Pineapple Playhouse History

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Community theatre was established in St. Lucie County in 1949 under the auspices of the Woman's Club of Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County's oldest civic and cultural organization. Under that sponsorship, the organization, called The Dolphin Players, flourished for several years, performing at the Woman's Club, at Fort Pierce Elementary School, and various other locations. Eventually, expenses overtook revenue and the theatre of would-be thespians regrouped as The Fort Pierce Little Theatre and was in business again. Rehearsing in garages, upstairs over Warren's Laundry, in the Historic Arcade Building where it survived a devastating fire, performing in Fort Pierce Central where vandalism was a problem, and in IRCC's Student Center on a home-made portable stage where the set had to be dismantled after each night's performance, the troupe never lost its spirit.

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In the meantime there was an influx of new talent melding with the old Ferrara Family came to town, there were Mike and Helen Armstrong, Bill and Jane Braun, John and Diane Procino, the Tabors, Joanne Carlton Humphries, Pete and Claudia McDonald, Audrey Zeitz, John and Gail Luchka and the Port St. Lucie Players - most of them are still with us.

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And in 1973 we re-incorporated as St. Lucie Community Theatre. Board members were Fred Ferrara, John Procino, Wilma Cowles, Horty Selkin, Kathy Hammond, Rosalyn Savel, Floyd Bell, Benny Rhyant, Berniece Ribakoff and Dr. Vincent Molina.   We later adopted the name Pineapple Playhouse.

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We were off and running. We christened McAlpin Fine Arts Center at IRCC with our production of Bell, Book and Candle, and had high hopes of making that our base of operations, but that hope was short lived as the college's own schedule forced us out - a blessing in disguise for it forced us into seeking a permanent home of our own. Pineapple Playhouse is that place we are proud to call home, the place where we present our annual schedule of five main stage productions, our very successful Children's Summer Camp productions and the Reader's Theatre programs; the place where we spend hours in work parties and enjoying gala picnics and fun get-togethers.

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