Bard’s Festival to Complete Season, Subsidy or No : Grove Theatre Board Guarantees to Finish Year but Says Long-Term Future Jeopardized

The Grove Shakespeare Festival will complete its summer season in Garden Grove, despite the City Council’s refusal to give the full amount of a requested subsidy for the first time in the festival’s history.

The board of the Grove Theatre Company, which runs the 10-year-old Shakespeare Festival, has decided “to guarantee the season whatever the council decides,” board President Robert C. Dunek said Thursday. “We’re basing this on the strong support we have received from the public, financially and morally.”

But, he added, “the long-term future of the theater company still remains in jeopardy.”

Dunek said the festival would be kept open through Sept. 17 by means of budget cuts and fund-raising efforts. Grove artistic director Thomas F. Bradac said $8,200 had been raised in curtain pleas at the Festival Amphitheatre since “Richard II” opened June 24. “Much of this money came in as $20 donations,” Bradac said.

In addition, Gateway Properties has donated $5,000 in emergency funds to the cash-short troupe. “We have a major business in this city, and we’d like to see a thriving cultural life here,” said Bill Riechers, a general partner in the firm, which owns the Hyatt Regency Alicante Hotel in Garden Grove.

Dunek said the board has yet to figure out precisely how much money would be required to operate the 12-week festival. Bradac estimated that the company would need $33,000, about $20,000 more than it has raised so far.

The Grove had requested a $53,000 advance on a proposed $83,000 subsidy for both the Shakespeare Festival and the regular Grove season at the Gem Theatre. Despite a recommendation from the city staff to grant the full amount, the council gave only $20,000, enough to keep the festival open through July 14.

In the meantime, about 100 letters have been received by City Hall, nearly all of them favoring the festival. “I’d say 95% of them want the theater to continue,” City Clerk Carolyn Morris said.

Earlier in the week, Mayor J. Tilman Williams proposed that the issue be put on the ballot in November for voters to decide.

“I don’t think it’s the desire of anybody on the council to shut down the Gem or the Shakespeare Festival,” Councilman Robert F. Dinsen said Thursday, clarifying earlier demands that the Grove forgo its status as a professional theater.

Dinsen has never voted to subsidize the theater company, which operates the Gem, the amphitheater and the Mills House Art Gallery on a city contract. He opposes government support of the performing arts.

Asked if he thought the Grove’s fund-raising efforts would affect the council’s ultimate decision on the subsidy request, which could come as late as July 18, Dinsen said: “I doubt that the majority opinion of the council will change. We kind of expected they would put more effort into getting private money.”

The majority that first turned down the Grove request on June 21 consisted of Dinsen, Williams and Councilman Raymond T. Littrell. Councilmen Milton Krieger and Walter E. Donovan voted for the request.

Williams, who had favored a Grove subsidy in past years, has been characterized by Grove advocates as the crucial “swing vote.” However, Dinsen sees Littrell as the key to what will happen.

“I think Littrell’s position will determine that,” he said. “Donovan and Krieger give them (the Grove) what they ask for. Williams and I are set on looking at priorities. Littrell takes a position and then changes a little bit. How he will react, I have no way of knowing.”

Littrell, reached Thursday, said, “Until we get the rest of the city budget sorted out, I am not going to make any type of commitments publicly.”

Times staff writer Jess Bravin contributed to this story.