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One of the most dramatic events at the Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville was also the last for the landmark’s theatrical production staff. In a climactic finale, Chuck Morris, chairman of the Bijou’s board of trustees, laid off about 20 workers who had been laboring to keep open the state’s oldest professional theater.

Like other historic theaters inhabiting treasured real estate across the state, the 170-year-old Bijou faced substantial financial troubles in recent years. Donors failed to live up to pledges of nearly $2 million for a renovation that began but was not completed. The not-for-profit Bijou missed mortgage payments. Then just after the curtain fell, Chairman Morris and a former executive director of the Bijou argued publicly in the pages of the Knoxville News Sentinel over who was to blame for the theater’s financial crises. Morris said Bijou’s management had stopped paying state payroll and unemployment taxes since at least the fourth quarter of 2003. Former Executive Director Lar’Juanette Williams blamed the board for failing to raise much-needed funds to keep the theater running.

Now, Morris is working to keep the Bijou open as a concert venue and a performing arts center, and the board of trustees is planning a new fundraising campaign to dig the theater out of debt.

The individuals operating Tennes- see’s historic theaters have in common the ongoing struggle of trying to generate enough income to stay afloat, along with keeping performances relevant to today’s audiences, who have plenty of entertainment options. The Bijou’s board doesn’t have to look far to find other theaters that have faced near demise and fought to stay alive. To achieve fundraising and revenue objectives, theaters in Memphis, Nashville, Sparta and Crossville have rallied local support, updated their facilities and started offering creative programming to bring in paying audiences. With a focus on these fundamentals, the Bijou’s board could see its stage come back to life. Every city—and every theater—is different, but these stories of imperfect success could light the way for the darkened Bijou.

The Orpheum Theatre|Memphis
With monthly Broadway productions and a ghost named “Mary,” The Orpheum provides all that one could want from a historic theater. Financially, the 114-year-old theater hasn’t operated in the red since 1980, but Pat Halloran, president and “emperor” of The Orpheum, says for some years, the theater came close to operating at a loss.

The Orpheum’s history is not altogether rosy—the downtown theater has closed six times during its lifetime. A former vaudeville and silent movie house, The Orpheum presented first-run movies from 1940 until 1976, when multiplexes became the trend among moviegoers and smaller movie houses across the country were shuttered. The nonprofit Memphis Development Foundation purchased The Orpheum, gave it to the city and leased it to begin hosting Broadway plays. After raising $6 million in 1983, the theater was gutted and restored, and a decade later a $10 million renovation knocked out its back wall and extended the stage. With more space, The Orpheum could present musicals like The Phantom of the Opera, which opened there in 1997.

While The Orpheum’s Broadway performances have led the historic theater to modern-day success, the people managing the theater still must deal with economic challenges and changing entertainment trends. But they are facing those issues head on with a long-term strategy, Halloran says. “We’re not at all hesitant to grapple with these challenges and look down the road apiece and look for a fight,” he adds. “I honestly believe that we are going to have to be creative in our programming and business practices—in how we manage, invest and raise our money.”

Feeling a kinship with the Bijou in Knoxville, Halloran says all theater managers are feeling the same stress, and organizational politics are not unique because of the pressure on theaters competing with other forms of entertainment. While Knoxville may not be large enough to replicate The Orpheum’s use of Broadway plays, Halloran says the Bijou can survive if an interested group stands up and says, “We’re not going to let that happen.”

The Belcourt Theatre|Nashville
In 1999, “Save the Belcourt” signs were posted throughout Nashville by people enamored with the Hillsboro Village theater and distraught over its closing. A nonprofit group called Belcourt Yes! had incorporated to raise money and develop a game plan for resurrecting The Belcourt. By June 2000, the theater reopened. The group raised funds to lease the building, and every year since then the theater’s finances have improved, little by little.

Contributions are still vital to The Belcourt’s survival, says Jayne Gordon, treasurer of the theater’s board, but she says the operations side is becoming a stronger revenue source as well. The Belcourt makes money in its full bar, which can bring in as much as $1,400 on a weeknight and $3,000 on the weekend when a concert sells out.

In addition to live music, The Belcourt shows independent films, Titans football games and plays. Broadway productions don’t make sense for the small theater because the Tennessee Performing Arts Center offers those performances in Nashville, and as Gordon says, “Every theater has its niche in its market.”

Looking ahead, Belcourt leadership is working to offer more children’s programming, and the board is starting to plan a capital campaign to buy the building from owner and Belcourt board member Tom Willis. Then the board hopes to begin a renovation of the theater’s lobby to keep The Belcourt thriving.

Oldham Theater|Spartaand Palace Theater|Crossville
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, both the Oldham Theater in Sparta and the Palace Theater in Crossville have received federally funded enhancement grants awarded by the Tennessee Department of Transportation to create welcome centers. The theaters’ parallel histories include closing in the ’70s when multiplexes ruled, gaining local support, turning over ownership to city government, obtaining city funds for renovations and struggling to find contractors who can bid within budget.

Now with local and federal dollars, the two theaters are on the road to recovery. The Crossville theater received a grant for $264,000 in 1999 to renovate the venue to create a tourist information and welcome center. The theater seats more than 350 people and shows 35-millimeter movies, concerts, pageants and school plays.

In Sparta, the Oldham Theater was granted $474,000 in 2001 to convert the lobby area to a welcome center, construct a sidewalk and a parking lot. The theater is on Highway 70, called The Historic Broadway of America, where efforts are underway to return to towns the charm they had in the 1960s. Nashville-based architect Gresham Smith and Partners has drawn plans for the new Tennessee Welcome Center. The second phase of planned renovations will return the facility to an operational theater for stage and film productions.

Susceptible to devastating economic and cultural changes, Tennessee’s old theaters also have staying power. The show can go on at Knoxville’s Bijou Theatre, first with unified community support, then with creative funding and more diverse programming. Break a leg.