San Diego Theater Flirted With Both Greatness and Disaster

The curtain did not open auspiciously on the 1980 theater scene in San Diego.

The Old Globe Theatre, still in ruins from an arson fire in March, 1978, was producing at the Spreckels and California theaters.

The resurrection of the La Jolla Playhouse was still a dream of its board of directors.

The Bowery and the North Coast Repertory theaters didn’t exist. The Gaslamp didn’t open its first show until May, 1980, at its 99-seat house, and the play, “Taken in Marriage,” is now laughed off by the Gaslamp itself as an unqualified disaster.

Few knew what to make of a tiny contemporary venue called Sushi that opened that December with a soiree featuring a then-unknown actress named Whoopi Goldberg.

One of the most ambitious seasons was the eclectic nine-play fare offered by the then 4-year-old San Diego Rep in its home, a converted funeral parlor known as the Sixth Avenue Playhouse: “Hay Fever,” “Getting Out,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Wings,” “What the Butler Saw,” “Androcles and the Lion,” “The Lady Cries Murder,” “Bonjour LA Bonjour” and “A Christmas Carol.”

Who would have imagined that a scant 10 years later, the curtain would close on a decade in which San Diego achieved a national reputation in the theater world, drawing Broadway producers to town to scout out the latest by Neil Simon, Stephen Sondheim, Lee Blessing and August Wilson?

Who could have pictured seven professional theaters in a town that had just one--the Old Globe--that produced Equity theater, and only during the summers? Who could have predicted the changing national theater scene in which Broadway, stumbling under the prohibitively high costs of developing new work, turned to the regional theater scene for help? And who could have concluded that San Diego would become one of the key cities to provide that assistance?

We saw it as a potential garden. There wasn’t much here, but my goodness, we said, why not? What a great spot. There was that small-town feeling in a metropolitan city that made me feel that something could fly here.

Robert Smyth, artistic director of Lamb’s Players Theatre, who moved to San Diego to find the group a permanent home in National City in the late ‘70s.

My first show was at the San Diego Rep in 1981. I was involved at the Globe in the Play Discovery program before that turned Equity. Then I heard about a crazy man downtown who was starting a theater in the basement (Kim McCallum, founder of the Bowery Theatre). What I was picking up was all this excitement and energy. As an artist, this seemed like an ideal place to live.

Mickey Mullany, actress, who became managing director of the Bowery Theatre in 1988.

I realized I wanted to work in a place where the artists decide how the work is done, not the studios or management. Not in L.A., where reputations are built or else everyone’s embarrassed, or in New York, where you have to have a hit to make it happen. Right here, where artists are supported, where nobody’s breathing down their neck and where they worry only about playing the living daylights out of a part. That summer with “Romeo and Juliet,” it felt right. I knew I was home. I’ve never doubted it since.

Jack O’Brien, artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre since 1981, explaining why he left Broadway for San Diego.

Even those who sensed the potential for growth in San Diego must have been a wee bit surprised by all that followed in this decade:

1983. “The Skin of Our Teeth,” an Old Globe production of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, is telecast nationally on the public television.

1984. The Old Globe wins a Tony for outstanding achievement by a regional theater.

1985. “Big River,” which received its West Coast premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1983, wins seven Tonys on Broadway, including one for artistic director Des McAnuff, who directed the musical.

1986. World premiere of “Emily” by Stephen Metcalfe, commissioned by the Old Globe, named best new play by Time magazine.

1986. World premiere of “Another Antigone” at the Old Globe goes to Broadway (but closes quickly).

1987. “Holy Ghosts,” a production of the Romulus Linney play by the San Diego Rep, is one of the four plays selected by the Joyce Foundation for the American Theater Exchange program. It wins critical acclaim in a limited run in New York.

1988. “Into the Woods,” the Stephen Sondheim musical that received its world premiere at the Old Globe in 1986, opens on Broadway, where it is still running. Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

1988. Two home-grown talents, Kathy Najimy and Maureen Gaffney, score an Off-Broadway hit with the still running “The Kathy & Mo Show,” shown in 1987 at the Old Globe.

