With two world premieres scheduled to take the stage this spring at the South Coast Repertory, theater officials are scrambling to get props and costumes organized after a roof collapse left their production building red-tagged.

The Santa Ana building’s roof was damaged during a late January rain storm, leaving at least a third of the building uncovered. The 43-year-old building, owned by the theater company since 1994, stored some 10,000 props and at least 100,000 costumes and was also where sets were laid out for carpentry and painting before being moved to the South Coast Repertory’s stage in Costa Mesa.

Luckily, most of the costumes and props were salvaged and moved out, though some vintage felt hats were damaged, said Suzanne Appel, the repertory’s managing director, who called the storm damage a “huge tragedy.”

“One of the main support beams collapsed, and the roof caved in over one-third of the product center, opening it up to the sky,” she said. “We’ve been able to pull out the excess moisture and will have to replace the entire roof. While that is happening, we can’t paint our sets.”

While Appel said she is hopeful insurance will cover the anticipated $1.3 million cost, the 61-year-old theater group has started a donation drive, hoping to get a little love from the public to support their venue.

“We’ll have a significant need if the insurance doesn’t cover it,” Appel said, adding the South Coast Repertory has been fastidious in maintaining the property and the roof was resurfaced in 2020. “We don’t know why it happened. There was no prior indication that the beam wasn’t structurally sound.”

The repairs could take as long as eight months with an expected shortage of supplies and people because of commitments in the recent fire-consumed areas of Los Angeles and other unknowns that could impact the pace, Appel said.

The theater group has moved all the inventory out to temporary storage, which will make sorting for desired prop and costume pieces a lot more clumsy as the two world premiere shows get closer to their opening dates – “You’re Cordially Invited to the End of the World” in April and “The Staircase” in May.

Appel said she is thankful the accident occurred at night when none of the production team was around. At times, at least 20 people would be in the building working, as painters, carpenters and wardrobe folks help visiting production designers create their stage setups or work on South Coast Repertory’s own productions.

She also said she expects there will be no interruption to this year’s schedule, adding that the next performance opening on Feb. 19 is the musical guest show, “Rachmaninoff and the Tsar.” The production is bringing in its props and costumes, giving the South Coast Repertory staff some breathing room. That’ll give them time to secure another building where props can be painted while the repairs are made.

Other props and sets for the following production in March were thankfully out of the building when the roof collapse occurred, she said.

“We really pride ourselves on world premiere productions made in Orange County,” Appel said of the two coming up this spring. The productions typically utilize 100% of SCR’s production resources and now they’ll be working without the conveniences of their home base.

“There will be lots of work for my team,” said production manager Maisie Chan. “It makes the show harder and makes it harder to help designers looking for costumes and props.”

Chan said usually, it takes a month to build and paint the set.

The production building made it easier because you could do the work in “one go,” she said. Now, portions of the sets will be laid out starting with the flooring, then walls and door frames will be added in the next phase.

Having to repair the building is presenting an opportunity for upgrades, Appel said, including improving the climate control for the costumes and better ways to organize the props, paint and work tools.

“It gives us an opportunity,” she said, “to look at how we use it.”

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