Three years after flooding, the RPI Playhouse sits empty

Throughout its history, the RPI Players have seamlessly blended the world’s oldest technological university with the humble Shakespearean reminder that at its core, “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.” Rensselaer’s oldest theater club, founded in 1929, holds a rich history of advancing students in the field of drama and the arts with hundreds of plays performed.

Today, the stage in which this reminder sits has passed three years of sitting empty and damaged from a water pipe that burst back in February 2023. A once-bustling hub for aspiring engineers and mathematicians to showcase their acting skills, the RPI Playhouse faces a grim future of remaining empty with minimal plans of being fixed. Furthermore, the conclusion of this calendar year will see the final class of Players who have performed in the building graduate, and the new class never having set foot in the Playhouse. 

A simple pipe burst evolved into more than expected, as the current sticker price for renovations sits at around $2.5 million. Efforts to raise funds for the Playhouse have been unsuccessful thus far, with renovation plans performed by engineers and architects alone taking several months to complete and other attempts ending up being far more complicated than expected. The Players were additionally put on probation in April 2025 after raising approximately $22,500 from a GoFundMe that was determined to be an inaccurate way of collecting funds. A complete report on the Players’ situation, conducted by the Student Senate, was released in 2025 and can be read here. 

Alumni of the Players have taken to emailing the union and sharing their sentiments about the building being closed. It is not unusual for RPI students to be strongly associated with clubs and organizations as a way to balance out their rigorous course load. Due to the smaller nature of RPI, many alumni stay connected with their clubs even after graduation, returning to watch games, shows, and support close friends. The Players are no exception, with many alumni expressing the Players as being an integral part of their experience at RPI and providing them with skills they bring with them into their careers. A website entitled Friends of the Playhouse is also dedicated to alumni involvement in regards to the Playhouse. Community Organizer and Scenic Designer Casey Duncan ’26 describes the Players as being a “holistic experience” to be a part of whilst attending an engineering school like RPI and shared that “being able to have these experiences, take on these new technical skills that [you] probably wouldn’t learn anywhere else [is] an amazing experience [and] inspired me to want to help out in my community. [It] also makes me a more rounded person...I don’t think I could have that without the Players.”

The Players work closely with Russell Sage College to conduct most of their shows, and are constantly working towards streamlining their process of performing with no home stage. Their equipment lies in various locations around campus and they operate on a “load in load out” clock, always pushing forward regardless of setbacks. They hope that the process will continue to become easier over time, and hope to continue strengthening their relationship with Russell Sage College, of whom they are in close partnership with. For now however, the Playhouse remains empty, battling between a desire to maintain the years-long commitment to the Players and soaring costs as the building remains closed as of this day. It is only the hope that the Players will someday return to a stage they can again call their own.