Early Origins: From Traveling Troupe to Local Theater (1944–1990s)
Marathon Community Theatre traces its earliest roots to 1944, when it began as a traveling troupe under the name Marathon Little Theatre
In its first decades, the group did not have a fixed theater building. Instead, the company staged performances in a variety of local venues — including restaurants, hotels, the city hall, and even the local high school
For more than fifty years, the theater’s backstage was quite informal: volunteers used tents and travel trailers in parking lots as dressing rooms and prep areas
This mobile, flexible model reflected both the dispersed geography of the Keys and the grassroots, volunteer-driven nature of the organization.
Acquisition of a Permanent Venue (1990s)
In the early 1990s, the Marathon Community Theatre’s leadership, together with its general membership and the broader local community, launched a concerted effort to secure a permanent home
They raised enough funds to purchase a building located at 5101 Overseas Highway (Mile Marker 49.5, Oceanside)
The building they bought was historically significant: it had housed, over time, the Plaza Lounge, the Side Door Lounge, and the only movie theater in the Middle Keys, known as the Marathon Cinema.
Once purchased, the volunteers and community set to work renovating. Their transformation turned the multi-purpose building into a dedicated theater and cultural-arts center
- The renovated space opened under the ownership of MCT in 1996, with the first production in the new venue being Man of La Mancha shutdown123