Ask Margaret
Francis Wilson Playhouse at 302
Seminole St. in Clearwater is home to an
all-volunteer community theater group
that is celebrating the 90th year since its
founding in 1930.
The theater was named for Francis
Wilson, who began entertaining in
minstrel shows as a child and had
become a known professional performer
by age 24. He eventually moved from
his native Philadelphia to the stages of
New York City, where his athletic skills
(which included fencing and boxing)
contributed to his ability to perform
harrowing choreographed stunts. At age
45, the celebrated comedic actor formed
his own theater company. In 1913, at the
age of 59, he founded and became the first
president of the Actors Equity Association,
a position he held for seven years.
During the 1920s, Wilson purchased
a winter home on Osceola Avenue in
Clearwater. While he and his family
were residing there, he played golf at the
Clearwater Country Club and competed
at the city’s Lawn Bowl Club. Wilson also
discovered a community theater group that
performed at a variety of locations. That is,
until 1933, when he was able to convince
his good friend, publishing heiress Mary
Louise Curtis Bok, who had built the Bok
Tower Gardens’ Singing Tower in nearby
Lake Wales, to contribute $5,000 to build a
permanent home for the group. She made
her contribution based on the condition
that the new theater would be named for
Wilson.
The theater was built on land that Wilson
persuaded the City of Clearwater to lease
by Margaret Word Burnside
On my way to the
Seminole Street boat
ramp in Clearwater,
I noticed the Francis
Wilson Playhouse.
Can you tell me
more about it?
J.D., South Tampa
to the group it for 99 years at $1 per year.
Unfortunately, the theater’s namesake died
in 1935 at age 81 after the cornerstone of
the theater had been laid, but before the
theater was completed in 1936.
140 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019
A noted collector of rare books and
antique furniture, Wilson acquired a set
of a dozen ornately carved chairs that,
according to his own authentication,
had been made from a pew in William
Shakespeare’s church in England. In 1955,
Wilson’s widow, Edna, donated two of the
chairs to the Francis Wilson Playhouse,
where they still can be admired in the
lobby.
The talented volunteers that call the
Francis Wilson Playhouse home continue
to wow audiences with live Broadway
musicals, dramas, comedies and concerts.
Many of the performers, directors,
stagehands and others in the group are
related to current or former members of
the Francis Wilson production family.
Most importantly, the playhouse uses the
amazing talents of volunteers who are
filled with energy, creativity and vitality
to put on these shows that have the power
to transport audiences to other times and
places.
Francis Wilson Playhouse’s 90th (2019-
2020) season just opened with Broadway’s
Titanic the Musical, which was the Tampa
Bay area premiere of this Tony Awardwinning
Best Musical. The playhouse’s
balance of this season will feature Born
Yesterday; South Pacific; Harvey; I Do! I
Do!; Brigadoon; and The Man Who Came to
Dinner. It will finish the season with the
Clearwater premiere of the seven Tony-
Award-winning show Follies. There will
also be five Broadway concerts during
the season: Broadway’s Epic Musicals,
Forgotten Broadway, Home for the Holidays,
The Fabulous ‘50s, and The Best of Times.
If you have any questions about the
people, places or things in the Tampa
Bay area, please send them to
“Ask Margaret” at Tampa Bay Magazine,
2531 Landmark Drive, Suite 101,
Clearwater, Florida 33761.
We regret that not all questions
can be answered.