Each June You Can Pay In Produce To Get Into This Virginia Theater

Name your price in nonperishables.

The Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, opened during the height of the Great Depression. It was 1933, and actors were not only struggling to bring their stories to the stage but to eat as well. One local man, Robert Porterfield, knew there was a better, more satiating way to fill theater seats and actors’ bellies.

When the theater opened its doors on June 10, 1933, admission could be paid in one of two ways: 35 cents or the equivalent of that amount in produce. At the time, four out of five theatergoers paid their way into a show with vegetables, dairy, or even livestock. As legend has it, during one particularly fruitful summer, Porterfield made his way to the stage and declared the company could not accept any more tomatoes. Another story tells the tale of a husband and wife who walked their cow to town and milked it right in front of the box office. A third says a local man once shoved a dead rattlesnake through the windows insisting, “Those are good vittles.”

At the end of its first season, the theater made a little over $4 in cash, but the actors and crew were more than compensated. An estimated 300 pounds were gained between them.

The Barter Theatre Today

Each June, the theater still hosts at least one performance a year that celebrates its history by accepting donations for Feeding America Southwest Virginia. Attendees can bring a bag full of nonperishables in exchange for a ticket. In turn, The Barter donates several thousand pounds of food annually. In 2023, the Barter's Day Performance will be held on June 10.

Abingdon is a small town—a really small town. Its total population is just about 8,000 people, but according to Amber Fiorini, the Barter Theatre’s director of sales and services, more than 140,000 people come through the theater's doors annually. “We have a $32 million economic impact on the region,” she explains. “Every $1 that Barter Theatre spends equals $4 in our community.” This summer, the Barter Theatre celebrates its 90th birthday and becomes the longest-running professional theater in the country.

Small Town With Big Impact

But what makes The Barter Theatre so special? For one, the theater is responsible for launching the careers of some of the most well-respected stage and set actors. Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, Ned Beatty, Frances Fisher, Elizabeth Wilson, and Wayne Knight all got their start on the Barter stage. Playwright Tennesee Williams premiered his play, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore there as well.

“How many places can you see equity actors in a little town? We do really good theater here, and you don't have to deal with the city. Everybody thinks they are snowflakes, but we really are!” - Amber Fiorini

Fiorini says the theater truly is an impressive anomaly in the heart of Appalachia.

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