1989. “A Walk in the Woods,” Lee Blessing’s play, which received its West Coast premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse under the direction of McAnuff in 1987, goes to Broadway, Moscow and London, is given a special performance for the Senate and Congress in Washington and is aired on PBS.

1989. “Suds,” a home-grown effort by local talent Bryan Scott, Melinda Gilb, Steve Gunderson, Susan Mosher, Christine Sevec and Will Roberson, plays Off-Broadway after stints at the San Diego Rep and the Old Globe.

1989. “Dangerous Games,” an original work by Graciela Daniele, co-produced by the La Jolla Playhouse and two other theater companies, opened on Broadway (and closed in two days).

1989. “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” which received its West Coast premiere at the Old Globe in 1988, opens on Broadway. Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best new play.

1989. “The Cocktail Hour,” the A.R. Gurney play, which received its world premiere at the Old Globe under the direction of Jack O’Brien, opens Off-Broadway to rave reviews.

1989. “Brothers and Sisters,” the American premiere at the Old Globe of the Maly State Drama Theatre’s two-part masterpiece about a family barely surviving life on a Stalinist-era farm, was the artistic highlight of the Soviet arts festival.

1990. “The Grapes of Wrath,” which received its West Coast premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1989, will open on Broadway.

1990. “The Piano Lesson,” which received its West Coast premiere at the Old Globe in 1989, will open on Broadway.

1990. Neil Simon’s newest play, “Jake’s Women,” will debut at the Old Globe, and, as they say about this playwright, if it’s by Simon, it must be Broadway bound.

Oh dear, I hate to see it go. It was an ugly little bastard, but it was mine, all mine.

Craig Noel, executive director of the Old Globe, who guided the theater and handpicked O’Brien, his successor, recalling the thoughts that raced through his mind as he watched his theater burn.

As so often happens, it took a disaster--in this case a fire--to get this town’s kettle on a boil.

The destruction of the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego’s primary community theater in 1978, was heartbreaking for the thousands of patrons who had attended shows there over the previous 43 years. To rebuild, the Old Globe realized it could no longer survive on box office receipts alone. It had to teach the community about giving major gifts to the arts.

The Old Globe relied on good will. And a stubborn belief that the city cared about having a first-class theater, even if it had never had one before.

Some people who have always thought of the Globe as the little community theater are going to wonder. This is a dangerous subject for me because I don’t want to misrepresent what’s going on here. But I would be foolhardy if I didn’t say that this is not a community theater.

Jack O’Brien in 1981, the year he became artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre.

The fact that the Globe had just come off of a major capital campaign helped the playhouse. It showed the community that this kind of contribution was necessary.

Alan Levey, managing director of the La Jolla Playhouse since 1981.

If the achievements of the Globe inspired the playhouse, those of the playhouse later sparked the Globe. And as these theaters raised money to present first-class productions, other theaters--the San Diego Rep and the Gaslamp--were encouraged to raise the money they needed to grow. One by one in the ‘80s, San Diego’s major theaters went professional, beginning with the Old Globe.

Actors couldn’t make a living. There weren’t many theaters and there was nothing downtown. It was pretty slim pickings.

James A. Strait, now producing director at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre, recalling his life as an actor in 1980.

There are very few Broadway producers left. Broadway doesn’t introduce many plays, they present them. Most plays initiate in regional theaters.

Emanuel Azenberg, longtime Neil Simon producer, commenting on the changing theater scene, epitomized by Simon’s decision to premiere “Rumors” at a regional theater--the Old Globe--in 1988.

In 1980, the Gaslamp opened (it became a professional theater in 1986 and added the downtown theater, now called the Hahn Cosmopolitan, in 1987), and Sushi opened Dec. 2, eventually developing a reputation for presenting national and international contemporary artists.

