11 Are Running for Grove Theatre Administrative Job

The Grove Theatre Company, hoping to hire its first managing director to increase subscription sales and oversee all business matters, is evaluating 11 theater administrators from across the country, theater officials said Thursday.

Thomas Bradac, artistic director for the Garden Grove troupe, said one of the first priorities for the new managing director will be to raise subscriptions from the current 30% of ticket sales to 80%.

Other duties for the $22,000-a-year post will include publicity, building a larger overall audience and coordinating the company’s “general financial operations,” Bradac said.

In his current role, Bradac has taken on most of the company’s business responsibilities. The hiring of a full-time director is expected to allow him to spend more time on the troupe’s artistic development.

The national search drew 41 applicants, including four from Southern California and five from Northern California, company officials said.

The company’s $550,000 budget is expected to grow to $1 million in the next five years, Bradac said.

The company has begun using more professional actors and expects to sign a contract with the Actors Equity Assn., a stage performers’ union. Some of the increased budget is expected to go toward paying union-scale wages to the professional actors that the contract is expected to attract. But Bradac said the troupe will continue to use amateurs and students in some of its productions.