Brent Schondelmeyer’s nonprofit Friends of Englewood Theater hopes that an upcoming renovation project will make Independence’s iconic Englewood Theater operational once again.
The theater closed in 2007, and sat vacant for nearly 20 years until the group purchased it back in 2025.
Englewood Theater first opened in 1949, and its eclectic history even included a period as a country music venue called the Kansas City Opry. A number of well-known artists performed there, such as George Strait, Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith and Garth Brooks…