Bourbon Theatre Year in Review

May 22nd will mark the first anniversary since the inception of the Bourbon Theatre into our downtown arts scene.  The venue is located at 1415 O Street in the heart of downtown Lincoln.

Jeremiah Moore is the creative owner behind the Theatre.  He is one of the most talented, charismatic, and opinionated arts enthusiasts to emerge in downtown Lincoln.  Jeremiah gave his time to talk with DLA about the birth of the Bourbon and where it stands today, nearly one year later. 

“The ability to create the Bourbon grew from the support that we got from the community and the musicians around town. I feel that the reason we got that support was because we were supporting musicians and artists as well.”

Jeremiah started out managing the Chatterbox, which was a community arts venue located in our Historic Haymarket before closing down a few years back. It served as a platform for people to realize and share their creativity with others. After learning the business and making contacts with several other artists all over, Jeremiah and his wife/business partner launched the Box Awesome where they opened up the stage for artists and musicians to further develop their talents.

“Further development in yourself is important and if you have groups of people who are all concerned with creatively expressing themselves and creatively supporting other people through it…it just pushes the community that much further.  You get people feeling confident and confidence in a person can go a long way in what their doing with their life.”

The couple realized their desire for something more long-term so the idea for the Bourbon was born.  The Bourbon Theatre grew out of the mentality that was shared by everyone that frequented the Box Awesome:

“…from people working together and realizing- if we’re going to be here together to support each other we’re going to be able to grow our music community into something more. We wanted people to feel comfortable about sharing their creativity…and that’s what we did at the Box… everything just sort of fell into place for the Bourbon.”

The Bourbon Theatre held their test show on St. Patty’s day of 2009 and the grand opening was on May 22 of last year.  The venue has been running strong ever since.

The Bourbon has held many events over the past year including a fundraiser for The Academy of Rock, which is a non-profit for kids who want to learn to play music.

“It’s really important because it is a chance for kids to gain confidence who don’t want to play sports, simply stated. The hard work the Academy of Rock does to get kids to express their creativity and realize they have creativity is unimaginable. Kids from kindergarten to high-school participate.”

Another event called, Pecha Kucha, was held at the Bourbon this last year.  It involved all different walks of life.  Pecha Kucha means “chit-chat” in Japanese.  It is the idea of bringing people together to share their interests and spark conversation. And it did. People were relating passions for days.

In addition, the Bourbon has been host to many other art exhibitions and musical performances over the past year.  They were one among many venues involved in both Lincoln Calling and Lincoln Exposed.  The Bourbon has a reputation for trying to build community confidence, attracting musicians and artists from all over the country.

“That rep, it’s funny, it felt like it grew from outside of Lincoln just as much as it did inside of Lincoln. The one thing that is so strange and I think it is the most beautiful lesson I’ve learned in this is that you never know who knows who and who is capable of what until you make people feel comfortable. I’ve met so many people, here in Lincoln who have these amazing contacts with artists and musicians from other cities across the country involved in art and music… it’s amazing. People remember how you treat them and that’s who I owe our success to…the right mentality.”

For more information on future events at the Bourbon Theatre, visit their website at http://www.bourbontheatre.com
Connect with the Bourbon on Facebook
Check out photos of the venue shot by local company Roundus