Theatre Center Officials Hopeful; Crowd Thin on Possible Last Night

What could be the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s final two scheduled performances played to comparatively thin houses Sunday night as theater officials struggled to raise $250,000 they say is needed to bring up the curtain again Tuesday.

LATC organizers said a flurry of weekend fund raising made them optimistic that the struggling downtown stage complex may meet its goal and remain afloat--at least temporarily.

Sitting in the theater lobby eating apple cheesecake before Sunday’s performances, Bill Bushnell, LATC artistic director, said: “My mood right now is very optimistic. I have great expectations that we can achieve the first phase of this campaign.”

Bushnell said the theater center would announce at a Tuesday morning news conference whether the $250,000 goal has been met. Even if it has, a growing number of theater experts across the country have said in recent days that only a financial miracle can assure the cash-starved LATC of survival to the end of the year.

Bushnell said the emergency campaign had raised $163,000, primarily in small contributions. Some were as little as $2. One was $5,000--the only four-figure gift, he said.

The campaign was organized more than a week ago after disclosure of an internal theater center memo saying that the LATC might be forced to shut down after Sunday night’s performances if it did not raise $250,000 immediately, and that another $250,000 was essential to remain open beyond the end of August. Lingering problems have put the theater $1 million in debt.

However, many theatergoers appeared to be only marginally aware of the problem. Michael Lang of Studio City made a $50 donation by credit card. Although he has attended half a dozen plays at the LATC, he said he was familiar with the financial emergency “just in the vaguest way.”

A special benefit cabaret by cast members of “Phantom of the Opera” is scheduled on the LATC’s main stage, Tom Bradley Theatre, tonight. Bushnell said much of the hope for remaining open centers on the turnout.

In Theater 2 at LATC on Sunday night, the 11-member cast of “Bogeyman,” a new work by Los Angeles playwright Reza Abdoh that is scheduled to open Aug. 29, started dress rehearsals--not knowing if the elaborately staged production will be seen at LATC.

As audiences watched what could be the last performances of “A Bowl of Beings” and “True Lies,” Diane White, LATC producing director, sat watching the “Bogeyman” rehearsal.

“I don’t think I can allow myself to doubt that audiences will be able to see ‘Bogeyman’ in this town, in this theater,” White said. “I can’t conceive of not doing this play.”

Richard Montoya, a cast member in “A Bowl of Beings,” said: “Somehow the drama of whether LATC survives upstages what I have to do tonight as an actor. It’s a remarkable situation.”