3-Year, $7.2-Million Campaign to ‘Stabilize’ LATC Announced

Plans for a three-year $7.2-million “stabilization campaign” for the Los Angeles Theatre Center were announced Monday by LATC artistic producing director Bill Bushnell and Lodwrick M. Cook, chairman and chief executive officer of Arco, who co-chairs the campaign with actress Julie Harris.

Arco is spearheading the campaign with a gift of $600,000, to be made in annual increments of $200,000 through 1990.

An additional $2 million has been committed to the drive by various corporations and foundations, according to LATC trustee Kent Damon, who chairs the campaign’s steering committee. Among these are commitments from the Times Mirror Foundation ($300,000), the Ledler Foundation (a 3-to-1 matching gift up to $100,000), the W. Alton Jones and Ford foundations ($50,000 each) and the Shubert Foundation ($40,000). Trustees and season ticket holders, Damon added, have also contributed another $200,000 to date.

The campaign’s goal is to enlarge the permanent base of private-sector support for the center, which has had chronic financial problems since it opened in September, 1985. Two weeks ago, LATC received an emergency $500,000 from the Community Redevelopment Agency to help meet some pressing bills.

LATC’s current fund-raising base of $1.1 million is not adequate to fully fund operations, center officials said. Ticket sales and other earned income reportedly generate about 55% of the center’s operating budget, covering production costs for the plays but not the cost of maintaining and operating the building that houses the center’s four theaters.