photograph courtesy ron jewell / BPACC. Bollinger photograph by Patrick Lantrip / Daily Memphian
Ron Jewell (left) and Michael Bollinger.
The Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center (BPACC) opened in 1999 as a natural extension of a growing Memphis suburb that wanted to make its mark in culture and commerce.
Ron Jewell was there even before the beginning. The notion of Bartlett having its own facility that could host entertainment and civic events was around, but not fully formed. He’d been working in arts management and in the 1980s and 1990s was director of marketing for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. He lived in Bartlett and saw first-hand the need. Plus, he sensed the community would be behind the idea, so he wrote to then-mayor Bobby Flaherty to offer his services.
Jewell jokes that he felt a little bit like Harold Hill, referring to the notorious protagonist in The Music Man who had a scheme to sell band instruments to the good people of River City, Iowa. “I had that kind of feeling, but there was such an interest from a core set of people that it just felt like a great opportunity.”
So, his efforts got underway in earnest around 1995, the year after Germantown opened its own performing arts center, and with growing support, fundraising increased. Soon appeared the shell of the building on Appling Road near U.S. 79. It was, Jewell felt, a good time to boost enthusiasm in the project even further, and though the structure wasn’t complete — even the “stage” was just a set of concrete blocks — it was an opportunity to put on a show. “We put a brass quintet in there from the Bartlett Community Band,” he says, “so they were officially the first performers to play on the BPACC stage, even before it was finished.”
In 1999, the building was completed with the backing of Flaherty, incoming mayor Ken Fulmer, and a city ready to see what a 350-seat theater could do. The main area is the auditorium and stage, but other spaces of varying sizes are available for meetings, classes, luncheons, seminars, training, and performances. The facility also offers youth theater camps and several family-oriented performances.
photograph courtesy BPACC
A Tribute to Neil Diamond
Jewell was named director of the facility and it was on him to figure out what programming would work best. He landed Art Garfunkel as the first engagement for the completed facility.
“I was looking everywhere all the time and turning over stones,” he says. “I got a sense of what was out there.” Another of his early acts was banjo virtuoso Alison Brown, whose bluegrass/jazz act, Jewell says, “set a mood for what I wanted the theater to be: upscale, but still very casual and welcoming.”
It was working, although, he says, “I began getting much more attendance from within the Parkways than I was getting in Bartlett initially. I think that was because there were [media] vehicles like the newspaper and WKNO, which had a large following in the Midtown area.”
Programming was the key, and Jewell, via conferences and contacts developed over the years, made it work. “It’s not an exact science, but it’s numbers and it’s dates,” he says. “And for me, there had to be that ‘cool’ factor.”
Jewell also got the popular Pickin’ Picnic Bluegrass Festival going that featured the former bluegrass group Lucy Opry. The free two-day event was held outdoors except for the ticketed finale on the second evening. While the Lucy Opry is long gone, BPACC still has its Music by the Lake event in the summer.
After 21 years at the helm, Jewell left to work at the Halloran Centre as vice president of operations. But he has fond memories of his time at BPACC. “I felt the rewards every night as the people left the theater, letting me know what a good job I’d done,” he says. “I think we accomplished building a little, intimate mom-and-pop organization [into something] big-time.”
The City of Bartlett then began looking for a new director and liked what it saw in Michael Bollinger. He came aboard in 2016 and brought long experience as an artistic director at venues in Missouri, Virginia, and New York City.
photograph courtesy BPACC
Crystal Gayle
For Bollinger, it was a chance to continue doing what he loved, in a fine facility, and in a town he liked. “Here, even if you sit in the back row, it’s like being in a big living room,” he says. “And since I’ve been here, we’ve put in new sound and got the room rebalanced, and new lights and a new lightboard that’s all LED now. It’s a really good facility and there’s even a lake right there.”
He has continued the programming that has worked in the past. “I may very well sell out for a country show, and then the next night I sell out a classic rock show,” he says. “There are different faces in the audience, and that’s what it’s about. Probably about 60 percent of our audience comes from Bartlett proper, and the rest come from around the Mid-South.”
“It makes me feel good that people are liking what we’re doing,” Bollinger says. “And it helps the city when people travel here and stay at a hotel and go to restaurants and shop. It shows people what Bartlett can be.”
As BPACC looks to its 25th year, Bollinger touts the upcoming season’s acts that, as usual, offer a variety of entertainment. October starts the 2023-2024 term with a Neil Diamond tribute concert, a performance of The Tempest by the Tennessee Shakespeare Company, and country musicians Morgan Myles and Jay Allen.
Bollinger is especially pleased to have Grammy-winning singer Crystal Gayle coming in November. Later in the month is comedian Henry Cho, the bluegrass group the Dillards, and what’s called the 4D experience of juggler and comedian Mark Nizer.
Holiday-themed December will see a live radio play It’s a Wonderful Life, the Everly Brothers Experience holiday show, and performances of The Nutcracker ballet by the local Esprit de Corps Dance Company.
In January, BPACC will offer ABBA Revisited and the country/gospel trio Chapel Hart. February will see Dinosaur Quest of Dr. T-Rex and then Hotel California, a salute to the Eagles.
March will bring performances of a Peter Pan musical, and a concert by the Bartlett Community Concert Band. And April will have singer Leigh Nash, and actor/musician Tom Wopat, who has done plenty of Broadway since his days on The Dukes of Hazzard.
“I am really pleased to be a part of the arts community here in the land of Elvis,” Bollinger says. “And for people who like the performing arts, there are lots of choices between ballet, between symphony orchestras, between free outdoor concerts and live theater. There are some world-class artists coming to the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center. Sometimes I’ll give myself a reality check and think that I am getting paid to run a live theater and to work with all these artists. What a blessing.”
The 2023-2024 season will feature the following performers, among many others. All photographs are courtesy of the Bartlett Performing Arts & Conference Center.
1 of 8
ABBA Revisited
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Chapel Hart
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The Everly Brothers Experience
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Henry Cho
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Mark Nizer
6 of 8
Morgan Myles and Jay Allen
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The Dillards
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Tom Wopat
