Pikeville evicts Jenny Wiley Theatre

Prestonsburg officials say ‘the show will go on’ at amphitheater

The cities of Pikeville and Prestonsburg are dropping the curtain on a local drama association’s activities at two key venues in the respective cities.

According to a statement released Thursday, the City of Pikeville has issued notice to the Jenny Wiley Drama Association to vacate the premises of the Jenny Wiley Theatre in downtown Pikeville and the City of Prestonsburg intends to operate the theater in that city. According to the statement, Pikeville’s theater will now operate under the management of the city as a division of the East Kentucky Expo Center. The statement also said productions will continue to be held at the amphitheater in Prestonsburg.

Pikeville City Manager Phillip Elswick told the News-Express that Prestonsburg will operate the amphitheater in its city.

“The performing arts will continue here in Pikeville and in Prestonsburg, even in the absence of Jenny Wiley,” Elswick said. “Both cities have a plan for how the performing arts will continue.”

According to the statement released Thursday, financial mismanagement was the biggest reason for the actions taken by Pikeville and Prestonsburg against the Jenny Wiley Drama Association.

“The JWDA, even with substantial investment from the City of Pikeville, the City of Prestonsburg, and local businesses and philanthropists, had incurred substantial debt over the last several years,” the statement said.

Elswick told the News-Express that the drama association’s debts approached $1 million, all to third-party entities.

“There is substantial debt that Jenny Wiley Drama Association incurred on their own that is not with the city,” he said, adding that the debt is “so excessive that there is no legitimate way a producing theater can ever pay that debt off.”

According to the statement, information about the alleged mismanagement has been “shared with the appropriate authorities.” Elswick declined to comment further on that aspect of the situation.

Elswick said the eviction of Jenny Wiley Drama Association came after the association defaulted on its lease agreement with the City of Pikeville for the downtown theater, located at the corner of Second Street and Division Street. He said the city intended to renegotiate the lease with the association, but financial information obtained during that process prevented any renegotiation.

“They had laid off all their staff, they had cancelled productions, there were just a number items in the lease that had been violated,” Elswick said. “We notified them of their default and intended to, at that time, to renegotiate that lease after some corrective actions were taken.”

Elswick said the information obtained was, “Troubling to the point that there was no way we could allow the Jenny Wiley Drama Association to continue to operate in our facilities”

In the statement, Pikeville Mayor Jimmy Carter said the move was made to protect taxpayer dollars which have been invested in Pikeville’s Jenny Wiley Theatre.

“As soon as I heard about the issues surrounding the Jenny Wiley Drama Association, we took action to protect taxpayer dollars and preserve the arts for our region,” Carter said in the statement. “While it is regrettable that the JWDA has reached such a precarious position, the city was left with no choice but to issue this notice to protect taxpayers and to ensure that live theatre would continue in downtown Pikeville.”

In the statement, Prestonsburg Mayor Les Stapleton said the show will go on at the amphitheater in his city.

“The Jenny Wiley Amphitheatre is a community treasure, and that is why we stepped in last year to maintain the facility after it had fallen into disrepair,” Stapleton said in the statement. “We will do all that we can to ensure its future is vibrant. Make no mistake: Despite this unfortunate circumstance, the show will go on at the Jenny Wiley Amphitheatre.”

Robin Irwin, a seasoned operator of local theaters, came to the Jenny Wiley Theatre earlier this year and

will now be hired by the City of Pikeville as the Executive Director of the theatre, the statement said. The first production of the theatre season will be Greater Tuna, playing April 25- May 4.

A Floyd County Chronicle and Times report quoted Phillip Hunt, the recently-appointed president of the theater’s board of directors, as saying the only way Jenny Wiley Theatre would leave the amphitheater in Prestonsburg is through eviction, while also alluding to past issues with management.

“… I’m looking for board members from Prestonsburg,” Hunt told the Floyd County Recreation, Tourist and Convention Commission during a recent meeting. “… We’re not leaving that park. The only way we leave that park is if we get evicted from that park, okay. So, we are here.”

At that meeting, Hunt sought financial help for the theater and received $10,000 from the commission. He also submitted an application seeking $50,000, calling 2019 a “critical year” for the theater, the Chronicle and Times reported.

Elswick said the cities’ evictions of Jenny Wiley Drama Association is unfortunate and places more responsibility on the City of Pikeville, but it is nothing the city hasn’t dealt with in the past, and nothing it cannot deal with in this instance.

“We didn’t to be in the theater business and we didn’t want to be in the expo center business either,” Elswick said. “But we figured out how to make it work … and we have the expectation that it will work with the theater just like it’s worked with the Expo Center.”

By Chris Anderson
Appalachian News-Express