Skip navigation to main content
The Florida Rep Theatre

Box Office: 239-332-4488 • BoxOffice@FloridaRep.org


About our theater — a history in three acts.

Anyone who's ever been to a performance at the Rep has commented on our wonderful building. The Arcade Theater, as it's called, was built in 1908 and proudly displays all the charm and splendor of early Florida. Originally used as a Vaudeville house, this was the very auditorium where Fort Myers resident Thomas Edison saw his first films, along with his friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone.

As movies became more popular, The Arcade was converted into a dedicated movie house and a wall was put up to divide the great proscenium stage in half in order to create two screening rooms. By 1989, the once grand theatre had fallen into severe disrepair, and appeared on the brink of its final curtain call.

Realizing the historical and aesthetic value of this building, the City of Fort Myers and famed ballet and film star Mikhail Baryshnikov organized a benefit in 1991. With the money raised, the Arcade was completely restored and the City of Fort Myers was able to rent it out to local organizations — one of which happened to be the Florida Rep. Thanks to the generosity and vision of the City, the Arcade became the permanent home of the Florida Repertory Theatre in 1998.



A Talent-Rich Timeline

2007–2008, Our 10th Anniversary!

 

Main Stage Shows

Childrens Theatre Shows

Bonus Shows

  • Noel Coward

2006–2007

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
  • Moon Over Buffalo
  • Greetings!
  • Rabbit Hole
  • Enchanted April
  • The Rainmaker
  • Scapino
  • Rounding Third

Childrens Theatre Shows

  • Thomas Edison, Fire of Genius
  • The Imaginators

 

  •  

2005–2006

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Fortune
  • A Dash of Rosemary
  • My Three Angels
  • The Middle Ages
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Sherlock Holmes and the West End Horror
  • Broadway Bound
  • Tuesdays With Morrie

Childrens Theatre Shows

  • Laura Ingalls Wilder, Voice of the Prairie
  • The Dinosaur Play

 

  •  

2004–2005

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Dream
  • Christmas Survival Guide
  • Golf With Alan Shepard
  • Mornings At Seven
  • The Tale of the Allergist's Wife
  • Boys Next Door
  • The Sugarbean Sisters

Childrens Theatre Shows

  • Pecos Bill and the Ghost Stampede
  • Poe! Poe! Poe!

 

  •  

2003–2004

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Sly Fox
  • Absurd Person Singular
  • All My Sons
  • I'm Not Rappaport
  • Amy's View
  • Deathtrap

Summer Shows

  • Lost In Yonkers
  • Fools
  • The Fat Lady Sings Again
  • Biloxi Blues

Childrens Theatre Shows

  • I Didn't Know That!
  • The Quick and Easy Guide to Thomas Edison

Bonus Shows

  • Too Big to Be a Waitress
  • The Life of Reilly with Charles Nelson Reilly

2002–2003

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Rumors
  • Mouse Trap
  • Master Class
  • The Foreigner
  • Proof
  • Ain't Misbehavin'

Summer Shows

  • Brighton Beach Memoirs
  • Veronica's Room
  • The Underpants

Childrens Theatre Shows

  • Amelia Earhart
  • Stories of Dr. Seuss

Bonus Shows

  • Hedwig and the Angry Inch
  • The Guys
  • A Soldier's Tale
  • The Fat Lady Sings

2001–2002

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Over the Tavern
  • The Man Who Came to Dinner
  • Dinner With Friends
  • Dr. Cook's Garden
  • Company
  • My Way

Summer Shows

  • Murder at the Howard Johnson
  • Sideman
  • Moon Over the Brewery

Childrens Theatre Shows

  • Amelia Earhart
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

 

  •  

2000–2001

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Over the River
  • Inspecting Carol
  • Art
  • You Can't Take it with You
  • Wit
  • I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

Summer Shows

  • The Affections of May
  • Social Security
  • Dangerous Obsession

Childrens Theatre Shows

  • Tales for the Southern Frontier
  • I Never Saw a Butterfly

 

  •  

1999–2000

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Room Service
  • Sleuth
  • Lost Night of Ballyhoo
  • Harvey
  • Inherit the Wind
  • Red White & Berlin

Summer Shows

  • Mixed Emotion
  • The Decorator
  • Bad Seed

Childrens Theatre Shows

  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Bonus Shows

  • Home for the Holidays

1998–1999

 

Main Stage Shows

  • Noises Off!
  • Our Town
  • Breaking Legs
  • Having Our Say
  • Spider’s Web
  • Fascination’ Gershwin

Summer Shows

  • The Skin of Our Teeth
  • Veronica's Room
  • Steel Magnolias

 

  •