Financially Troubled La Jolla Playhouse Says It Will Manage a ’90 Season : Theater: A fund-raising campaign surpassed its initial goal of $500,000, but there’s still another $440,000 to go, and nobody is breathing easy yet.

There will be a 1990 season for the financially beleaguered La Jolla Playhouse, representatives of the theater said Tuesday.

The theater, which has been laboring under a $703,000 deficit that accrued from 1986 to 1988, announced in September the need to raise $500,000 by Dec. 31 to ensure the season and $500,000 more by June 30 to achieve financial stability.

The organization raised $560,000 in gifts and pledges by Dec. 31. The plays for the season are likely to be announced sometime this month.

“We’re very pleased that we were able to make the goal that we set for ourselves and that the 1990 season is assured as a result of that goal,” said Alan Levey, managing director of the playhouse.

“Fund raising is always stressful,” Levey said. “There’s no one taking a deep breath of relief. Raising that (remaining) $440,000, along with raising our annual contributed income needs (about $1.6 million, or 50% of the total budget), is not a slam-dunk. But that’s what all arts organizations are up against.”

The campaign also met another goal of broadening the theater’s support by drawing pledges and donations from more than 1,000 contributors.

The La Jolla Playhouse, founded in 1947 as a summer stock theater by Hollywood actors Gregory Peck (a native La Jollan), Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, closed in 1964 and was revived in 1983 as a fully professional theater.

From its rebirth, under the guidance of Artistic Director Des McAnuff, it stunned conservative San Diego theatergoers with the visual surprises of its opening show, “The Visions of Simone Machard,” a modern Joan of Arc story by Bertolt Brecht. Times theater critic Dan Sullivan described the play, directed by controversial wunderkind Peter Sellars, as “not just far out, but far up,” as some scenes were staged on a catwalk above the audience’s heads.

In its second year, the playhouse became the first San Diego theater to produce a show that would make its mark on Broadway--”Big River,” a musical version of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” directed by McAnuff.

The show won seven Tony awards in 1985, including one for McAnuff. In ensuing years, the playhouse and the Old Globe Theatre helped build a national reputation for San Diego theater.

But in 1986, the playhouse began its long financial slide. The budget, which began at $1.2 million for a three-play season in 1983, grew to $2.3 million for a five-play season in 1986 and $3.6 million for a six-play season in 1989.

The playhouse lagged in its projections for single ticket sales in 1989 and found that its dependence on a handful of generous donors, including Mandell Weiss--principal donor for the Mandell Weiss Theatre, where the playhouse performs--could not sustain it.

Another financial blow was dealt by a delay in the building of the 400-seat Mandell Weiss Forum, which would have provided more than 100 additional seats to sell during the 1990 season. The forum is now scheduled to be built in time for the 1991 season.

One board member confided privately to The Times concerns that the playhouse was spending too much money on individual productions. But managing director Levey blamed the financial problems on the expense of producing too short a season in two venues of unequal size, the 492-seat Mandell Weiss Theatre and the 248-seat Warren Theatre.

The problem should be alleviated when the Mandell Weiss Forum replaces the Warren, Levey said.

The length of the La Jolla Playhouse season--six months in 1989 and 1990--is limited by the playhouse’s agreement to share both its facilities with UC San Diego. The theater’s seasons from 1983 to 1986 were summer seasons. That grew to a five-month season in 1988 and six months in 1989.

The season is likely to stay at six months in 1990 and until plans for a third theater can be realized, Levey said.