BOWERY GETS A BOOST, IS BACK INTO THE BLACK

“People really care about this theater, and they care about the people in it.”

John Howard, president of the Bowery Theatre’s board of directors, has proof. The kind of bottom-line proof that a man like Howard, a pin-striped attorney with a passion for his adopted theater, probably needed to make his emotional pronouncement.

In just four months, the tiny basement theater at 5th Avenue and Elm Street pulled itself out of a monetary crisis that nearly caused its demise last fall.

The Bowery is heading into the ’86 season with money in the bank, debts paid, new grant money forthcoming, and a rousing critical and financial success (last month’s “Talking With”) still creating a glow around theater and staff.

Howard gives credit to board members, volunteers and San Diego audiences who responded to the Bowery’s gentle SOS in August.

“It happened very quickly that we owed a lot of money. I mean, we had been solvent, but this theater is like any other theater; we’re always sort of on the thin edge,” Howard explained.

Since its founding four years ago by artistic director Kim McCallum, the Bowery has operated on earned income, banking contributions and grant monies for long-term improvements and expansion. Last year, the theater used a local grant and borrowed funds to improve its 99-seat house and to install much-needed air conditioning.

No sooner was work completed, with 12 weeks of lost income ticking by during the renovations, than two consecutive box-office failures and McCallum’s departure for a teaching job with playwright Mark Medoff at New Mexico State University created serious doubts about the Bowery’s future.

“I don’t think we were in danger of closing our doors,” Howard said in retrospect, but he admitted that there was a lot of ambivalence created by McCallum’s decision to leave for an extended “sabbatical.”

Like most of the staff, Howard first got involved with the Bowery because he had been caught up in McCallum’s “emotional intensity.” Howard’s wife, Kathy, a prominent member of former Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s staff, had practically dragged him to the theater for a performance of Medoff’s “When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?” in 1983, where the mayor was to proclaim “Bowery Theatre Week.”

“I said, ‘Oh, another lousy little theater and another lousy little production,’ ” Howard recalled. “I went across the street to the liquor store to get a couple of beers because I knew I was going to fall asleep anyway.

“I was absolutely transfixed. It was an amazingly powerful thing. It was the most riveting, professional, really grabbing show that I’d ever seen.”

Howard bought half the house for a performance the next week, dragging all of his friends to see the play. Then he called McCallum.

“We had an immediate kind of plug-in that I don’t completely understand, but we had an immediate rapport and became very close very quickly,” he said.

Howard has been involved ever since, reasoning that McCallum’s work needed “the kind of support that people can give who don’t do that kind of thing. I mean, I’m not an artist. I’m a dull, kind of colorless guy who does a normal kind of job, and this is a tremendous talent whom, maybe through my own resources, I can help to some extent.”

Howard’s “normal” job has included circulating in powerful local arts circles. He is currently vice president of the Public Arts Advisory Board. During these crisis months, he has helped to increase the Bowery’s board to 25 members, each with special business talents and connections to offer.

According to Bowery general manager Kathy Hansen, the theater’s September production of Alan Ayckbourne’s “Round and Round the Garden” was “the start of the uphill slope.” It received generally favorable reviews, and audiences responded. A membership drive during the show’s run also helped, as many people who had heard of the Bowery’s difficulties offered help.

A successful Halloween fund-raiser grossed $7,000, and bills started getting paid. A California Arts Council grant added $5,000. Then Jane Martin’s brilliant play “Talking With” opened and the Bowery was back on its feet.

“It was the effect of people coming back and bringing someone new,” Hansen said. “It happens at our theater quite often, when people like what they’re seeing.”

As for Howard, he said he has been forced by McCallum’s departure into a deeper appreciation for the theater itself. He now sees its importance as a place intimate enough that “people can act with their faces,” and as a showcase for intense, contemporary works.

McCallum, who maintains his parental connection to the Bowery as artistic director, hopes to return this summer to direct a gala fourth anniversary production, possibly with Medoff’s participation.

Meanwhile, the Bowery has announced the departure of “Talking With” director Ollie Nash and the addition of Robyn Hunt as associate artistic director and Steve Pearson as resident artist. Best known for their work at the defunct San Diego Public Theatre, which they founded, the two are starring in the Bowery’s production of “Gaslight,” which opened Thursday with Pearson directing.

Howard said their arrival has created a new optimism among staff members.