Rep Gets Nod to Operate 2 Theaters at Horton Plaza

Ten years ago, when the San Diego Repertory Theatre was newly born, its founders would gaze longingly at the old Lyceum Theater in the heart of downtown San Diego. “That’s where we should be,” they would say.

Though the Lyceum is no more --it was demolished to make way for the Horton Plaza shopping center--the Rep’s wish is virtually coming true as it prepares to make its new home in the two Horton Plaza theaters that are being constructed in the Lyceum’s place.

On Tuesday, the City Council (sitting as the Redevelopment Agency) unanimously approved a lease under which the San Diego Repertory Theatre will operate the two new theaters--a 564-seat main theater and a 250-seat “black box” for experimental productions.

The theaters, due to be completed in December at a cost of $6.6 million, are in a 40,000-square-foot space below the plaza, at 3rd Avenue and E Street. On Wednesday, officials of the Rep, the Horton Plaza Theatres Foundation (which will oversee operations) and the Centre City Development Corp. met the press to review the agreement and discuss plans in more detail.

“This is a momentous day in the history of the Rep, and that’s an understatement,” said the Rep’s managing director, John McCann. “We’ve worked as a team to try and create something that will be in the public’s best interest, and we’ve created something unique, solid, prudent. It is one of the unique deals of its kind in this country--involving public and private interests and a theatrical group.”

The agreement calls for Horton Plaza developer Ernest Hahn Inc. to lease the space to the Redevelopment Agency for $1 a year for 50 years. The agency will sublease it to the Theatres Foundation, which will bear the cost of utilities and maintenance (estimated at $252,000 annually, and decreasing over a seven-year period to $193,000). The Rep--which has an annual budget of $1 million--will have to present or manage a minimum of 240 performances a year, and assume an increasing percentage of the utility costs. It will be paid $120,000 annually for the first four years of its management contract.

Sam Woodhouse, producing director, announced that the main Horton Plaza theater would open in December with the Rep’s 10th anniversary version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” directed by artistic director Doug Jacobs, co-founder of the company with Woodhouse. In January, the Rep will mount its sixth play (to be announced) of the current season; it will follow with eight more plays in 1986, five of them in the main theater, three in the “black box.”

Woodhouse said the company--now based at 1620 6th Ave.--would be in residence nine months a year in the main theater and approximately six months a year in the “black box.” A new name for the two-theater complex--now known only as the Horton Plaza theaters--is expected to be chosen this month.

“Next year alone, we’ll have over 200 dates available for other performing groups,” said Woodhouse, who added that the Rep will send out notices describing the theaters’ availability, rental rates, and the sort of box office, technical and promotional support the Rep will offer.

So far, said Woodhouse, the La Jolla Chamber Music Society, the San Diego Symphony, Sushi gallery, the Aleph Company, Three’s Company and Dancers, Southeast Community Theatre and the Odyssey Theatre of Los Angeles have expressed interest in mounting performances at the theaters.

“Having spent the last 12 years here producing theater, I know there are many talented people around who have no space to perform in,” Woodhouse said. “I think it’s visionary that the City of San Diego is making this commitment to the nurturing of all that talent.”