Re-energizing the Theater Business

By Mike Switzer

Published October 5, 2016 at 5:23 AM EDT

Our next guest says that despite many long-held beliefs that performance theater is a dying business, he has chosen to bring to the Lowcountry of South Carolina what he says is an innovative form of theater to an audience that is hungry for something with a bit more bite…by encouraging them to lean forward and engage during every performance.

Mike Switzer interviews Blake White, founder and artistic director of Lean Ensemble Theater in Hilton Head, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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