The Ingersoll Theater is targeting its re-opening on Thanksgiving weekend and is working on booking shows for the New Year and Valentine’s Day, its new executive director says.
Ames-based VenuWorks, which will manage the dinner theater when its restoration is completed, announced Thursday, June 18, that Renee Crowell will serve as the theater’s executive director. She has a background in retailing but most recently managed a now-closed 10,000-seat music venue in the Pennsylvania Poconos .
Her team will include some familiar faces from Des Moines. Max Wellman, an entrepreneur and musician who owns and performs at the Noce Jazz club downtown, and Napoleon Douglas, a regular Noce performer and actor and the artistic director for the Pyramid Theatre Co., Iowa’s sole Black theater group, will direct programming for the theater’s first season.
In an interview, Crowell said she is hoping to hold a soft re-opening of the theater in mid-November and could schedule a grand opening around Thanksgiving.
“Everything is fluid because of construction timelines and things like that,” she said. “So it’s not in stone yet, but we’re booking for holiday season shows.”
Wellman says entertainment will be upscale and themed
Built as a cinema in 1939, the theater was long a landmark of the Ingersoll commercial district, showing up in “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid,” the 1950s and ’60s childhood memoir of Des Moines native Bill Bryson, now 73, author of the best-seller “A Walk in the Woods.”
The distinctive deco-styled venue began a 26-year run as a dinner theater in 1978. A number of other short-term tenants followed before the theater closed in 2014.
Connor Delaney purchased the by-then deteriorated building in 2022 for $550,000, and an extensive renovation began earlier this year. VenuWorks, which specializes in restoring historic theaters, will manage it when the renovations are complete.
Wellman said Douglas has been his best friend since high school and they had been looking to expand their business together.
Shows at the Ingersoll Theater will include a broader variety of shows than the jazz and cabaret focus of Noce. All will be upscale and targeted toward adults, and could feature blues, R&B, rock ‘n’ roll, comedy and even Broadway performers, Wellman said.
“We blend local working musicians with regional and national acts to create shows that are unique to the venue,” he said. “The Ingersoll will be an expanded opportunity to do that because it is not such a niche project compared to Noce. … We’ll be looking to capitalize on what we see as local and regional stars that could have great standing engagements at the Ingersoll.”
The dinner theater shows will be “immersive,” Wellman said. The food will complement the performances, with menus tailored to specific shows, he said.
“It’s going to be delicious upscale food and craft cocktail offerings,” he said. “We have a New Orleans night that we are working on. There’s about 12 initial concepts that we’re working on as part of the initial rollout.”
Theater benefits from more than $5 million in state investment
In October the project received a $4.7 million grayfield tax credit aimed at projects that redevelop vacant, blighted, underused or environmentally damaged sites. The Iowa Economic Development Authority also gave the theater a credit that will cover 12% of qualifying costs, up to $450,000.
Wellman said the nightly rock, blues and Americana performances at the neighboring Greenwood Lounge, which shares a wall with the Ingersoll, will not disrupt shows at the theater.
“The architectural team is very experienced and feeling great about their plans in the space,” Wellman said. “So we’re not worried about sound bleed or anything else. Overall the neighborhood could not have been more supportive to this point.”
Wellman grew up blocks away from the Ingersoll and considered renovating it 12 years ago before he opened Noce. As Delaney’s project got underway, VenuWorks CEO Steve Peters contacted Wellman, who said he and Douglas couldn’t turn down the chance to help bring back the Ingersoll.
Reopening historic theaters is important for the city, Wellman said, noting the renovation of West Des Moines’ historic Val Air Ballroom, which reopened in 2024 after a $14.5 million renovation. .
“This is a complicated community for the arts,” he said. “It is a place that punches above its weight. … What you see in spaces like Noce and now the Ingersoll is ideally a space that is economically viable to where people are making money and also providing a great professional environment for people to experience shows.”
Philip Joens covers retail and real estate for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184 or pjoens@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ingersoll Dinner Theater names executive director ahead of winter re-opening
Reporting by Philip Joens, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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