Jesters owners selling Longmont theater after decades-long run
Mar. 18—Editor's note: The article below has been updated to reflect the correct basketball team Scott and Mary Lou Moore plan to watch with their new-found free time.
For Scott and Mary Lou Moore, all their world has been a stage for nearly 34 years.
Since opening the local Dickens Theatre Centre in 1987 and then Jesters Dinner Theater in 1996, they've run countless productions, taught acting classes, sewn costumes and cooked meals.
The couple announced last week that they plan to step away from the spotlight and put the building at 224 Main St. up for sale on April 4. The final production, "Guys and Dolls," runs Friday through May 29, after which they plan to close.
After surviving an eight-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, Scott Moore said, business at Jesters has been revived to pre-pandemic levels, with interest in classes particularly high.
"It's bittersweet, because really the company is doing great," he said. "We love the people around us. It's about wondering what our other calling might be. Where can we travel and what can we do? And, spending time with the kids and grandkids."
Part of the fun in running the theater for Scott and Mary Lou Moore was working alongside their family. Their sons, Scotty and Danny Bohnen, helped out at Jesters and even met their wives through the theater. A couple of years ago, though, they both took other jobs.
"It's just not the same not having your kids here helping you run it," Mary Lou Moore said.
With Mary Lou Moore also teaching piano and voice lessons full time, running the theater puts her at a 60- to 70-hour work week. She said her and her husband had talked about when the right time to sell the business might be. A couple of weeks ago, they decided it would be better to put it up for sale in the summer.
If there's anything that's testament to how much their theater is loved, it's perhaps two efforts to save it.
Jesters performer Amber Sutherland, of Erie, wants to raise $2 million "to keep Jesters going and growing," she wrote in a Go Fund Me post.
"I love this theater so much," Sutherland said in a phone interview last week. "It has provided a family, a community and a home for so many of us. The thought of it going away is just devastating. We have just fallen in love with this theater."
Sutherland is heading the fundraising effort, alongside a group of five other performers, who she said also want to see the theater saved. If the fundraiser is not successful, Sutherland said donation contributions will be returned. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Go Fund Me had raised $8,235.
Scott Moore said another group, which is also connected to the theater, made an offer to buy it. However, Scott Moore said the couple declined the offer because it wasn't in the price range they were looking for. He said he didn't feel comfortable sharing the identity of the other interested party.
The sale of the business itself would be a separate agreement that would have to be addressed once the offers for the building are made, Scott Moore said.
Like Sutherland, others who are connected with the theater were saddened by the news.
Painting sets inside Jesters on Tuesday, Angela Cape, of Gunbarrel, paused to talk about what the theater has meant to her. In the 15 years she has worked for Jesters as a scenic artist, she said she's seen how inclusive and encouraging teachers at the theater are.
"This has really been such a benefit to the community to create theater, not just be a judgy place (where it's like) 'You're good enough to be in the show. Oh, you're not,'" Cape said. "Here, they're always developing people. That's why it's become so close to everyone's heart. This feels like a home."
Hailey Ewing, of Longmont, a teacher at the theater, called Jesters "an incredibly safe space to learn a lot."
"It's home. It's family," Ewing said.
Scott and Mary Lou Moore operated as the Dickens Theatre Center in the Dickens Opera House from 1987 to 1992. They changed the name to Jesters in 1996 and opened at a new location: 903 N. Main Street. They moved to the theater's current location at 224 Main Street in 1999.
In the years since they've been running the current theater, Scott and Mary Lou Moore have seen three engagement proposals take place on the dinner theater stage and generations of families taking part in productions and classes.
"I do think it is appreciated. Because it's low key, you don't have to dress up, you can if you want, but you don't have to. We try not to be pretentious. I think there's a tendency in the arts to be very pretentious," Scott Moore said.
"It's a lot of memories," Mary Lou Moore said.
With their weekends long dedicated to the theater, now they're looking forward to spending that time with family, catching some Colorado State University basketball games, going to church on Sundays, and maybe even seeing a show.
"We appreciate that there's been enough support to keep it going for 23 years," Scott Moore said. "Most businesses don't even last three, and certainly the arts businesses don't even last that long."
Benefit concert
Amber Sutherland will host a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at The Arts Hub, 420 Courtney Way in Lafayette. She said all proceeds will go toward the effort to save the dinner theater.
To find the Go Fund Me, visit gofundme.com/f/save-the-jesters.