The theater has always played a large role within society. Sometimes it is a welcome relief and a respite from the woes of day to day life. Other times, it serves as a reflection of the very society which witnesses it. In our community, The Dayton Theatre Guild, which is the area’s oldest community theater group, has had a long, convoluted and quite interesting history. With the Guild beginning yet another leg of their journey beginning with the purchase of the old Dayton Gym Club at 430 Wayne Avenue in downtown Dayton and the impending move from their current location on Salem Avenue, it was a perfect time to speak to Guild President Carol Finley about where they have been and what the future holds.

“Originally, the Dayton Theatre Guild goes back into the 1920’s. The people who were in the Theatre Guild in the 1920’s reads like a who’s who of Dayton. They were definitely society folk. During the Depression, they disbanded, but they kept their 501(C)3 charitable status and they kept their charter active.” Carol said during a recent phone interview. “Then in 1945, when a group of people got together and started doing productions, the original founders approached the new Theatre Guild and offered their charter. So in 1945, the current incarnation of The Dayton Theatre Guild started at the Dayton Art Institute with a production of Outward Bound. They performed at the Dayton Art Institute, at what was then the Victory Theatre and just about anywhere that was space. Then they moved into a carriage house on Belmonte Park North and then, in 1964, they moved to the present location which is on Salem Avenue.”

As an aside she added, “Here’s a little interesting fact for you; 2330 Salem Avenue, which is the location of Theatre Guild, is also the last known address of Annie Oakley.

The Salem Avenue location, however, grew too small for the burgeoning community group. Businesses floundered and closed on Salem Avenue and many of the people who were once patrons of the Dayton Theatre Guild moved away. Storage became an issue as well, with many of the props and such being stored at people’s houses and in several other rented areas.

“We just couldn’t keep it all in one space because we had 2,700 square feet at the Salem Avenue theater.” Carol stated, audibly relieved. “We now own 20,000 square feet.”

Space became a major issue in other ways as well. Sets could not be built and stored until needed and The Guild’s ability to become a true representation of the Dayton area’s performance community was also hampered by the size of the Salem Avenue site. With the new building, those issues all but disappear.

“Where we are now, we have to build our sets right on the stage because we don’t have a space separate from the stage where we can build sets.” Carol detailed. “That means that our shows have to be X number of weeks apart because you have to tear down one set before you can start another one. In the new building, we will have the ability to build in our scenic design shop and move it over to the stage area and also we’ll have rehearsal space in a couple of different spots, so we could be rehearsing a show, building a show and letting someone else use our stage at the same time. This makes it so we can really do the community thing and bring in chamber music or improv groups or whoever needs a space for performing and still be able to do what we do.”

The search for a new location has been a long and arduous journey for the Guild, with many false starts and startling disappointments along the way. Carol recounts the search for a home for the theater from the beginning.

When I joined the board of the Dayton Theatre Guild 12 years ago, we had just put a bid in on a building on Second Street that is now called Aquarius. We thought that we would be able to take the pillar out and put the theater in there but then it turned out that it was going to cost more than the price of the building to remove the pillar. So then we looked at about 75 other buildings and we couldn’t find anything that had tall enough ceilings without pillars with the amount of stage space that we needed. So, after all of that time, we found a couple that would almost do what we wanted it to do, but just not quite.” Carol said before going on to describe how the Guild came to acquire a vacant lot. “Anyway, after all that time, we decided to purchase a lot and that was about five years ago. So we bought the lot and got the architectural plans done for what we would put on that lot and then the cost of building has just skyrocketed. Originally, the entire project, including the lot, would be about 1.3 million dollars. It’s a lot more than that now, so we kept looking for buildings. Then one of the board members suggested the Dayton Gym Club. They had been in it and thought that it would meet all of our needs. Greg Smith and I went to look at it on July 3rd, and we loved it and it was within our means. Then we had the entire board come on July 4th and take a look, then we put a bid in on the building, it was accepted and we closed just over a week ago.”

It’s somewhat paradoxical that a search for a permanent home for the Dayton Theatre Guild that spanned years and years of searching for the perfect building ends with the purchase of an iconic structure in just over a month. With the mushrooming art scene growing out of the Oregon District, the fit seems absolutely perfect. There are however, some hurdles yet to be overcome. There are upgrades and other work that needs to be completed before the Dayton Theatre Guild can completely realize its vision of a permanent home.

“Well, we will need to raise about $200,000 to bring this building up to code and get our theater where we want it to be. If we can raise that money soon, we’ll have moved to our new building by January. If we can’t raise the money quickly, it may be as late as next fall that we make the move.”

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