From Theatre Baton Rouge’s ashes, Mid City Civic Theatre takes the stage

The closure of the Capital Region’s oldest community theater this spring was grim news for regional arts enthusiasts, but their spirits were lifted last week with the announcement of a recently founded theater group to take its place.

The new all-volunteer Mid City Civic Theatre (MCCT) has assumed Theatre Baton Rouge’s (TBR) nonprofit charter and is now operating out of its longtime Florida Boulevard performance space. MCCT will offer educational programs for young performers after the first of the year and will stage its first ticketed production next summer.

“We’re so excited to see community theater take root again in Mid City,” MCCT co-founder Caty LeJeune said in a statement. LeJeune had worked previously as TBR’s communications director and was part of a small group of advocates determined to maintain a community theater nonprofit in the heart of Baton Rouge. “Our hope is for this to be a space where everyone feels welcome, a place that inspires creativity and sparks community connection.”

TBR closed in March due to financial challenges brought on by the pandemic, its board said. The veteran arts organization was in the midst of its 79^th season when it suspended operations. The abrupt closure announcement was a tough blow to the local theater world—TBR was widely recognized as its central hive of activity, producing around 10 musicals and well-known plays annually.

But such shows are expensive to produce, costing thousands in licensing fees. To keep its costs down, MCCT will likely start with a work of Shakespeare, which doesn’t require licensing because it’s in the public domain, says board president and LSU Associate Professor of Theater History Shannon Walsh.

Since TBR’s closure, Walsh, LeJeune and fellow MCCT co-founders Joe Carleton and Shea Stephens have advocated strongly for maintaining the 327-seat main stage auditorium adjacent to Bon Carré.

“We are a [theater] space-poor community,” Walsh says. “It would have been a shame to lose it.”

Taking over the nonprofit, MCCT assumes ownership of TBR’s longtime home, which includes the auditorium, a lobby, reception/classroom space and restrooms. It does not own the adjacent studio theater, which TBR previously rented for smaller shows.

MCCT is planning a Dec. 18 fundraiser called “Holiday Lights at the Civic” to support new programs and to continue to pay down TBR’s debt. Walsh says the inaugural event will be a cabaret-style show featuring regional singers, musicians and theater performers. The event will also feature a live band, full bar, food vendors and displays on the lengthy history of the building and auditorium, and it will share MCCT’s plans for the future.

Over the weekend, about 40 volunteers came out to help clean the theater, which hasn’t seen a show since Xanadu wrapped in March. Walsh says it was moving to see so many theater enthusiasts already supporting the new venture.

“It was glorious,” she says. “The space means a lot to a lot of people. A few of the folks who showed up walked in and just started weeping.”