Mill Mountain Theatre Closes Doors, Cancels Remaining Season

The Roanoke Times is reporting that the Mill Mountain Theatre, once the flagship of Roanoke's thriving arts and cultural community, is shutting its doors, board members announced Tuesday.

The theater, which has large and apparently mounting debts, has cancelled at least the rest of this season. Its last play will be "Driving Miss Daisy," which runs through Feb. 8 on the Waldron Stage, assuming the theater can meet production costs. The play is scheduled to open tonight.

"We're trying to collect the funds to do 'Driving Miss Daisy,' " theater board member Jason Bingham said. "We've been working hard over the last couple of months. This is just gut-wrenching, heartbreaking. What happened is 10 years of debt, of declining revenues, most likely attributable to the current economy, have made it impossible to continue. We just don't have the cash flow."

A Mill Mountain news release said the theater was shutting its doors effective today, except for scheduled performances of "Driving Miss Daisy," to "focus on a reorganization of the theater's productions and business operations. Our traditional business model no longer works."

"We're optimistic about opening it up again," Bingham said, but he couldn't give a target date. "There isn't one right now."

Bingham said the theater would "most likely" declare bankruptcy. He also apologized to creditors and customers, and said he was hopeful of the community's future support.

The paper reveals tha staffers were told of the decision to shutter the 40-year-old theater at Tuesday's regularly scheduled 2 p.m. meeting.

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