5 Arts Groups Hope Gala Is Ticket to Fund Raising

The La Jolla Playhouse isn’t the only arts group trying to raise $500,000. That magic number is what five performing arts groups hope to net from the San Diego Convention Center Premiere Charity Gala on Jan. 19.

The idea and much of the organization of the Convention Center’s first black-tie event comes from Kit Goldman, managing producer of the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre, which is named as primary beneficiary.

The other groups, linked by the appellation “South of Broadway,” are the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the Bowery Theatre, Sushi Performance Gallery and the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts. The connection is that these groups are stimulating the downtown renaissance that the convention center is hoping to show off to its patrons.

The Gaslamp will get 50% of the net profits and the other four groups will each get 10%, with the last 10% designated as scholarship money for needy San Diego high school seniors who aspire to a career in the performing arts.

It’s an unusual attempt for five well-respected arts organizations to join forces for an event on a scale that each would be hard-pressed to master individually. The San Diego Rep’s black-tie dinner at the Hotel del Coronado on Oct. 28 promises to be a posh affair for 400 guests. But gala organizers are shooting for a local audience of 5,000 for the elaborate combined event, which will include the taping of a national television special honoring leading figures in American dance.

The theme for the evening is dreams, and these theaters, all of which struggle from year to year, will be pooling their own dreams--and subscription lists--hoping that patrons who come to support one theater will support several. If revenue projections are met, the Gaslamp will net $250,000 and the others $50,000 each.

For Goldman, the expected revenue is a vital part of the Gaslamp’s plan to erase its $250,000 debt by February. For Lynn Schuette, executive director of Sushi, just half the projected share would mean retiring the 3-year-old debt she has been publicly silent about. For Mickey Mullany, managing director of the Bowery Theatre, that same amount could help complete the Bowery’s drive to raise $125,000 for its new site in the Onyx Building. Danah Fayman, board president of the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts, has already figured $25,000 into her budget, and Adrian Stewart, managing director of the San Diego Rep, said the money will help move the theater toward its goal of relying less on ticket sales.

But as important as the money is now, the participants prefer to talk about the growing needs of local theaters facing dwindling public and private dollars. When asked if this fund-raising activity comes at an awkward time, given the Playhouse’s statement that it may close its doors in 1990 if it doesn’t raise half a million dollars, Goldman said she believes this event explores previously untapped sources and is not competitive with the Playhouse or the Old Globe (which is organizing its own fund-raiser featuring singer Michael Feinstein on Oct. 13).

“There are a lot of people who are not predisposed to give to the arts who are very interested in downtown revitalization and the opening of the convention center,” said Goldman. “At the most, half of the people interested in the event are involved in the arts, and we intend to get (the others) interested before we’re done. We’re not going to bludgeon anybody, but we are going to expose them to the arts. People will be able to kill a lot of birds with one stone. They can support history and they’ll be hearing from us. They should all be season subscribers for 1990.”

PROGRAM NOTES: And on the theme of fund raising, “Breaking Legs,” Tom Dulack’s new comedy about a playwright who seeks financial backing from Mafioso, has been extended at the Old Globe’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage through Oct. 29. There’s a possibility of a second week extension if actors’ schedules permit. . . . The Sixth Avenue Playhouse, former home of the long-running “Six Women with Brain Death” will be back in business with the Ensemble Arts Theatre production of “Angel City,” the Sam Shepard play the theater took to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in June. The production is on for Oct. 19-22 and 26-29. . . . Casting has been completed for “Slingshot,” the three-character world premiere by Soviet playwright Nicolai Kolyada at the San Diego Rep Oct. 22-Nov. 12. John David Bland, a veteran of the Mark Taper Forum, will play Ilya, the crippled ex-dock worker; Jon Matthews, who played Eddie in “Runaways” on off-Broadway, will play Ilya’s young friend, Anton; and Mary Forcade, winner of a Dramalogue award for her role in John O’Keefe’s “Disgrace,” will play Larissa, Ilya’s next door neighbor. . . . For the record: The San Diego Critics Circle mistakenly credited Fred Lanuza rather than Jon Gottlieb for the sound design in “The Scandalous Adventures of Sir Tobey Trollope,” which was nominated for excellence by the critics. Apologies to Gottlieb and to Lanuza, who composed the hauntingly lovely song sung by the revolutionary in “Thin Air” at the San Diego Rep. . . . The San Diego Children’s Theatre, a brand new branch of a statewide children’s theater organization, will present 130 local children, from kindergarten to junior college, in “Annie” at the Spreckels Theatre through Saturday. Artistic director Alex Urban doesn’t believe in auditions and casts all children who register. If you like what you see, the next registration is Oct. 14 for a production of “The Wiz,” scheduled for early 1990.