Stage

Though it has extended “Safe Sex” through April 14, the Bowery Theatre is holding auditions for the production that will follow “Sex” on April 21. This is made even trickier by the fact that the theater has not decided what its next show will be.

Bowery producing manager Kathy Hansen said there will be readings for one play by John Patrick Shanley, who recently won a Writers Guild of America award for his original screenplay for the movie “Moonstruck,” and another by “Holy Ghosts” author Romulus Linney. Which play is selected, Hansen said, depends on “what shows up to auditions.”

The success of this next show may be crucial for the Bowery. The theater, which gets 80%-90% of its revenues from box office receipts, has been ailing since the winter when the initial ventures of the now departed assistant artistic director, Ginny-Lynn Safford, failed to bring in the audiences desired by the board of directors.

A recent $1,000 donation from the Copley Foundation helps, Hansen said, but will only cover one bad week’s worth of ticket sales.

Hansen herself is ending her five-year management relationship with the Bowery, saying she wants to return to stage managing, where she started.

“If I don’t do it now, I’m afraid I’ll never be able to pursue what I really want to do in this life,” she said. “I want to build my experiences and refresh my memories and growth.”

Replacing her is Mickey Mullaney, a local actress and director, who last directed two Grand Guignol plays for the Bowery.

Hansen has already lined up her first post-Bowery job. She will be stage manager for “The Wizard of Oz” in the National Theater for Children tour that starts April 12 in Chicago and will stop May 13-20 in San Diego.

Hansen’s decision to leave the Bowery may have been partly prompted by the departure of technical director Tom Phelps, with whom she lives. Phelps was hired to become technical director at Shasta Junior College in Redding.