Studio Theatre is undergoing major renovations at its Logan Circle space, bringing in a new café vendor and modernizing its technology and infrastructure ahead of its next season, when it plans to welcome audiences back for live shows. The $20 million Open Studio campaign is set to be complete in early 2022, and it broke ground in late March, the theater announced in a press release.

The expansive renovation to the building at 14th and P streets NW includes a first-floor café run by RĀKO Coffee Roasters, a Virginia-based company founded by sisters Melissa and Lisa Gerben. The 1,100-square-foot café, which replaces the existing “Mead Bar,” will serve locally roasted coffees, hand-crafted espresso drinks, natural wines, craft beer, and cocktails. It will also offer menu items from local women, BIPOC creators, and food makers focused on zero waste. The day-to-night operation will also feature a 66-seat outdoor patio. DC Eater first reported the news of RĀKO’s involvement.

Studio’s management team says the lobby and café will make the theater an around-the-clock destination in the neighborhood, and will give RĀKO its first D.C. location.

“The last year has felt like a suspended reality for those working in theatre,” Studio Theater’s artistic director David Muse said in a statement. “But we’re slowly emerging, first with the launch of our all-digital season and now with real momentum for Open Studio. Our building is changing in dramatic ways that will invite new artistic possibilities and make it even more exciting to welcome audiences back.”

Those patrons will come back to a renamed and revamped theater; the company’s Studio 4 will reopen on the first floor as a dynamic black-box theater named after Victor Shargai, the late D.C. theater advocate and former Studio board member. The Victor Shargai Theatre can be reconfigured into multiple styles, including thrust, in the round, and traverse arrangements, fitting anywhere between 215 and 300 people, nearly doubling its current capacity.

Also in the plans: a dedicated rehearsal room for actors and visiting artists, a bright yellow marquee sign out front, new street-level poster windows, and a mural showcasing Studio’s four-decade long history in the neighborhood. The lobby spaces will also be redone, with changes including a dedicated public lounge on the first floor, and a new box office adjacent to the main entrance on 14th Street.

Some features of the theater haven’t been improved for 15 years, so Studio plans to upgrade its “currently failing” HVAC system, change to LED lighting, and modernize its bathrooms to be more environmentally friendly, according to the release.

“This renovation will allow us to keep our doors open and invite people in to use our lobbies as a neighborhood gathering space,” managing director Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg said in a statement.

Added Muse, “It’s heartening that at the end of this year of unpredictability and tumult for our field, that Studio will open its doors on a new chapter and fresh start.”