Adding more (Barking) leg room: Local theater to close temporarily for renovations

Clockwise from left, Barking Legs Theater board members Ann Cater, Andrea Becksvoort, Marcus Ellsworth and Ann Law review blueprints while preparing for remodeling. THE CAMPAIGN

A fundraising campaign will begin June 2 on causeway.org in hopes of raising $10,000, which Barking Legs Theater owners Ann Law and Bruce Kaplan say they will match, up to that amount.

Barking Legs Theater will close down on July 21 in preparation for remodeling.

Over the last 20 years, the Barking Legs Theater has earned a reputation as a great place to perform. It's also known as an intimate place to see a favorite act. But it does have its quirks, like having to go outside to get to a bathroom during a show.

Those quirks are about to go away.

"It's time to grow up," says co-owner Ann Law.

When she and husband, Dr. Bruce Kaplan, bought the old fabric warehouse on Dodds Avenue more than two decades ago, the emphasis was on creating a place where a variety of artists could perform in a space unlike any other in town. The couple had moved here from New York City, where she was a choreographer/dancer and he was doing neurological research at Cornell Medical Center. They believed Chattanooga was ready for a theater presenting avant-garde dances, theater pieces and music.

When they arrived, there weren't any venues dedicated to small artistic showcases like what Barking Legs presents.

"It was just bars," Law says. "You had to perform in the corner next to the bar."

Barking Legs has always been a place where artists could work and create. Dancers, especially, love the 24 1/2-foot-by-32-foot floor and its springy quality, and musicians and audience members, who are never more than 20 feet away from each other, enjoy being so close to each other.

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Adding more (Barking) leg room: Local theater to close temporarily for renovations