2 S.D. For-Profit Theater Ventures Learn From Hard Knocks

The concept of for-profit theater is still being pioneered in San Diego. And, as might be expected, the promise is peppered with peril.

Two for-profit ventures are now running locally, and both are struggling. “Nunsense” opened July 20 at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse and will run indefinitely despite small audiences. “The All Night Strut” opened July 19 at the Theatre in Old Town, failed to find an audience, and will close tomorrow.

James A. Strait, one of the co-producers of “Nunsense,” said he still expects a long run for his show despite playing to half-houses of 80-100 a night. His break-even point is a modest 35% capacity at his 194-seat house, but Strait believes the audience will build for the San Diego premiere of this Off Broadway comedy hit about six nuns staging a talent show.

While Strait courts that audience, he and partner Paul D. Taylor are keeping costs down by doing everything themselves. They write ads, sell tickets, hawk concessions and wash habits. Their one staff member, an usher, is a volunteer.

Rick Draughon, the 21-year-old producer of “The All Night Strut,” said he hasn’t calculated what he has lost yet, but he knows he has sustained “a definite loss.”

“It’s been a great learning process,” said Draughon of his first venture as a solo producer.

“You start in Michigan and you get good reviews and sold-out houses, and you think this has a good chance of happening in San Diego. The older people that came loved it. But, unfortunately, we did have a hard time finding an audience.”

Among the “100 things” Draughon now says he would have done differently is cut costs.

His original idea for the four-singer revue of songs from the 1920s-1940s was to keep it simple with a set consisting of bar stools and a dark curtain.

“Steve (Cahill, the director) and I need to learn to say, ‘No,’ ” said Draughon. “We wanted a little bandstand, and it turned into an Art Deco look. Our costume designer is saying this and that would look great, and the cost started escalating, and it was hard to say ‘No’ because we wanted it to be the best it could be.”

The show may yet have a future if Columbia Artists Management continues to maintain interest in the show, Draughon said.

If not, Draughon said, his next production will be something with more latitude to put his mark on the material.

“Steve and I believed in the project. We still do. But I couldn’t do things like take out the war medley, which I didn’t think worked as well because of rights. The next time I would like to do something new that would have my name on it, so you can play with it.”