Playhouse on the Square is opening its new performance space in Midtown Memphis this month. For more information on the renovation, click here. The public is invited to a grand opening celebration on Sunday, January 10 from 1 to 6 p.m. See playhouseonthesquare.org for more information. Below, an excerpt from the Chamber's Crossroads magazine featuring Playhouse Executive Director Jackie Nichols. To download a copy of the latest issue, click here.

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Jackie Nichols could be considered the father of live theatre in Memphis. Jackie, executive producer for Playhouse on the Square and by his own admission an overachiever, sees his latest and largest production as more than what it seems on the outside.

"The new theatre is more than a home for Playhouse on the Square. It’s going to be a major Midtown redevelopment initiative that’s going to involve other arts groups in the community," he said, speaking proudly of the new building going up at the corner of Union Avenue and Cooper Street. The very nexus of Midtown is destined to become the crossroads of performing arts for the Memphis area.

As founder and artistic director of Ballet Memphis, Dorothy Gunther Pugh is excited about the performances her company has planned for the new Playhouse on the Square. As a Midtowner herself, she said, "Jackie is thinking about the neighborhood, which is a very tangible symbol going up. I’m so thrilled to see it on the corner every time I drive by."

Ballet Memphis will perform "Sleeping Beauty" on the new stage in April of 2010.

Nichols has worn the guise of actor, dancer, director and producer in his career, yet it may be his role as the father of live theatre in Memphis and fundraiser for which he is remembered. He has his fiduciary lines memorized and has his budgeting blocking down to the inch.

"The organization has no debt and owns all its property outright, that’s $3 million worth of property," he said. Current property includes the Circuit Playhouse with its educational building next door, TheatreWorks in Overton Square and Playhouse on the Square; the new building will be another $12 million in property assets.

So far, $12 million has been raised, secured before the economy went south, and with most of the money pledged in hand by last Fall. The Playhouse donors include the Jeniam Foundation, the Arthur F. & Alice E. Adams Foundation, Hyde Foundation, Plough Foundation, Assisi Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.

Those involved in sponsorships and donations were excited and eager to fund the building, excited especially about the expansion of community outreach of which there are currently 13 programs, Nichols said.

"We still have to raise another $3 million for an endowment to secure the operation of the new building, but we feel confident that when people see this space they’ll realize what a jewel it is and come forward to support it," Nichols said. "They’ll see that this is happening and this is good."

Having worked with Nichols for 20 years, associate producer Michael Detroit knows where his boss’s strengths lie. "He’s a visionary, he sees things that could be years from now and I think he pursues that," Detroit said, adding, "He’s also very fiscally conservative and he doesn’t waste people’s money. He uses every cent we bring in."

The planning began about four and a half years ago, the idea growing out of a strategic planning session held by the board and staff. "We sat down and tried to examine what the future of Playhouse on the Square would look like, and we realized that the theatre couldn’t really grow anywhere unless we had a new state-of-the-art facility."

Nichols and his team toured theatres around the country, but it was the Steppenwolf theatre in Chicago that struck a chord. He asked the staff, technical directors and stage managers at that theatre what they would change in the 5-year-old building if they could, and they all said "nothing."

"We knew that Steppenwolf was exactly what we wanted. It was a larger theatre with state of the art facilities," he said.

Nichols exudes the confidence of the experienced actor on stage, a leading man who gets the girl every time. In this case, the dame is a new theatre, almost identical to the venerable Steppenwolf in every detail save a few fewer seats and larger, brighter lobby.

"Jackie has made such a commitment to this city," Pugh said, "and I think [his donors] know of his commitment to this community and to art. They’re inseparable to him."

"There are always nay-sayers, people saying you can’t possibly do this for the money you’re seeking," Jackie says now as the sound of construction hums across the street from his office. "Even friends said we couldn’t, and I would wake up in the middle of the night at times wondering if I can do this. But then I’d remember that it’s for the community. This isn’t just for me, and so it must be done."