Irvine Theatre Gets $1-Million Boost

A Newport Beach real estate developer and his wife have pledged $1 million toward completion of the 750-seat Irvine Theatre, it was announced Tuesday, capping a months-long search for a major donation considered crucial to the fund-raising drive. Grateful theater officials have renamed the $17.6-million facility in their honor.

The theater, which is expected to open in October, has been dubbed the Irvine Barclay Theatre in recognition of Richard and Marjorie Barclay, whose pledge is the largest private contribution so far. The building campaign still needs to raise $1.4 million for construction.

The theater is being financed jointly by the city of Irvine (which put up $11.3 million), UC Irvine (which put up $1.8 million and donated the 2.3-acre site on the UCI campus), and the Irvine Theatre Operating Co. (which promised to raise $4.5 million from private donors).

“Many people have stepped forward from the community, the university and the city to make this project possible,” Richard G. Sim, chairman of the theater’s board of directors, said in a press conference at the building site. “The Barclays have done so in a quite remarkable fashion.”

Theater officials originally planned to reciprocate a $1-million gift by naming only the theater’s auditorium for the donor. Sim said the new name for the entire facility was a unanimous decision made by the Irvine City Council as well as theater and university officials.

In brief remarks, Richard Barclay said he was pleased to be playing “a minor role” in the project and was “very honored to be sharing the name” of the theater. Asked if he would have given the money without having his name on the theater, he said: “I don’t know. I’d have to think about that.”

Barclay, 70, said he has lived in Orange County for 14 years and that the $1-million donation was his first major gift to an arts institution. He is chairman of Barclay Associates Inc. He also was a founding partner of Barclay Hollander Curci Inc. and a founding director of the Civil Engineers and Land Surveyors Assn.

The largest private-sector gifts to the theater until now came from the Irvine Co. and Taco Bell, which donated $500,000 and $250,000 respectively.

Also at the press conference were Irvine mayor-elect Sally Anne Sheridan, UCI Chancellor Jack W. Peltason, UCI Dean of Fine Arts Robert Hickok and the theater’s executive director Douglas C. Rankin.