O.C. STAGE NOTES : Is it Racial Bias? Flyer’s Author Raises Possibility

Nobody ever said that raising money for the arts was easy. But the Orange County Black Actors Theatre is having a doubly difficult time.

The troupe is seeking $10,000 “to close the gap between production costs and potential ticket income” from its revival of the Broadway musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’, “ which is scheduled for a 10-day engagement (July 6 to 16) on the Second Stage at South Coast Repertory.

An unsigned flyer mailed recently to 2,700 theatergoers declared that corporate donors have rebuffed the troupe’s requests for contributions on grounds that they already support larger arts organizations; but the flyer also implied racial bias in those rebuffs.

“Our requests for donations from the corporate sector,” the flyer said, “have received responses such as: ‘We are already committed to South Coast Repertory and the (Orange County) Performing Arts Center, and we feel this support serves the black community.’ ”

Adleane Hunter, artistic director of the nonprofit troupe, acknowledged this week that she had written the flyer, and confirmed that the implication of bias was intended.

“It is so frustrating to constantly get responses like the one I quoted,” she said. “I got that one from a community-relations director of a large corporation in Orange County. And, believe me, it was not the first one. My reaction is that it has a racial overtone. It’s a form of tokenism.”

Hunter, who declined to identify the executive, said corporations “are letting themselves off the hook” by claiming to serve the black community by donating to arts institutions without having to donate to any black organizations.

“I think South Coast Repertory and the Performing Arts Center are both important,” she said, “but nobody serves the black community as well as we do.”

Hunter pegged the production costs for “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” at $41,000. The troupe has received grants from the California Arts Council totaling $8,900 in previous years.

ART SALE: Today is the do-or-die “Slaves to ART Parking Lot Sale,” a fund-raiser designed to help save the Alternative Repertory Theatre from financial extinction. The 2-year-old Santa Ana troupe has said it needs to raise $7,000 by the middle of this month to survive.

“We’re closing in on the halfway mark,” ART business manager David C. Palmer said earlier this week, citing “a turnaround” in attendance over the past two weekends. “If things continue on this course, I have every confidence we’ll make it. But we’re not over the hump yet.”

The storefront theater must fill half of its 61 seats on average to break even. It had been doing less than that for the last five months. For the past two Saturdays, however, attendance couldn’t be better. “We sold out the house both times,” he said.

The current offering--William Hanley’s “Slow Dance on the Killing Ground”--is scheduled to run through next Saturday. The parking-lot sale of donated items will take place at the theater (1636 S. Grand Ave., near Edinger Avenue) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Information: (714) 836-7929.

ONE-ACTS GALORE: They did it before--for three years in the early ‘80s--and it was so much fun that they’ve decided to do it again. “It” is a one-act play festival that the Newport Beach Theatre Arts Center will sponsor for local community theater companies from July 20 to 23.

“We thought it would be to resurrect the festival as one of the closing events of the Orange County Centennial celebration,” said Rae Cohen, president of the 93-seat Theatre Arts Center. “The only reason we discontinued it was because we were remodeling at the time.”

So who’s coming? And what will they be doing? Four troupes will stage one-acts and eight will stage excerpts from full-length works.

The one-acts: “Men’s Singles” (Garden Grove Community Theatre); “The Zoo Story” (Huntington Beach Community Playhouse); “Graceland” (Newport Beach Theatre Arts Center); “Balcony Scene” (Ana-Modjeska of Anaheim).

The excerpts: “Monday After the Miracle” (Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse); “Boy Meets Girl” (La Habra Depot Theatre); “Bullshot Crummond” (the Cabrillo Playhouse); “The Little Shop of Horrors” (Buena Park Civic Theatre); “Tintypes” (Westminster Community Theatre); “The Pirates of Penzance” (Brea Theatre Guild); “She Was Only a Farmer’s Daughter” (Cypress Civic Theatre); “Greater Tuna” (Irvine Community Theatre).