CLIFTEX Theatre: Balancing Technology and Sustainability

Phyllis Gamble and her business partner, Mechelle Slaughter, had purchased the CLIFTEX Theatre in Clifton, Texas, in 2008 and had spent a great deal of time and money restoring this historic venue. The theater had been founded in 1916 and was the oldest continually operating theater in the state of Texas. The primary purpose for the purchase and restoration of the theater by the two women had been to give something back to a community which they had grown to love. They had never expected it to be profitable as long as they operated it; however, they had envisioned an exit strategy in which they would be able to achieve sustainability at some point for the theater so that they could hand it over to a member of the community who could use the business for his/her own livelihood. An immediate question they were facing in 2011 was whether or not to spend $75,000 to replace reel–to–reel with digital projection. The transformation would provide better sound and picture quality but would be very expensive to implement. There was the related issue of whether the digital equipment might allow them to host other events that might make the theater profitable.