The Robidoux Resident Theater has moved back into its fire-damaged, storage and rehearsal space adjacent to the Missouri Theater in downtown St Joseph. The sprawling, second-floor facility was extensively damaged in the fire last year, but has been repaired and renovated.

About sixty people were expected this week for company’s auditions for the musical “Rent,” which were held in the space, above the RRT offices in the Missouri Theater annex. Executive Director Jeff Haney says everyone was “blown away” by the beauty of the room.

Haney says they will use the facility for a “VIP room.”

“We have about four hundred season ticket members a year that we try to make sure that they feel special, because they are, and without them we couldn’t do it,” Haney said. “And so, before shows downstairs in the Missouri theater, we’ll invite them up here, have drinks and snacks, and socialize, meet the cast afterwards.”

The room now boasts a beautiful hardwood floor, and is nearly unrecognizable to those who used the room before the fire. Haney says they could also use the space for some special cabaret performances.

“That kind of thing really works well in St Joe,” Haney said. “We’ve tried a few this year, and people are very receptive to Gershwin and Cole Porter and Rogers & Hammerstein.”

“Sometimes a piano and two or three people doing music is a phenomenal thing too.”