Independence the Payoff in For-Profit Theaters

For-profit theater is an idea rapidly catching fire in San Diego’s theater scene.

Yet another new for-profit theater is tossing its hat into a widening ring of such ventures with a new musical, “I Wanna-Be,” at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre Aug. 17-Sept. 29. Previews start Aug. 14.

Kendall Klug, former director of audience development and promotion at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, put together Jacob Henry Productions to present this series of comic musical vignettes about people who “wanna-be” things they are not: from a monk to a girlfriend, to an earth mother, prima donna and sex bomb.

The two-person show stars Judy Milstein, the director of the Underground at the Lyceum, and Mimi Wyche, who has performed on Broadway in “Cats” and in the Underground. The pair begin the show as elderly fairy godmothers worn out from granting wishes to an ever-growing horde of wanna-bes. Milstein and Wyche collaborated on the script along with three other writers and at least a half-dozen composers, some of whose work has appeared at the Underground, contributed songs.

Jacob Henry Productions is one of three now producing for-profits in town, including T.S. Productions, staging “Nunsense” at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse and Rick Draughon Co. Ltd., presenting “The All Night Strut” at the Theatre in Old Town.

In addition, the for-profit “Suds” team of Will Roberson and Bryan Scott, is now preparing a new play, “When Friends Collide,” to be presented in San Diego sometime this year.

All of these producers are young, ranging from their early 20s to early 30s. Draughon is 21, Klug is 31, and the oldest is Paul D. Taylor, 41, of T.S. Productions. All have had experience with nonprofit theaters. Klug, in fact, has not ruled out a nonprofit regional theater as a venue down the line. But one of the advantages he and his performers see in starting out as a commercial venture is the artistic control they maintain over their show.

Milstein and Wyche said that what they liked about working as independents was having a say in everything from choosing a director (Sarah Golden), music director (Bill Doyle) and set designer (Ocie Robinson) to poster design.

For both Milstein and Wyche, too, the show was their chance to stop being wanna-bes themselves, and start doing what they had talked about doing for the past 10 years.

Milstein developed the Underground as a venue where she and Wyche as well as other local artists could test out new material (some of which is in the show). Wyche turned down a Broadway show as well as roles in the Houston Grand Opera and regional theaters to do “I Wanna-Be.”

It was worth it, said Wyche, because “it’s so much more exciting for me to do my own work. . . . It’s felt great to say no to jobs that would have looked so great on my resume but would have made me feel empty creatively.”

For Klug, too, who has wanted to produce a show since he was 12 years old, the show is the fulfillment of a dream deferred.

“The only way to do it is to do it,” he said. “Otherwise, you end up talking about it your whole life.”

The National Endowment for the Arts gave 45 grants totaling close to $2 million to San Diego artists and arts institutions in fiscal year 1989 alone.

Now, the Congressional battle over the NEA’s reauthorization is threatening funding nationwide, which could jeopardize many of San Diego’s arts institutions.

The San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, an advisory body to the mayor and the City Council, wants San Diego to make a statement. It is recommending that City Council sign a statement of support for the reauthorization of the NEA, asking that the arts-funding organization continue to be administered without any restrictive language.

The statement, which was sent to the City Council July 13, is identical to the one signed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June. It has also been passed by dozens of cities, including New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Long Beach.

It needs to be signed here as well to send a clear message of the city’s position to the city’s representatives in Congress.

Apologies for crediting Lawrence Czoka for the score of “Burn This” at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. It was a terrific score, but Czoka didn’t compose a note of it; he designed it totally from the works of other composers, ranging from Igor Stravinsky to Jimi Hendrix to Bruce Springsteen. Now, if only the San Diego Rep would give credit to the composers it uses in its program as well . . . .

PROGRAM NOTES: Alan Ariano, who earned a fine arts degree at United States International University in 1986, is playing the son of the male lead in the Broadway-bound “Shogun,” a musical adaptation of the James Clavell novel. Ariano, a one-time engineering major at San Diego State, had been planning to be an engineer until he met Jack Tygett, head of musical theater and dance at USIU, at the now-closed Lyric Dinner Theatre in La Mesa. Tygett cast him in “West Side Story” at the Lyric and Ariano, hooked on the theater experience, switched to USIU. He’s also played in the chorus of “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” and “A Chorus Line” on Broadway and in Los Angeles. . . .

Marion Ross, Mercedes McCambridge and Rosina Widdowson-Reynolds will give a reading from Jean Giraudoux’ “The Madwoman of Chaillot” to benefit the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company. David McClendon will direct Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre. Call (619)232-9608 for further information. . .

NewWorks Theatre will present the world premiere of Timothy Gerald Ash’s post Civil War play, “Afterwards,” as part of the Bowery Theatre’s dark-night program beginning Aug. 27 and continuing Monday and Tuesday nights through Sept. 25. . . .

“Latins Anonymous” has been extended at the San Diego Repertory Theatre through Aug. 5. . . .