Jeffrey S. Smith
Jeffrey Smith has always had a passion for theater, whether he was on stage acting, teaching, or attending shows. It was that passion that would ignite the idea to renovate the historic Isis Theatre in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 2016.
“We’d always drive by the theater, and it would always hurt my heart to see that it wasn’t being taken care of," he says. "So when my wife [Debbie Garrett-Smith] and I were figuring out where we wanted to be in the next five years, I told her I wanted to fix up the theater.”
Fast forward to 2020, and Downtown Cowtown at the Isis is just months away from welcoming audiences again. The theater is set to open to the public on Jan. 7, kicking off a three-day Grand Opening Gala that will feature food, drinks, and live performances from artists such as John Schneider, Katie Kadan, and Adonis Rose.
Guests can expect to see many pieces of the building's original interior and exterior design. The theater has nearly 500 seats, as well as an exclusive upstairs VIP space that allows patrons to watch the show through a glass window while enjoying drinks from the speakeasy. The entrance lounge also contains a redesigned pharmacy that will act as a New Orleans-style bar; visitors can even go through the original pharmacy window for snacks and other concessions.
Apart from theatrical performances, the space will offer different forms of entertainment, ranging from classic movies shown on a retractable screen to academic lectures, comedy shows, and acoustic performances.
However, the theater is capping performances at around 300 people and planning smaller shows for a more intimate and safer experience. “Of course, this is all going to be taking place under CDC guidelines with proper sanitary stations, masks, and temperature checks,” Smith says.
While the building renovation is nearing the finish line, Smith admits the project has been challenging, especially preserving the theater's historic aspects.
The original Isis Theatre was built in 1914 — a combination of a theater, pharmacy, rooming house, and Western Union. Since then, the theater has lived through a building fire in 1935, the Great Marine Creek Flood in the 1940s, and various management — until 1988, when it was shut down for good.
Luckily for the Smiths, a lot of pieces and artifacts were still salvageable when they found the building.
“We wanted to make sure we did it right, and that includes preserving all of the history, the good and bad,” Jeffrey says. “Upstairs, there is the segregated seating where African-American visitors were expected to sit, and we’ve decided to keep the few surviving seats so that we can address that part of our past.”
Among other remains, Jeffrey has also decided to keep parts of the theater's original name — and no, "Isis" has no connection to the militant group.
“The name comes from the Egyptian goddess Isis, and that name and its significance has been there long before that terrorist group came about,” he says. “If you ask the Northside community, they’ll tell you the name means so much more than that, so to me, there isn’t much of a negative connotation to it.”
As the Smiths prepare for the grand opening, they also look toward the years to come. Jeffrey says he hopes Downtown Cowtown at the Isis will be not just a performance venue but also an advocate for local art.
“My hope is to one day become a central clearinghouse for the arts," he says. "We want to continue to tie our events to art advocacy and give back to the community.”
To purchase tickets and learn more about the Grand Opening Gala, visit downtowncowtown.com.