In 1982, the Old Globe reopened as a professional theater with three stages: the Old Globe, the Cassius Carter Centre Stage and the Lowell Davies Festival Stage.

In 1982, the Bowery Theatre opened (it moved to the Kingston Playhouse--a new venue--and became professional in 1989), as did the North Coast Repertory Theatre. (It moved to an enlarged 200-seat space last year and ultimately plans a professional move.)

In 1983, the La Jolla Playhouse reopened as a professional theater.

In 1984, the San Diego Theatre League formed to support a variety of San Diego arts organizations.

In 1985, the San Diego Rep became a professional theater and moved to the two-theater Lyceum complex in 1986; it had three shows running simultaneously when “Six Women With Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want To Know,” San Diego’s longest running show, moved to the Sixth Avenue Playhouse for an extended run.

In 1986, the San Diego Theatre League began to sell tickets to the performing arts via the Arts TIX booth, selling its 100,000th ticket last Oct. 6 and returning more than $1.28 million to participating attractions.

In 1987, the San Diego Actors Co-op was founded, bringing artistic directors from all over the country to audition San Diego actors.

Meanwhile, other theaters had their struggles and triumphs.

Starlight Musical Theatre became increasingly professional over the years, expanding its season from the Starlight Bowl to include shows in the San Diego Civic Theatre. Moonlight Amphitheatre, a musical community summer theater, found a growing audience in Vista.

Dinner theaters in San Diego--the Lyric, the Fiesta and Marvin’s--folded, leaving only the Lawrence Welk Resort Theatre (an Equity dinner theater in Escondido) and the Pine Hills Lodge Dinner Theatre in Julian.

Lamb’s Players Theatre, North Coast Repertory Theatre and the homeless Sledgehammer Theatre, while not Equity theaters, developed a reputation for quality. The San Diego Gilbert & Sullivan Company, the Progressive Stage Company and Diversionary Theatre (a gay and lesbian group) and the Del Mar Theatre Ensemble sprang up to reach specific audiences.

Late-night theater cropped up in the form of Underground at the Lyceum and After Hours at the Progressive in 1988.

Four theaters working out of the Marquis Public Theatre--the Southern California Black Repertory Theatre, the Pacific-Asian Actors Ensemble, the Theatre of the Deaf and the Vietnam Veterans Theatre--folded when federal funds were slashed in the early ‘80s.

But the Old Globe made an official commitment to multicultural theater with the development of its Teatro Meta program, as did the San Diego Rep years later with Teatro Sin Fronteras.

Raul Moncada now runs the Teatro Meta program, and San Diego also boasts directors Jorge Huerta and William Virchis, who have been involved with nearly every Latino theater project in town.

Director Floyd Gaffney, who has been involved with nearly every black theater project here, works more sporadically, with his work popping up one year at the San Diego Rep (“The Colored Museum”) and the Progressive Stage Company (“Black Nativity”).

The California Young Playwrights Project, founded by Deborah Salzer at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre in 1985, taught playwrighting and offered professional productions to thousands of teen-age playwrights throughout California.

This community is not like Minneapolis or L.A., where they are doing a lot of new scripts. There’s not enough underground theater or small-theater activity here.

Robert Berlinger, who revived the Play Discovery Program for the Old Globe in 1985, expressing concern that he wouldn’t find an audience for new work. Rare is the San Diego theater today that doesn’t have at least one premiere--local, regional, national or world--on its season menu.

San Diego has got the hot theater hand right now. And I think it’s likely to continue, because people . . . adore working out there, largely because the people who run the theaters are very talented people. But also because they have wonderful facilities, good audiences and solid financial support.

Thomas Viertel, who co-produced “The Cocktail Hour,” speaking in 1988.

The key word for the ‘80s in San Diego theater was growth--heady, dizzying growth--the kind that leads to vertigo when the dust from a newly built theater settles and all that’s left is a show to put on and blizzards of bills to pay.

