This theater in Fort Worth suburb will close following final performances this weekend

Hurst’s Artisan Center Theater will present its final production this weekend, capping a 21-year run, the theater’s co-founder Richard Blair said in an email to patrons Tuesday morning.

The closure comes after a period of financial and personal hardship for the theater.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Artisan to call off the remaining performances of its production of “Seussical” in early 2020, Blair stated in the email.

Costs mounted as Artisan adapted its programming to post-pandemic life, Blair said, and a rent dispute ended with the company being locked out of its building in March.

An April benefit concert raised over $25,000 to help cover the theater’s rent and owed costs, but, according to Blair, it was not enough.

The theater’s collection of equipment and property is still locked inside its building, and Blair said the landlord is making plans to sell the theater’s assets to recoup $57,000 in rent and penalties they say Artisan still owes.

Artisan Center Theater presented its first production, “Steel Magnolias,” in March of 2003, followed shortly after by “Smoke on the Mountain” in August of that year .

It was at that production, Blair said, that a reporter came in asking to watch the show.

The way Blair told it in his email to patrons Tuesday, the show that night was so full that the writer had to sit next to him in the control booth.

Blair said he had no idea who the writer was until his mother called him the next day, shouting into the telephone.

The writer had been Dave Lieber, a Dallas Morning News columnist who was writing for the Star-Telegram at the time.

“It was luck,” DeeAnn Blair told Lieber in 2003. “It was destiny. It was whatever you want to call it.”

Now, the curtain will come down on the Artisan Center Theater for the final time this weekend as it presents a production of “Anastasia” in Birdville High School’s auditorium.

“The musical encourages audiences to believe in themselves, embrace their past, and face the future with courage and determination,” Blair said. “This has been the legacy of Artisan from the beginning.”

“Anastasia” runs Aug. 2-4 at the Birdville Fine Arts and Athletics Complex, 9200 Mid Cities Blvd., North Richland Hills.

For more information and to purchase admission, visit Artisan Center Theater’s website.