Trustus Theatre nearly left the Vista. Why the Columbia institution stayed put
Trustus Theatre, Columbia’s longstanding professional stage company, has called its Vista building home since its third season in 1988. This year, it came close to leaving it.
Staring down structural issues and the need to do electrical, plumbing and lighting work, Executive Artistic Director Jessica Fichter told The State last fall that the group would need to raise $1.5 million to fund improvements or find a new home. Earlier this year, word spread online that Trustus was close to signing a deal to move into a former church in the Cottontown neighborhood, trading a trendy downtown neighborhood that was once up-and-coming for one that is currently on the rise.
“We own this building. So we never really wanted to go,” said Co-Artistic Director Dewey Scott-Wiley. “But at first it seemed like it was such a positive possibility that we had to entertain it. We went back and forth on it for almost a year and a half. And in the end they said, ‘Oh no, we’re gonna rent it to somebody who’s gonna pay us full-price rent and not make us redo anything.’ And we’re like, ‘OK, that’s the answer we needed.’ As time went on, we kept feeling like, ‘Man, there’s gotta be a way we can raise some money to stay here,’ because that’s what we all wanted to do.”
So Trustus focused on what it urgently needed to keep going, quietly raising $100,000 starting in February, culled from donations from friends and members and a $65,000 contribution from the Sook Family Foundation. Between main stage productions in May and June, the company completed an overhaul to its primary performance space, keeping costs low by doing as much of the work as they could themselves.
“There’s so much history here and that feels valuable to everybody who’s ever worked here,” Scott-Wiley said. “And I think it feels valuable to audience members. [Trustus founders] Jim and Kay Thigpen wanted to build something, and they managed to build it here, and it’s still going, and we’re still making improvements on the place and the organization, and so that feels really good.”
Trustus is also a foundational institution in the Vista, setting up shop in the neighborhood before it grew into the dining and nightlife destination it is today. Leaving didn’t feel right.
“When I started working here in ‘93, my car was always getting broken into because it was just abandoned warehouses around us,” Scott-Wiley added. “We kind of helped create this as a place to come.”
What’s been upgraded?
The last leg of the recently completed upgrades, an overhaul of the Trustus bar, pays tribute to the theater’s history. Portraits of the Thigpens look down on the space. The small performance stage for live music and such is framed by an installation created by the theater’s technical director, Corey Langley. As with many theaters, members of Trustus’ various productions leave behind signatures and designs on the walls backstage. Langley assembled a collage from boards that had to be taken down, choosing from the ones that weren’t too laced with profanity.
“Well, it is the theater,” Director of Operations Julia Vaughn told The State during a recent visit, showing off some of the history that wasn’t fit for public view.
Inside Trustus’ main performance space, the recent upgrades span items that will be immediately visible to attendees along with key improvements behind the scenes. The space was taken apart and put back together to square the stage with the room’s 139 seats. The dressing room was reworked with 15 dressing stations, and the once tight and precarious band loft is now spacious enough to house a decently sized band, a boon for the musicals that help the company draw crowds. The sound and lighting booth was also reconstructed.
The benefits of the new stage were apparent during a preview performance of current production “Take My Hand and Wave Goodbye,” a tense family drama that plays out in the wake of a mass shooting. The multi-level house set is easy for audience members to navigate in this layout as they keep track of where the characters are between the house’s kitchen, patio and upstairs bedrooms.
The play itself, the winner of Trustus’ annual Playwright’s Festival, is a testament to the company’s continued dedication to local independent theater, empowering promising new voices and tackling timely themes.
“We’re still gonna do probably three musicals a year, but that’s what we’ve been doing for a while. And that’s what we were doing before the pandemic,” Scott-Wiley said of balancing more broadly appealing shows that draw bigger audiences with thornier plays like “Take My Hand and Wave Goodbye.”
“We’re still going to do that, but we’re still going to be doing some of the newest, most interesting plays available as well, which is kind of the core of trust back, you know. And what’s great is we also have that small side to our space, so we can do some really cool offerings.”
What still needs to be done?
With the latest round of work done, Trustus leaders say needs still remain, including upgrades to the electrical system and adding sprinklers, improvements that could allow the theater to increase its capacity. Fichter, the executive artistic director, said the company needs to raise about $750,000 to reach the finish line and will soon be launching a capital campaign to push toward that goal.
It’s already gotten some help. The city of Columbia kicked in $100,000 extra in hospitality tax funds this year, above the $85,000 contributed for Trustus’ regular operations, and Richland County contributed $50,000 from its own hospitality tax coffers.
“Our location is awesome,” Fichter said. “But this was also the blood, sweat and tears of many people to purchase this building and then keep it going for all of these years. So I think it’s always been our first choice to stay here and continue to make it work for modern theater. It’s just theater is also an expensive art form. It costs money because it requires people.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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