Pocket Sandwich Theater: Photo from Facebook
Pocket Sandwich Theatre, a dinner theater in our neighborhood, has to leave its space on Mockingbird Lane.
It’s located in Mockingbird Central Plaza, which came under new ownership last year. The landlords told the Pocket that it didn’t fit with their vision of the shopping center and wouldn’t renew the theater’s lease.
The Pocket has been around since 1980, originally located in an old sandwich shop in Lower Greenville. Co-founders Rodney Dobbs and Joe Dickinson called it the Greenville Avenue Pocket Sandwich Theatre. Eventually, the theater moved to its current location at 5400 E. Mockingbird Lane.
At the theater, neighbors can see a variety of comedies and dramas. It’s the kind of place where the audience is encouraged to boo and cheer and throw popcorn at the actors, the kind of place where love stories begin.
“Drac in the Saddle Again” is playing now until Aug. 28. And the show must go on. Productions scheduled for the rest of the year are still planned. That includes “Ebenezer Scrooge,” the theater’s adaptation of “A Christmas Carol.”
Now, the Pocket is searching for a new place to call home. It has to facilitate a dinner theater, be in a convenient location for neighbors and come with a financially sustainable price tag.
CultureMap published a portion of the news release announcing the theater’s move:
When theater artists work on a show for 10 to 12 weeks — encouraging, inspiring and challenging one another on stage — they create something that you cannot just walk away from at the end of a run. They create a family. As evidenced by the headshots adorning the walls of the Pocket, it’s a massive family.