The La Jolla Playhouse, which had shut down with “Blithe Spirit” starring Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1965, hit the ground running with an $850,000 budget for three plays in a state-of-the-art theater in 1983.

The Old Globe, reduced to just the Cassius Carter Centre Stage after the 1978 fire, suddenly found itself operating three stages--happily--when the city allowed it to build and keep what was to have been the temporary Lowell Davies Festival Stage even after its new theater opened in 1982.

The San Diego Rep, which had been working in bare-bones quarters since 1976, found itself 10 years later in a beautiful new two-theater complex with a multimillion-dollar budget to manage.

After six years in a 99-seat space, the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre raised the money to build the 250-seat Hahn Cosmopolitan, and now runs both.

Some of these theaters have struggled mightily to stay within budget at all times.

Others gambled, figuring that if they did great work, at whatever cost, support would follow.

Neither management style avoided crises.

For one of the great lessons of the 1980s is that nonprofit theaters are nonprofit in every sense of the word. They don’t make money. Like Blanche du Bois, they depend on the kindness of strangers. And patrons. And the government. And corporations. And foundations.

When the symphony stopped, it sobered people up to the fact that the symphony could stop. There has been enough tragedy to show that cultural things cannot exist on the ticket prices people pay.

Ernest Hahn, developer and benefactor, in 1988 after the Hahn Cosmopolitan was named for him and his wife, Jean.

We have a lot of feathers in our cap right now. The question is, will the cap stay on our head?

Sam Woodhouse, producing director of the San Diego Repertory Theatre, talking about the financial crisis that hit his theater in 1987 amid artistic acclaim for “Holy Ghosts” and “Hard Times.”

The La Jolla Playhouse ended 1989 with a crisis campaign, telling anyone that would listen that if it failed to raise $500,000 before Dec. 31, there would be no 1990 season.

Its crisis may have been the biggest this year, but it was by no means the only one of the 1980s.

No one can make it on the present level of support, confirmed Alan Ziter, executive director of the San Diego Theatre League, who helped coordinate the survey by the newly formed Arts and Cultural Coalition, which is made up of more than 70 local arts organizations. Only a collective $400,000 stands between all San Diego theaters and red ink.

The largest theaters have only a $100,000 margin between the red and the black, and small theaters have only a $10,000 margin. That means one failed show can push a company to the edge.

Olive Blakistone, artistic director of the North Coast Rep, said her theater nearly folded when audiences didn’t show up for “Tiny Alice” last year. “Broadway Bound” cleaned up the deficit, but just barely. She’s all of $1 in the black.

Still, that doesn’t mean she’s going to stick to crowd pleasers in the future.

“If I had to do Neil Simon all the time, I’d rather shut the doors,” she said.

We still have a lot of money to raise, but I’m optimistic that we’ll make it. I hope all the people care about us and love us and help us create a secure home, which we haven’t managed to do in the ‘80s.

Des McAnuff, artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse.

What we have to move away from is a series of crisis fund raising. This sets our agenda for the ‘90s. There are a lot of people who care. There are certain organizations that need to play a role to keep institutions that people care about going. It’s a fragile situation.

Adrian Stewart, managing director of the San Diego Repertory Theatre.

No theater is making it on box office alone. And those that do are usually compromising themselves artistically. If you depend on a big turnout for every show, you’re probably not taking risks with new material or new ways of doing things.

Currently, Starlight Musical Theatre, which has been accustomed to making its money almost solely at the box office, is mounting a fund-raising campaign to help make the move toward developing new musicals. After all, they can’t keep presenting “Oklahoma!” forever.

“We desperately love musical theater,” said Bonnie Ward, co-artistic director of the Starlight, with husband Don. “Regional theaters must take the initiative to get new productions to Broadway. It’s terribly risky financially, but someone has got to do it or there won’t be a ‘Sound of Music’ in the future.”

But even contributed income combined with box office is not enough anymore. So where should the additional money come from? In a time of shrinking government grants, the finger points to corporations, from which the arts get the least of their money.