City Adopted the Bard, Now Forsakes Him

The Grove Shakespeare Festival approached the City Council of Garden Grove for assistance out of desperation, a desperation to fulfill a commitment made by the trustees and volunteers of the Grove Shakespeare Festival to the people of Garden Grove--and their representatives, the City Council.

It is important to remember that this theater began as a civic operation: The city established the theater, hired the original staff, appointed the trustees and built the complex. Why? As a promotional effort for the revitalization of central Garden Grove, to help change the image from “Garbage Grove.” Additionally, by improving the quality of life in this city, business might be attracted and people would move back to the center of town. There was not a band of wild and crazy “arts types” demanding that Shakespeare be given a home. There was instead a city manager with vision and a council willing to fund and support the effort, a council that approved a specific plan for revitalization.

There was a master plan for the Main Street area where boutiques, movie theaters, the Mills House Art Gallery, additional restaurants and shops were to be developed to bring people to this area. But what exists today? While many people have moved back to this area of town, and the civic center complex has been completed, the Acacia restaurant, built in the early ‘80s, is sitting vacant and vandalized, the Mills House Gallery does not exist and has been replaced by another generic meeting center, the vacant lots that were cleared years ago sit vacant! The shops and boutiques designed to generate evening activity in the area do not exist. Expecting the theater to survive without an adequate restaurant for patrons is naive. How is the theater supposed to attract a larger audience to support itself when the city has failed to live up to its original plan?

How has the theater fared over 12 seasons without anything else to attract audiences? Actually, quite well. In fact, you might say that the theater is the only part of the plan that worked. During the 1980-81 fiscal year, the city contributed about $124,000 in operational expenses to the theater board. By 1985, (the amount) dropped to $67,356, and this year the council has contributed less than $30,000 or 5% of total operational monies. Not only has the theater received less fiscal support, it has eliminated such city services as daily maintenance, vehicle usage, printing, insurance (a $20,000 expense alone) and city staffing. Quite a bargain considering the national publicity and good will received by the city over the past 12 years.

It is astonishing to me that Councilmen (Raymond T.) Littrell, (Robert F.) Dinsen and (J. Tilman) Williams cannot admit the great service done by this board of trustees. These people, and William Shakespeare, should have a statue erected in their honor for their diligence, hard work and service to community. Instead, they are made to grovel before a few self-righteous politicians who have created a circus of ill will by denouncing the board’s efforts. These trustees are appointed by the City Council of Garden Grove. Yet speaking before Littrell, Dinsen and Williams, the council majority, is tantamount to being pilloried. Trustees who have lived in this city for years and have given both time and money to the theater are treated with appalling disrespect and suspicion by these men--men who asked these people to serve as “trustees” for the public good.

I would like to remind these councilmen that they built this theater and asked these people to breathe life into it. Do they not have a responsibility to help in maintaining its operations? Why have they not embraced their own blue-ribbon committee recommendations? Instead, they have let their prejudice against Shakespeare boil over into every public debate. I remind these men that American culture is a rich tapestry forged by an immigrant nation. I also would remind them that our language is English, and the greatest spokesman for the English language is William Shakespeare.

THOMAS F. BRADAC

Garden Grove

Thomas F. Bradac is the producing artistic director of the Grove Shakespeare Festival.