It’s All ‘Eleemosynary,’ My Dear Theatergoers

The title of Lee Blessing’s “Eleemosynary” may mean charitable in the dictionary, but its history in San Diego, to put it charitably, has been curious indeed.

The show, a drama about three generations of women, was announced as a Gaslamp Quarter Theatre production for 1989, but was dropped from the schedule when the La Jolla Playhouse announced that it had prior rights to the property and was intending to produce it in its season.

Eventually, the Playhouse dropped “Eleemosynary” in favor of producing a new Blessing play, “Down the Road,” but the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre was committed to “The Business of Murder,” the show it had substituted for “Eleemosynary.”

Now, San Diego audiences will finally get to see what the fuss was about when “Eleemosynary” finally has its San Diego debut at the Gaslamp’s Elizabeth North Theatre, as a rental by the San Diego Actors Theatre, opening Aug. 10 for a five-week run.

The Hahn Cosmopolitan also has its first rental for the summer, that old San Diego landmark, “The Mickey Finn Show.” It will run June 8-July 7.

“The Mickey Finn Show,” a high-energy, Dixieland music and comedy show developed by showman Fred Finn, played to 3 million people from 1960 to 1974 at the former Mickey Finn nightclub in Hillcrest. The show will make a stop in Disneyland in August, and may return to the Hahn afterward if the demand is there.

Globe May Acquire Distinct Soviet Flavor

Thomas Hall, managing director of the Old Globe Theatre, went to the Soviet Union to arrange for a production of “The House,” the sequel to the Maly State Drama Theatre’s “Brothers and Sisters.”

But once there, he fell in love with the three other productions by the company. They are “Stars in the Morning Sky,” based on the story of the Soviet prostitutes who were banished outside the city when the government wanted to clean up Moscow in time for the 1980 Olympics; “Mumu,” Dostoyevksy’s story of a deaf-mute whose best friend is a small dog, and “Lord of the Flies.”

Now Hall is trying to set up a consortium of theaters to defray the cost of production by co-producing all four shows with the Globe. If all goes well, the Globe will produce the Maly offerings in the fall of 1991 in simultaneous translation as an additional offering to its regular season.

Unlike the six-hour “Brothers and Sisters,” all these shows will range from 2 to 2 1/2 hours and will be sold at the Globe’s standard ticket prices.

One of the most challenging parts of the negotiations with the Soviets, Hall said, was explaining to them why a United States theater had to pay them a quarter of what European theater companies pay.

Hall said he tried to explain about how little the subsidies are for American art as opposed to the subsidies for European and Soviet art and how the transient occupancy tax (TOT) funds, once earmarked for arts organizations, may now be taken away.

“Their literary manager, Michael Stronin, said, ‘They give you such a little crumb, how can they take it away?’ ” Hall related.

That answer may be forthcoming as the battle for TOT funds continues.

PROGRAM NOTES: The San Diego-based National Theatre for Children planned to present “Babes in Toyland” at the California Theatre Nov. 26-27, but will have to change the dates now that the theater is scheduled to be razed for new office and/or apartment buildings in September. . . .

Michelle Wynne, an undergraduate drama major at San Diego State University, is now, officially, the top undergraduate costume designer in the nation. Wynne won first place in the costume design category of the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington for her costume designs for Eugene Ionesco’s “Man With Bags,” produced by the SDSU drama department in November 1989. She receives a $100 honorarium and a seven-day, all-expenses-paid trip to New York City, where she will be introduced to top professional designers, tour costume houses and see Broadway shows. . . .

For a preview glimpse of the Old Globe Theatre’s “Hamlet,” catch the movie, “Longtime Companion,” opening this weekend in San Diego. Campbell Scott, who will play “Hamlet” at the Old Globe, has a featured role in the movie. . . .

A staged reading of “A Corner of the Bed” by Alann Jack Lewis at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre on Thursday will benefit the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation. . . .

The BankAmerica Foundation has granted $100,000 to the Old Globe Theatre’s Advancement Campaign. . . .

Are five theaters better than one? You can find out by trying a theater sampler package that allows patrons to choose one play from selected performances at the Bowery Theatre, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Old Globe Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre and Starlight Musical Theatre. Call the San Diego Theatre League for further information, (619) 238-0700 or contact any of the participating theaters.