In April 1986 Trip May took another position and Tim Morrissey was hired as Technical Director. One of the first things he did was to enlist the help of Sam Bass and the two of them built the cover over the orchestra pit, which is removable. In 1986 the first "Temple Theatre Day" was instituted. and held around April 1. It was a community and patron focused fund raiser. Patterned after The United Way's fund raising organization, the first one was chaired by local businessman Lamar Beach. Funds raised by this scheme were designated for the theater's staff salaries, insurance and utilities throughout the year. It continued to be an annual event although the date was changed to the Fall to accommodate the change in the theater's fiscal year change to July 1. The theater changed its FY to July 1 to be in line with the State's Art Council grant cycle. In the summer of 1987 the Temple embarked on its first professional theater ventures, producing three shows in the summer of 1987 using casts and crews that were all paid. There were no union contracts at that time. In February 1988 DeNobriga moved to Atlanta where she took a position with Alternate Roots, and Morrissey was named Executive/Artistic Producing Director. In the summer of 1988 another professional show was done.In the Spring of 1990 Wally Eastland was hired as the technical director and Frank Nunally retired. Brewer took over the duties of the bookkeeper and office manager. Eastland left in 1993 and was replaced by Bill Freeman. Freeman left in 1996 and was replaced by Ron Smith. Smith left in 2000 and was replaced by Brad Sizemore. In the summer of 1989 another professional show was produced, this one did use contracts with Actors' Equity. In the Spring of 1990 the Temple Board of Directors voted to accept a budget that included salaries for actors during the regular season. This was essentially the end of 'community' theater at the Temple and while various shows continued to use unpaid, local, volunteer actors and tech crew, many in those positions were paid, some union wages. In 1990, David Almond, who had been the musical director for the community theater was replaced by Bert Fox. Fox stayed as MD until the summer of 1994, after which Musical Directors were contracted show by show. In the Fall of 1994 Serena Ebhardt became the General Manager. She remained in that position until 2000 when she left to pursue other theater activities. Kathy Stallings replaced Ebhardt and she left in 2001. Wicker retired in 1996 and the box office was filled with various part-time paid help.