Theater Patron Wants Name Removed From the Marquee

The honeymoon--and probably the entire marriage--is over between arts patron Charles Deane and the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre.

Claiming the theater is “no longer being managed in a responsible manner,” Deane, for whom the 250-seat theater was named last year after he pledged $250,000 toward the $3.3-million building project, wants to take his name off the marquee of the new theater.

Gaslamp Quarter Theatre officials voiced surprise over Deane’s allegations. Kit Goldman, the theater’s co-founder and producing manager, said that Deane was delinquent in meeting $150,000 in outstanding pledges. Goldman said the theater would accommodate Deane if he wanted to have his name removed.

Deane, a retired businessman, said: “I have already made substantial gifts to the theater. I have intended to make a lot more, and I can’t say anything more about it right now.”

Four months ago, Deane, who is also on the Old Globe Theatre’s board, made his performing debut with his wife in a special vaudeville revue that opened the Deane.

But now Deane has questions about the operation’s finances, and says that a conflict of loyalties prevents Goldman from acting in the best interest of the theater.

Goldman is married to the Deane Theatre’s developer, Dan Pearson. Deane claims that construction-related costs submitted to the theater’s board of directors by Pearson are incorrect. Deane declined to elaborate on those costs.

Goldman, however, said that Deane’s position is that the remodeling of the old paper box factory as a theater came in $150,000 under budget. Deane disputes Pearson’s assertion that the construction job was only $15,000 below costs.

Deane also said that Pearson had failed to provide anything in writing about the costs of the theater. “There has not been any verification process yet,” Deane said. “There has not been one piece of supporting evidence from Pearson. You expect an organization to be run in a certain way . . . fiscally responsible.”

He said that thoughts of the San Diego Symphony’s financial woes were “in the back of my head” as he reviewed the theater’s management practices.

Although Deane resigned as vice president of the board of directors over the dispute, he plans to continue as a board member until the dispute over costs is resolved.

“There are not many people in the United States who have the good fortune to have their name on a theater,” he said. But the decision to ask that his name be removed was made “with deep regret. It’s an unfortunate thing which I certainly don’t feel good about.”