfulness of the neighborhood.”
Her facility will soon put in a new wooden floor and mirrors in its rehearsal hall, she added. Davidowitz recently added a glass door, typical of those in 1924, between the stairs and the administrative offices. In the main stage area, she replaced all 300 of the 50-year-old seats, painted the floor and laid new carpet. Next year she plans to update the restrooms, “for comfort.”
“My biggest concern is safety, then beauty. My goal is to keep the building standing. Everything else is gravy,” Davidowitz said.
In terms of programming, Artistic Director Daniel Eilola chooses plays based on what community actors want to perform and not only what audiences want to see, Davidowitz said. “We draw talent from Broward and Martin counties as well as Palm Beach.”
Lake Worth Playhouse 2025-2026 season:
The season opened with Little Shop of Horrors (closed Oct. 19) and continues with Our Town (Nov. 14-Nov. 30), Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about life and its lessons in Grovers Corners, N.H., in the early 20th century. Kiss Me, Kate (Jan. 16-Feb. 1), the battle of the sexes as inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew with a Cole Porter score. Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues (Feb. 27-March 15), the playwright’s semi-autobiographical story as a young recruit during World War II. Matilda (April 10- April 26), a telekinetic girl with cruel parents impresses her teacher and may save her school.
Besides the main shows and four smaller thought-provoking productions in its 60-seat black-box theater, Lake Worth Playhouse will hold two Square 1 Playwrights Festivals, this December and next August. They feature five, 10-minute, fully produced (costumes, sets, props, etc.) plays with scripts by locals as well as residents of New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. Tickets are $10.
Davidowitz said, “We are next to Palm Beach State College and there is a lot of talent who don’t have the opportunity to get their work out. We offer something to everyone in the community.”
Tickets: www.lakeworthplayhouse.org
Meanwhile, the Delray Beach Playhouse is also building community and boosting creativity and wellbeing.
“The Delray Beach Playhouse is in its 79th year of continuous production,” Marianne Regan, board president, said. “If I had a nickel for every time someone said, ‘I never knew this was here.’”
Regan founded the Playwrights Project at the Playhouse in 2019, in part to introduce strangers to the venue, who then become fans.
“We get new visitors who start at our festival then buy tickets to other productions. Even if it’s just a Journey tribute band concert, it puts them on their way,” Regan said.
“The first time I saw the Playhouse, set on a lake in a residential neighborhood, I was reminded me of the Bucks County Playhouse on the banks of the Delaware River. It was déjà vu. People have no idea how nice the setting is until they see it for themselves,” she added.
Executive Director Kevin Barrett explained the other purpose in producing plays by new writers. “There are lots of playwrights hiding in Delray and they need a place and a system to read plays, vet them and produce the best.”
Regan said, “We are encouraging this population of people that move here by choice or circumstance to participate. Some of them have a body of work, others are just starting in theater. We welcome them all. They get produced and up on the boards.”
The Delray Beach Playhouse shows one-act productions of 10 to 20 minutes by 30 local playwrights. These are staged readings, (no blocking, no sets, minimal costumes).
“One of our playwrights, Joy Levien, is in her late 90s and comes from Aventura. Her community rented a bus to bring her neighbors to the performances last June,” Regan said. “Her play, ‘Augie’s Test,’ is about her 90+ year-old mother trying to renew her driver’s license. It was a festival favorite.”
The Playhouse did not accept a script from Leya Adler, but recognized her acting ability and cast her in another reading. Next year, her one-act play will be performed in New York, said Regan.
The festival pass is $25 for five performances Saturday and five Sunday, with a Q&A after each show.
“We are steering into the black and Delray Beach Playhouse is in a new renaissance,” Regan said.
Some of this may have to do with extending a four-month season into a full year with many more productions and space rentals, Barrett said.
“Five years ago, we would have never done a summer musical. It’s never happened in the entire history of the Playhouse. Then we announced ‘West Side Story,’ and all 16 performances were sold out two weeks before it opened last September.”
“We watched Lake Worth Playhouse do it and thought, ‘Why can’t we do it?’ We took the risk and it worked. We will be extending the season all the way through summer. It keeps actors and all the backstage staff working. Ten to 15 years ago we were closed six months of the year. Now we are continuously open,” he said.
For the upcoming season, Barrett chose Something Rotten, the 2015 musical comedy set in Elizabethan England, because there was a national tour and it was just done by Slow Burn Theatre at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
“I keep a running list and watch what everyone else does, including in New York and community theater, so when we want to bring it here, we can get everything we need for the show, including music directors, costumers, choreography,” Barrett said. “I look at the competition, not so much to copy, but for timing. I know there will be a demand for ‘Something Rotten’ in central Palm Beach County.”
Delray Beach Playhouse 2025-2026 season:
The Pajama Game (Nov. 14-Dec. 7), a union strike at a factory generates stem heat. Strictly Murder (Jan. 30-Feb. 22), a British woman in 1939 Provence suspects her husband may be a killer on the run. Something Rotten (Mar. 20-Apr.12), two aspiring playwrights in 1590s England compete with Shakespeare, by writing the world’s first musical. You Can’t Take It With You (May 8-May 24), a poor Depression-era family in New York meets its prospective son-in-law, a Wall Street millionaire.
Tickets: www.delraybeachplayhouse.com
Sharon Geltner is the author of Charity Bashed, available on Amazon and in area libraries, and a judge for the tri-county theater contests, Carbonell and Silver Palm Awards.