The IceHouse Theatre sits at 1100 N Unser St in a building that literally made ice. Built in 1923, it stored 300-pound blocks for the steamboats and citrus houses. In 1948 the blocks melted, the business closed, and the building sat empty until 1975. That’s when a group of actors thought “great acoustics” and bought it for $12,000.
They kept the name and the bones. The thick walls that held in cold now keep out street noise. The freight elevator became the lighting booth. The lobby still has the metal tracks where ice slid to trucks.
Now the Sonnentag Theatre upstairs runs 6 mainstage shows a year: musicals, dramas, comedies. Downstairs, The Catacombs is a 70-seat black box for edgier stuff. Quality is high because Lake County has retirees from Broadway, cruise ships, and Chicago improv. Your lead might have been a Rockette. Your lighting guy might have toured with Springsteen.
Tickets are $25, seasons sell out, and opening nights feel like galas. Locals dress up because the actors do. Local tip: Sit in row C, seats 5-6 for best sound. And go on Thursday — it’s “pay what you can” and the crowd is mostly insiders who laugh at all the right places.
Mount Dora treats theatre like a sport. People have opinions about set design. That’s how you know it’s good.