Main Street Journal: Where Playhouse on the Square is Headed

The following article is taken from the January 2009 issue of the Main Street Journal. Click “Subscribe Online” above to start your subscription.

Where Playhouse on the Square is Headed
By: Michael Roy Hollihan

It’s hard to avoid the metaphor of trees and seeds when you talk about Playhouse on the Square. Their origins, history and plans for the future almost demand it. From a tiny former dance studio they have grown and planted seeds across Midtown that have matured into sturdy elements that themselves sent their own seeds out. Their growth will culminate in their new five-story future home at the corner of Union and Cooper that, like the oaks that are a trademark of the city, will stand above Midtown.

Playhouse grew from the demise of the old Front Street Theatre in the late Sixties. Forming in 1969 as Circuit Playhouse, founder Jackie Nichols and crew intended to keep a professional theater company operating in Memphis. They found an old home on Walker, near Southern and the University of Memphis.

Two quick years later, the Circuit Playhouse found its next home on Poplar at Tucker, across from Overton Park. It proved an ideal spot and, with funding secured from the Memphis Arts Council, they quickly grew to encompass two more neighboring buildings. The tiny seed was sprouting rapidly.

By 1975, then-new Overton Square was becoming an entertainment district. Its owners wanted to add to its allure and approached Circuit Playhouse with an offer of a larger home — the faux French Quarter-styled space at the corner of Madison and Cooper, the very heart of the Square.

Here we should stop to talk about Memphis’ cultural dilemma. The city was founded by land speculators filled with high-flown visions of ancient Egyptian culture who were hoping to grab a piece of the Mississippi River’s lucrative commercial trade. This is, on the one hand, very much a Southern farming town – conservative, traditional, Biblical and family-centered. But it is also a rowdy riverfront that attracted both an unending stream of rough and ready working people as well as travelers and seekers trying to find somewhere to bring out their own dreams. That clash of outlooks and attitudes has been at the root of the city’s character.

That includes Circuit Playhouse, now the city’s sole professional theatrical outlet. They continually bounced between the popular, crowd-pleasing, general-audience productions that drew the crowds and paid the bills, and the smaller, more adventurous, more difficult plays the artistic community desired to perform and present. Fitting both comfortably into a single theater wasn’t an easy task.

The Overton Square offer was an opportunity to serve the desires of both aspects of Memphis’ theater-going community by bifurcating the Circuit into two parallel theater companies. The Board of Circuit Playhouse saw that. With a new, larger space in the blossoming Square, filled with Memphians hungry for entertainment, they could reach out to the broader community with bigger productions while retaining the more intimate Circuit Playhouse on Poplar as their experimental space.

It was a deal made for this city. Taking some seedstock from Circuit, and some financial fertilizer from the Overton Square developers and the Memphis Arts Council again, Playhouse on the Square was planted in fertile ground. Within a few short years, the Playhouse was a thriving success; Circuit refocused itself and it, too, found its own welcome niche.

A few years on, when the Circuit site was threatened, another opportunity presented itself. A new space, the old Ritz / Guild / Evergreen Theater – three times as large and just a few blocks further east on Poplar – became available. The transfer required a deft and frantic move, but soon Circuit Playhouse was replanted in the core space it still uses today.

The new arrangement proved fruitful. Prosperous and securely grounded, Circuit and Playhouse on the Square were able to give life to new theater off-shoots. Over the following decades, both theaters spawned new programs and further companies focused on even more particular needs in the theater community, like a playwright’s forum, theater for the hearing-impaired, and companies devoted to the needs of Memphis’ minority communities.

By the mid-Eighties, the nightclub and restaurant side of Overton Square was already peaking; the property had been sold to new developers who weren’t as invested in the Square’s history. The old Memphian theater, just around the corner from the Playhouse on Cooper and Union, became available and the decision was made to purchase it outright.

Again, Playhouse on the Square flourished. More buildings were purchased, like the Monroe Avenue paint store that became the TheatreWorks center. It’s a space for small, specialty theater groups who could never afford a theater of their own. Playhouse subsidised the repurposing and rents it out. It’s currently booked three years in advance! An apartment building in Cooper-Young became a dormitory for itinerant actors and staff. An old recording studio on Poplar, next door to the Circuit theater, was purchased by generous donors and given to Playhouse to become a library.

