Moving, Moving, Moving by / Sam Hurwitt

The search for performance space and the struggle to keep it is a constant in the Bay Area. But even so, it seems like a whole lot of companies have been playing musical chairs in the last month or so.

The San Francisco Playhouse moved into its new digs at 450 Post Street—formerly Post Street Theatre, Theatre on the Square, and most recently Lorraine Hansberry Theatre— in October with nary a moment to spare before opening its 10th season with “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” which runs through November 24. LHT (which has gone back to a nomadic existence) had already pared down the seating in the former 700-seat space, but SF Playhouse (which is now spelling out its initials because it’s all grown up) further narrowed it to an intimate 225 seats practically overnight, moving the stage forward 24 feet. On opening night artistic director Bill English quipped that rows of seats were actually still there under the stage.

Meanwhile, the two stages that the Playhouse had just vacated at 533 Sutter Street—upstairs in the same building that houses the Shelton Theater—have been taken over by two other theatre companies. The main stage will become the home of the fledgling Tides Theatre, which debuted this March with a production of “Waiting for Godot” and followed it up in June with the comedy “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche.” According to artistic director Jennifer Welch, Tides plans to stage a three-show second season in the space, hosting other companies’ in between their own shows. The second stage down the hall, where SF Playhouse used to stage its Sandbox new works series, has been turned over to Un-Scripted Theater Company, the 10-year-old long-form improv outfit that was already doing most of its shows in that space. The troupe breaks in its new Un-Scripted Theater with the full-length improvised musical “History: The Musical” November 15 through December 22, based on a historical period of your choice.

The Retro Dome in San Jose, an old Century 25 cinema converted into a live theatre space in 2009 by Scott, Shannon and Stephen Guggenheim’s Guggenheim Entertainment, has just been handed its walking papers. The Guggenheims had always known that the space was going to be torn down at some point in the future as part of a larger renovation, and now that time has come. Its lease expires on January 31 and will not be renewed. “We appreciate the time that the building owners, Federal Realty, have given us at The Retro Dome site. They have always been clear with their plans and we wish them well in their future development,” the Guggenheims said in an email statement. They’re on the lookout for a new space in the South Bay, and it may be retro but odds are that it won’t be a dome. The Retro Dome is packing as much entertainment as it can into the months it has left, with its original play “The Game Show Show” playing through November 18, the holiday review “Santastic!” (not to be confused with “Satanic”) opening December 1 and “The MeshugaNutcracker” playing December 16, while a whole lot of old movies cycle through in its other room.

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley has been feeling the Sword of Damocles dangling over it for more than a year now, as the city of Berkeley has been taking proposals for someone to take over the lease of the Live Oak Theatre, the 55-year-old community theatre’s home since 1967. Actors Ensemble has been managing the city-owned theatre in Live Oak Park since 1978 in exchange for rent-free use of the space, renting it out to other groups between its own shows, and it seems very doubtful that the company has maintained enough of an audience to survive without that kind of subsidy. As we reported a year ago (http://www.theatrebayarea.org/editorial/Theatre-For-Lease-Just-Dont-Tell-the-Tenants.cfm), the public request for proposals was the first that Actors Ensemble heard that its venue might be handed off right out from under its tenants/managers, and it seemed that the city was looking for new lessees who would make a lot of necessary renovations to the building on their own dime, as well as actually bringing in money for rent.

Now Actors Ensemble reports that the erstwhile Oakland company TheatreFirst, which has bounced around from one promising new home to another several times over the last decade (most recently a black box in Oakland’s Fox Theater building), has been tentatively been awarded the contract. This is interesting for a number of reasons, especially the fact that just two weeks ago TheatreFirst announced that it was putting its 20th anniversary season on hold for lack of funds. The season was scheduled to open in January with “I Am My Own Wife,” which has been shelved indefinitely, though the company hopes to start up again in late 2013 with “Orlando,” Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel, which ACT’s MFA program staged in 2008. “We are hopeful that ‘Orlando’ is not in jeopardy, but we absolutely need to raise funds in order to produce the [professional] Bay Area Premiere of this fantastic Sarah Ruhl play,” artistic director Michael Storm said in the company newsletter. “So, we are shutting everything down, including planning subsequent seasons, and we will be focusing all of our attention on raising funds.” TheatreFirst has kept mum publicly about anything regarding a new space, but it has indicated that it’s in need of a new refrigerator.

Meanwhile, for obvious reasons, AE is concerned that it might no longer be able to use the space. “We hold no animosity towards TheatreFirst, and they have made entreaties towards working with us,” AE’s board announced in a statement. “However, another part of the Request For Proposals (RFP) (and the contract as far as we are aware) requires significant upgrades to the Theatre regarding improved disabled access. We fear that, as the financial realities associated with these upgrades become apparent, the need for revenue will trump any ‘kind-hearted’ attempt to accommodate community interests. The kinds of changes we are requesting are designed to protect not just the community interest, but also TheatreFirst or any other steward of the theatre, which may otherwise find a conflict between the heart and the pocketbook.”

The Berkeley City Council is due to ratify the contract at its November 27 board meeting, and AE is urging supporters to urge that a mandate to keep the space available at low cost to community groups be written into the contract. Today is AE’s deadline for any letters to be added to its own official packet to be submitted to the council, but letters can be sent to the council directly thereafter. More information can be found here. Here’s hoping these struggling theatres find more common cause than conflict in their fight for survival and sustainable theatrical habitat.
 
And for companies on the hunt for a place to call home, there's always Bay Area Performing Arts Spaces (BAPAS).


Sam Hurwitt is editor-in-chief for Theatre Bay Area. He is also the author of The Idiolect, a blog about theatre, movies, comics, media and the decline and fall of Western civilization. E-mail sam@theatrebayarea.org.