This story starts with Trouble, as the song goes.
Right here in River City.
With a capital T and that rhymes with Pee and that’s because a few years back Theatre Memphis started letting patrons take drinks into the theater.
“And all of a sudden intermission became a real problem because everybody had to go to the bathroom because everybody had taken something into the theater to drink,” says Randall Hartzog, Director of Marketing and Communications. “This all started with women wanting more restrooms.”
On Thursday, a small group of media and supporters got a first look inside Theatre Memphis after an $8 million, eight-month facelift.
Aside from some improvements to the auditorium space, the interior had remained relatively unchanged since the community theater built the facility on the corner of Perkins Extended and Southern in 1975.
The bathroom capacity is now doubled. But the project went much further to improve accessibility and street appearance.
Gone is the sunken lobby and bar area that made opening nights a multi-level mingling experience. A new concession area, will-call window, grand staircase and atrium now add a bit more grandiosity to the theatergoing experience.
For retired costume designer Andre Bruce Ward, who worked in the building for 40 years starting in 1976, the changes have all been positive.
“[The building] needed to come into the new century, I think,” he said.
And just in time.
Theatre Memphis is one of the oldest continuously operating community theaters in the country. In May, it will turn 100 years old.
Prior to moving to East Memphis, the company performed for years in the swimming pool (turned theater) of the Pink Palace.
Until this year, the City of Memphis owned the land under the theater and leased it at a mostly symbolic fee. At Thursday’s dedication, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland noted that the City Council had recently deeded the large corner property to the organization.
For staff and performers, there were additional backstage improvements. Shop space has doubled, LED lighting has been added to the dressing rooms, and the rehearsal room was upgraded.
The theater closed its doors for renovations last December. They were expected to reopen in August with a production of “Hello, Dolly!”
Then coronavirus happened. The production has been moved, tentatively, to April. Still, set pieces for “A Christmas Carol” are now on the stage as a cast rehearses for an upcoming virtual production of the holiday favorite.
For local performers like Jared Johnson, this year without live theater has only made the theater's future return more important.
“It’s a struggle,” he says. “The struggle is real with this crazy life that we’re living where the only way you can be part of art is something virtual.”
Why “Hello, Dolly!” as the first show back? Executive producer Debbie Litch says a line from the musical captures what she hopes is a unanimous reaction to seeing the new space: “Wow, wow, wow, look at the old girl now!”