But again, like a shellfish outgrowing its old shell, the Playhouse began to feel constraining. “Playhouse is the city’s professional theater. The ballet, opera, symphony all had new facilities. We’re the only organisation that’s working out of very old, antiquated, outmoded facilities,” says founder and executive director Jackie Nichols.

In the mid-2000’s, the decision was made to begin the conceptual work that would become a new home for Playhouse. Theater architect John Morris – responsible for some acclaimed work in Chicago – was hired. “He’s really up on the state-of-the-art. We made the decision at that point that we wanted to see John Morris on our project. He’s bringing not only the knowledge of theater construction but the reputation of a really great theater in Chicago.” While the conceptual work was purposely flexible enough to be applicable to a variety of locations, a down-on-its-luck five-story office building across the street from Playhouse on the Square became available and was locked down.

The site was just large enough that a one-story part of the old building could be removed and still create space enough for theater seating, an orchestra pit, the stage and back-stage areas and more. The tower will be converted into office space, rehearsal space, dressing rooms, meeting rooms and much more. The downstairs will have a gallery along the Union Avenue frontage where local artists can present their work. Four further art galleries are planned as well. A coffee shop is planned, as is a public space where people will be encouraged to come in, open their laptops and just relax in a theatrical setting.

The roof of the new Playhouse tower will become a garden space with a spectacular and unmatched vista of Midtown. It can be rented out by the public for parties and other events, even as plays are being produced in the theater below. The new space is so large that multiple activities will barely overlap.

Playhouse is also committed to its fellow arts ensembles. The new theater is being specially designed so that Opera Memphis, Ballet Memphis and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra can play there. Thirteen weeks of the year will be given over to those organizations so they can take advantage of the state-of-the-art production environment.

“A lot of modifications were made to accommodate dance as well as opera and symphonic music; in the acoustics and the lighting of the facility,” Nichols says. “We’re very excited about having the other arts groups into our home.”

It’s the plans for their older theaters that go to show the Circuit / Playhouse commitment to the Midtown community. After Playhouse on the Square takes up its new home, Circuit Playhouse will come over from Poplar to take residence in the old Playhouse building. “There’s no need to waste money on elaborate renovation jobs. It functions pretty well as it is,” says Nichols. Nothing will be lost or tossed aside. Both Circuit and Playhouse will grow a step and the old spaces will become opportunities for someone new. The old Circuit theater will become a new Children’s Theater, bringing back a much-needed aspect of theater education.

They also remain vigilant and concerned about the surrounding neighborhood. For most of the 2000’s, the old Overton Square has been allowed to slowly grow vacant and neglected. The current majority property owner has been accumulating the surrounding plots in hopes, it is said, of attracting some kind of grocery store or big-box retailer.

“We won’t let that happen,” Nichols warns of possible inappropriate redevelopment. “We came into the Square in 1975. We’d probably be open to a design of integrity like a Whole Foods or Wild Oats.”

“We’re not against development; we’re against inappropriate development for the neighborhood.”

He is skeptical of the current owners, though. “We spend $12 million to create an entertainment / cultural district that people are going to go out and go to the theater, the ballet, the opera, the symphony and then go out to restaurants and shops afterwards. Going to the store and buying boxes of macaroni and cheese is probably not on their agenda that evening. We’re working on that.”

He’s also keeping his eye down Cooper to the vibrant Cooper-Young neighborhood. Having Playhouse and Circuit, along with a revitalized and conceptually compatible Overton Square, become one end of a cohesive streetscape leading to Cooper-Young is important.

“I’ve been very passionate about preserving and maintaining the integrity of the neighborhood. Even though we’ve got a new building going up across the street we’re maintaining the neighborhood ‘feel’ of what we’re doing.”

“We’re really looking to create this arts and theater district here in Midtown, which is not only the performance of plays but music, dance, opera and everything else. We think we’ll be bringing 50,000 new people into this area for all these arts events going on, which will be great for the restaurants too. We just need the rest of the property owners in the area to embrace the possibility of what it could be, in a positive way. We think that they will.”

“Playhouse is one of the really positive things Memphis can look to and really be proud of. This is a community and it’s really growing. We welcome anybody that wants to come and be a part of that exciting idea and plan and vision.”

If past performance predicts the future, then Midtown is in good hands.

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks