Before the end of the year, Brookfield’s own bona fide community theater and performance space is set to open.
The Brookfield Theater Corporation is on contract to purchase the buildings at 3740 and 3742 Grand Blvd., formerly the homes of Burger Antics and Prairie Path Vintage Market, respectively. The group will close the sale in October with plans to open the Strand Theater and run it out of the two buildings starting in early December, said John Dumas, the group’s leader.
The corporation is paying $725,000 for the two buildings with loan financing from the First National Bank of Brookfield of about $500,000, Dumas said.
“We’re so incredibly confident about the finances. We’re not the least bit worried about it,” he said.
The former Burger Antics building will become the performance space with seating and a stage while the Prairie Path building will hold the lobby, bathrooms, box office and concessions booth, he said.
“The Burger Antics building … is really empty at this point. All of the kitchen equipment and everything has been removed already, so all that’s really left are the restrooms and a couple other things. That’ll be easily demoed,” Dumas told the Landmark. “We’re planning, ultimately, on putting a connection between the two buildings. It would be just a doorway; we’re not talking about opening it up into one giant space.”
He said the connector will be easy to remove down the line if the buildings one day no longer house the Strand and new owners wish to separate them again. The connection may not be ready for the grand opening on Dec. 4 or the debut Christmas-themed performances on Dec. 5-7 and 12-14, but it will come, Dumas said.
The Strand Theater will be the home of the Glaser Players theater troupe as well as a myriad of performances, from local theater troupes to film screenings, spoken word performances, musical performances, dance parties, religious services, and pretty much any other programming people are interested in putting on, Dumas said.
“We’re a nonprofit. We look at it as a community facility, and we want it to be used,” he said. “We’ve been inundated [with requests]. It’s been funny. We’ve had people contact us to say, ‘Can I do this there?’ We’re like, ‘We never thought of that. That’s a great idea.’”
The purchase marks a landing pad for the Strand Theater, the corporation’s brainchild that has been seeking a home for nearly two years. It got its inception in September 2024 when Brookfield officials first discussed possible businesses that could occupy a rehabbed Theater Building, the historic structure at 3723 Grand Blvd., just up the block that the village acquired earlier that month.
While Dumas argued then to return the Theater Building, which formerly operated as a movie theater called the Strand, to its roots, the village went on to purchase the adjacent residential property at 3717 Grand Blvd. in December 2024. Village officials have since made plans to demolish the two structures to make way for one of two proposed developments of a high-rise luxury apartment building.
The Strand made stop-start progress in settling down over the next two years. Dumas in October 2025 announced plans to purchase 8916 Fairview Ave., the building that belongs to Rodriguez Auto Repair, with an opening scheduled for May 2026.
Adelfo Rodriguez, who runs Rodriguez Auto Repair, told the Landmark this summer of his own plans to purchase the building from his landlord so his 16-year-old business can continue under the supervision of his son after he eventually retires, marking the end of the Strand’s efforts to open there.
Earlier this month, without a permanent home, the Strand’s native Glaser Players staged Neil Simon’s “California Suite” out of St. Paul’s Parish in Riverside.
Dumas said his crew was excited by the proximity to the still-standing Theater Building that started them on the quest to find a home for a community theater space in Brookfield.
“There’s definitely a connection there. We never thought we would get onto Grand Boulevard. We never thought we’d be that close to it because most of those places had not been available. When we started this, Burger Antics was a thriving business,” he said. “It’s been amazing that we’re going to end up on Grand Boulevard after all this. Our dream was to be right in the heart of it all.”
