Roof collapse, water destroys building housing South Coast Repertory costumes, scenes

South Coast Repertory officials are cataloging the damage and potential loss caused by the partial roof collapse Sunday of a production building where painted scenes, approximately 100,000 costumes and decades of archival items are stored.

Suzanne Appel, managing director of the Costa Mesa theater company, said the collapse occurred in a portion of the 18,000-square-foot Santa Ana structure that houses a paint shop, where artisans work on custom creations for the organization’s stages.

“We’re really trying to assess the situation, in terms of what the damage is, not only to the facility but all the other production areas within the space,” Appel said Thursday.

A space in Santa Ana that once served as a paint shop for South Coast Repertory is exposed after a roof collapse Sunday.

(Robert Huskey / South Coast Repertory)

“But if you look into the area where the ceiling collapsed, it’s totally open to the elements — it’s completely overwhelming.”

Detected by a fire alarm system at around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, during periods of high winds and rain in the area, the cave-in took out water pipes in the building, resulting in up to 4 inches of flooding in the building used by SCR as an ancillary facility since 1994.

With steel beams in place Thursday supporting the integrity of the structure, the roughly 4,500-square-foot area that comprised the paint shop has been red-tagged by building inspectors. Other areas of the building may be accessed but are not safe for occupancy, staff confirmed.

South Coast Repertory leaders have hired a remediation and restoration company to oversee the work that is going to be required in the coming days and weeks, according to Appel.

South Coast Repertory staff and board members at an appreciation dinner in November, held in a production building that was partially destroyed Sunday by a roof collapse.

(Courtesy of South Coast Repertory)

Officials believe the rest of the company’s 2024-25 season can be staged without any major interruptions, including the children’s program “The Incredible Book Eating Boy” (Feb. 28 through March 16) and Keiko Green’s “You are Cordially Invited to the End of the World,” which runs April 5 through May 3 as part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival.

However, a new location for painting and creating sets will likely have to be found. Appel, who came to South Coast Repertory in September, said staff and board members hosted a special appreciation dinner in the paint shop area just before Thanksgiving.

“I’m hopeful we’ll get back there,” she said Thursday. “Our team is really coming together to face this challenge, but it’s a big one. It’s going to be a long and extensive rebuild.”

In an interview with City News Service, Appel said while the building was acquired 30 years earlier, SCR officials undertook “significant repairs” of the roof in 2020.

A paint shop in a Santa Ana building maintained by South Coast Repertory was ruined Sunday night when a roof collapsed from high winds and rain.

(Robert Huskey / South Coast Repertory)