Correction: An earlier version of this story featured an incorrect spelling of Doug Schutte's name. The error has been corrected. We regret the error.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There’s no other performance space like it in Louisville — but like so many other businesses, the pandemic has the Bard's Town at risk of closing its curtain for good.

Owner and Head Chef Doug Schutte is working with a skeleton crew on the restaurant side because he hasn't been able to host a full-fledged production since last December.

“We celebrated 10 years in July, so we had a 'No Party' because we were in the middle of a shutdown," Schutte said.

The Bard’s Town is the kind of performance space and idea-incubator veteran performers in bigger cities lament.

There's the long traditional bar and dining room, a side performance room great for open-mic comedy and singer songwriters, and then upstairs is the 50-seat theatre.

Schutte built the stage with his friends and original business partners. Instead of being on stage every day, writing, rehearsing or performing, Schutte is in the kitchen hoping for enough take-out-orders to keep the entire non-profit theatre afloat.

Multiple shutdowns and government restrictions postponed his entire 2020 season.

“We were barely getting enough people through doors to keep the doors open so I got a little downtrodden," Schutte said.

However, growing Patreon supporters and a chorus of donations via Facebook is, for the moment, keeping the Bard's Town in business even as no one is on stage.

“I’ve had an extra pep in my step for a couple weeks now," Schutte said.