Makeshift Theater has a new home at the Akron Woman’s City Club — and big plans for the historic space.
The community theater organization announced last week that it signed a lease with the club to use its Coach House Theatre for future productions. This will become the permanent home of Makeshift Theater, which launched in 2023 and had its first run of shows last summer. The theater group previously performed at Greystone Hall, the Hower House Museum and a former church on Carroll Street.
Makeshift founder and producer Jane Bond, a retired Summit County Court of Common Pleas judge, described the company as “an incubator for new talent,” whether that’s budding directors looking for a home for their work, young actors in need of experience or older actors who have been left out of the community theater scene.
“And now that we have our own theater home, we’re going to be expanding what we are able to offer, and we’re going to be developing, I think, a venue that audiences are really going to enjoy,” she said.
The Coach House Theatre in West Akron was last occupied by None Too Fragile Theatre. The group began hosting performances at the Coach House in 2019, but moved out in 2024 after it failed to come to an agreement with the Akron Woman’s City Club over lease terms.
Many of the disagreements between the two centered on who would shoulder the financial burden of repairing the Coach House’s structural issues. In a January 2024 Akron Beacon Journal article, reporter Kerry Clawson wrote, “At issue is the club’s ‘zero net lease,’ which requires that the theater assume all liabilities ― including structural issues ― for the building, as well as pay for improvements, in addition to rent.”
Funds needed to make structural repairs
Now, those repairs fall to Makeshift Theater.
“We really have quite a bit of work to do before it’s going to be ready for our audiences,” Bond said, when asked about what repairs the Coach House needs.
She said the HVAC system and the roof need repaired, as well as the dressing rooms and the scene shop. The theater seating also needs to be replaced, but Bond already has a solution for that. Akron Public Schools donated the auditorium seating from the recently demolished Kenmore High School, which closed in 2022.
Bond estimates the repairs will cost about $50,000.
“We have one donor who’s, I think, going to offer a match, and we’re planning a fundraising campaign,” she said. “We’re gonna be asking our local philanthropic community to step up and help us as well. Grant monies and funding from key people in the community is necessary these days, so we’re definitely gonna be out there with the ask.”
Makeshift plans to start hosting performances in its new space by late summer “if everything goes well,” Bond said. It will depend on whether or not there is a backlog of orders for supplies and materials, she added.
A press release from Makeshift Theater said the group’s upcoming season would be announced in the coming months. Bond could not offer a more exact date.
“I’ve got directors lined up. I’ve got shows that people want to do, but I’m just getting the word out to them that we’re ready to pull the trigger and start working,” she said. “Part of that is going to depend on how the renovation goes. If everything’s buzzing right along, then we’ll have a schedule to announce fairly soon.”