When Tyrone Butler, along with his wife Judith Simon-Butler and Earnestine Robinson, founded the Augusta Mini Theatre in 1975, the project to launch a playhouse and arts school was criticized and even belittled, he recalls.
Butler, currently artistic director of the Mini Theatre, remembers a comment one of its critics made after the theatre received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1984, at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta.
“One of those persons walked up to me and said, ‘Well, I guess bad art is better than no art,’” said Butler. “But the comment didn’t drag us down. They motivated us. Motivated us to prove them wrong, that we are here to serve this community.”
The Mini Theatre has persevered against such reproaches, as well as various financial struggles, for 50 years. More than half of that time has included garnering resourced toward its growth. Its current location on Deans Bridge Road is the first phase of a project to develop the Mini Theatre into a complete performing arts and education facility.
Since completion of its administrative and school building in 2008, the theatre has sought to expand the site further, including adding a 300-seat theater. These fundraising efforts were met with varying success.
The 300-seat goal was reduced to 145 seats when the cost for the former went from $1.4 to $1.5 million.
The persistence was not for nought, as the Augusta Mini Theatre’s upcoming 50-year celebration (postponed from this past November) will entail the ribbon-cutting for the performing arts theatre, which Butler says is “95% completed.”
The theatre’s birthday party will coincide with its yearly Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend show. After the ribbon-cutting, guests will be given a tour of the theatre, with and the show will be the first one performed on the new stage.
The production this year has three titles: “Once in a Lifetime,” “It Was All a Dream” and “Now, Reality.” The show will be comprised of performances by drama, video arts, piano and dance students, and will depict the story of how the Augusta Mini-Theatre began and its tribulations through the years.
Bolstering its achievements, the Mini Theatre was also among 17 organizations across nine Southeastern states to receive the Cultural Sustainability Award from the nonprofit South Arts last October, a recognition that included $115,000 in grant funds to use toward operational costs.
“I think God is looking has always been looking out for us,” Butler said. “He had to have been. There’s no way we could have done what we were doing without somebody, somewhere, really looking down good on us.”
The Augusta Mini Theatre will have the ribbon cutting on its expanded facility on Friday, Jan. 16 at its location at 2458 Deans Bridge Road at 4 p.m. The grand opening party will be the following Saturday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m., with the first show performance at 8 p.m., with another performance Sunday at 3 p.m.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering general reporting for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
