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Wandering Players Theatrics
Launching Our New Permanent Home
A New Multi-Venue Arts Center in Downtown Salem
A new chapter is beginning for Salem’s performing arts community. Wandering Players Theatrics signed a lease for its first permanent home, marking a major milestone in the organization's history and paving the way for a new multi-venue performing arts and community center in downtown Salem.
The Vision Is Bigger Than A Theatre
Located in the former Cinebarre space, the new facility will become the home of Wandering Players Theatrics while also serving as a shared creative hub for artists, performers, educators, nonprofits, and community organizations throughout the region. WPT is transforming the space into a place where theatre companies can perform, musicians can take the stage, comedians can make audiences laugh, filmmakers can create, artists can gather, educators can teach, and the community can come together. This project will reflect the organization's vision to inspire, cultivate, and connect communities through the power of live theatre while expanding access to creative spaces throughout the region.
“Whether it’s one show, or a lifetime of shows, we believe no matter where you
go in life, theatre will help you get there.”
— Jeremy Clubb, Executive Director, Wandering Players Theatrics
A Home for Salem’s Creative Community
The new multi-venue facility will provide financially sustainable, professional-quality space for performances, rehearsals, classes, workshops, meetings, festivals, private events, and community gatherings. By making professional-quality spaces more affordable, WPT hopes to remove barriers that often limit opportunities for emerging artists and community organizations.
The project has already attracted a growing network of founding partners representing a wide range of artistic disciplines and community organizations. Together, these partners will help bring live performances, educational programming, workshops, festivals, and community events to the new venue, creating a year-round destination for creativity and collaboration in downtown Salem.
The center is being built around a simple idea: there should be more places where people can create.
More Than a Venue. A Community.
Rather than being a space dedicated to a single organization, WPT envisions the facility as a home for many voices, disciplines, and ideas.
Guided by the values of community, enjoyment, excellence, growth, imagination, and passion, Wandering Players Theatrics is committed to creating a welcoming environment where people of all backgrounds can create, learn, perform, and connect.
“Theatre has always been about bringing people together—sharing stories, taking risks, laughing, crying, and seeing a little bit of ourselves in one another. With
this new home, we have the opportunity to take that spirit beyond the stage and
into the heart of our community. We want this to be a place where creativity has
no ceiling, where artists have a place to grow, and where everyone who enters
through our doors feels that they belong. This is only the beginning, and I can’t
wait to see what we build together.”
— Nathaniel J. Pierce, Artistic Director, Wandering Players Theatrics
A Place to Gather Before, During, and After
The new arts center will also be home to a new restaurant and gathering space opening directly in the facility’s main lobby. The restaurant will offer guests a place to unwind, dine, and connect before and after performances while adding another dimension to the experience of visiting the center.
Designed to complement the arts programming, It will help create a lively social hub within the venue—giving audiences, performers, artists, and community members a place to meet, share a meal, and continue the conversation long after the curtain closes.
With theatre, music, comedy, education, community events, and dining all under one roof, the facility is envisioned as more than a traditional performing arts venue.
Help Build What Comes Next
While securing the lease is a significant milestone, the work is just beginning.
Bringing this vision to life has required more than the efforts of one organization. Wandering Players Theatrics is especially grateful for the support of the Owners of Salem Center Mall, whose continued commitment to the arts and belief in the importance of creating vibrant community spaces has played an important role in making this project possible.
Their support reflects a broader belief that the arts are an essential part of a thriving downtown—and that investing in creative spaces can help bring people together, strengthen the community, and create new opportunities for Salem.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Owners of Salem Center Mall for believing
in what we are trying to build. They have demonstrated that supporting the arts
means supporting the people who make a community vibrant. Their willingness
to help us take this step has allowed us to dream bigger—not just about
where Wandering Players can go, but about what we can create together for Salem.”
— Jeremy Clubb & Nathaniel J Pierce, Directors, Wandering Players Theatrics
The partnership between Wandering Players Theatrics, the restaurant, and the Owners of Salem Center Mall represents an exciting new chapter for the property and for downtown Salem—one centered on creativity, community, connection, and opportunity.
Community support will be instrumental in transforming the existing facility into a vibrant, fully equipped arts center. Fundraising efforts will help support facility improvements, performance equipment, technical infrastructure, accessibility improvements, and other essential upgrades needed to bring the vision to life.
WPT is inviting members of the community to become part of the project—whether through donations, partnerships, volunteering, artistic collaboration, or simply spreading the word.
This isn't just a new home for Wandering Players Theatrics. It's an opportunity to create a new home for Salem's creative community.
First Curtain: Evil Dead The Musical
What better way to open a brand-new home for Wandering Players Theatrics than with a chainsaw, a cabin full of demons, and a whole lot of blood? The company is thrilled to announce that its inaugural production in the new space will be Evil Dead The Musical, opening October 23, 2026.
Based on the cult-classic Evil Dead films, this wildly entertaining musical comedy follows five friends who head to an isolated cabin in the woods, accidentally unleash an ancient evil, and find themselves fighting for their lives—and occasionally singing about it. Packed with outrageous comedy, catchy songs, over-the-top horror, and plenty of audience-splattering mayhem, Evil Dead The Musical is the perfect introduction to a venue built around unforgettable experiences.
Auditions will be held Saturday, August 29, with callbacks on Saturday, September 5. The production promises to kick off this exciting new chapter with exactly the kind of bold, irreverent, larger-than-life theatre that audiences have come to expect from Wandering Players Theatrics.
The doors are opening. The stage is set. And the first thing coming through the door is a chainsaw.
Currently accepting applications for Auditions and Employment! Stipends are provide for performance and production roles.
Visit www.dothenecronomicon.com for more information!