Blackfriars Theatre Gets Offer to Perform in Russia

Blackfriars Theatre has an invitation to perform in Vladivostok, Russia, which could make it the first American theater to perform there in more than half a century.

Vladivostok, which is San Diego’s 11th and newest sister city, has been closed to foreigners for more than 50 years. It has been a sister city for San Diego since Sept. 10. It opened its doors to foreigners Jan. 1 and will celebrate that opening officially July 2-5.

Now all Blackfriars needs to do is raise $75,000 to get there.

The theater’s invitation came from Efim Zvenyatsky, artistic director and producer in chief of the Maxim Gorky Theatre of Vladivostok. Zvenyatsky was in town April 26-May 3 with other artists from Vladivostok as part of the San Diego-Vladivostok Sister City Society. Zvenyatsky, who has since returned to his country with the rest of his delegation, was looking for American talent to bring to his theater.

After hours of discussion with Allison Brennan and Ralph Elias, the wife-and-husband team who are Blackfriars’ associate producer and artistic director, and a visit to their 78-seat theater, he invited them to bring one--possibly two productions to his theater. After the shows conclude, Elias has been asked to stay to direct members of the Maxim Gorky Theatre company in a show.

Blackfriars would shoulder the travel costs, the costumes, the props and the salaries of its actors and staff; the Russian company would provide housing, food and the theater.

The couple is hoping to raise a sufficient portion of the $75,000 goal to sign formal contracts this fall..

The productions would take place in the spring of 1993.

It may seem like a touchy time for the theater to be raising money to go to Russia. The theater has a deficit of about $25,000, or little more than 10% of its $235,000 annual budget. The theater is presenting its final play of the season, “Getting Around,” but has no plans to announce a new season. There will be shows, beginning in the fall, Brennan said. But they will be announced on a show-to-show basis.

But Brennan sees the trip to Russia as a way of promoting the theater. One of the shows the company may take to Russia is its acclaimed “Abundance.” Another, possibly a Sam Shepard or a David Mamet play, might be presented by Blackfriars in the fall and billed as a show that is going to Vladivostok.

“Radical times are calling for radical solutions,” Brennan said.

“We see this invitation as having an enormous potential for our organization because it gives us visibility and credibility among a much wider slice of San Diego. Assuming we can raise the money and go, it could provide the kind of impetus, the kind of kick, the kind of excitement that would be tremendously important to us. I think there are sources out there who might not support day-to-day operating costs of a theater, but who might support the concept of America’s tiniest theater going to Russia.

Blackfriars is believed to be America’s tiniest theater west of the Eastern Seaboard and the third-smallest professional theater in the country.

“Things are terrible, but we can’t give up,” Brennan said. “My file for this is called ‘Vladivostok or Bust.’ ”

PROGRAM NOTES: Sidney E. Baker has been chosen director of development for the La Jolla Playhouse. Baker, director of development for the New York Foundation of the Arts since 1990, has worked for 20 years as a development professional. Her jobs include field development campaign coordinator for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City, development director of the Negro Ensemble Company in New York, director of development and alumni affairs at the Yale School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Conn., corporate communications manager for Columbia Pictures Entertainment in New York and director of development for Lincoln Center Theater in New York. She will join the Playhouse staff in June . . . .

Lisa Peterson, the new associate director at the Playhouse, has been named director-in-residence for New Dramatists, the New York-based center for playwright development, for the 1992 season, succeeding Anne Bogart. Peterson will hold the New Dramatists and Playhouse positions simultaneous . . . .

As part of the Teatro Meta In-Schools Program at the Old Globe Theatre, a festival of 15 playlets by middle, junior and senior high school students will be presented Friday from 10 a.m. to noon in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in Balboa Park . . . .

The San Diego Theatre League will offer a $5 sneak preview of the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s “The Women” Friday at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at Times Arts Tix at Horton Plaza or at the door. Call 238-0700 for further information.

Also on “The Women,” which opens May 20 at the Lyceum Theatre in Horton Plaza: The San Diego Repertory Theatre will host a free lecture/discussion about the production directed by Anne Bogart Monday at 7 p.m. at the Lyceum Theatre . . . .

The San Diego Actors Theatre will present its second staged reading of A.R. Gurney’s “Sweet Sue” at 8 p.m. Monday at the Athens Market Restaurant at 109 W. F St., San Diego. Tickets are $5 . . . .

The Centro Cultural de la Raza’s play reading series continues with Arthur Giron’s “Money,” directed by Jorge Huerta, at 7 p.m. A discussion will follow. Tickets are $4 . . . .

The San Diego Theatre League has launched a new Performing Arts Guide, which lists 62 productions presented by 41 companies in the premiere issue. Scheduled to be updated every other month, it is available free at the Times Arts Tix booth or by mail by sending a business-sized self-addressed stamped envelope to the Theatre League at 701 B St., Suite 225 San Diego, 92101.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR CHILDRENT

Grab the kids--or the child within--and check out the 10 artists from across the United States and Canada specializing in puppetry, mime, storytelling and music, who will bring their talents to the fourth annual San Diego International Children’s Festival this week.

The festival, which began Wednesday, continues at Mariner’s Point on Mission Bay at West Mission Bay Drive (directly across from the Bahia Resort Hotel) today and Friday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 noon-5:30 p.m.

Los Angeles-based puppeteer Jim Gamble, a former Air Force and commercial pilot, brings his humorous, much-praised puppet production of “Peter and the Wolf” to the festival. Disney recording artist Norman Foote, from Canada, will perform songs and stories. Disorderly Conduct, a husband-and-wife slapstick troupe from Baltimore, will do juggling and acrobatics.

San Diego-based African-American storyteller, Alyce Smith Cooper and San Jose-based Latino storyteller, Olga Loya, will tell tales of African-American, Latino and Mexican folklore while San Diego storyteller Harlynne Geisler will tell stories of magic. Nels and the Peanut Butter Band (also from San Diego) and Canadian guitarist Rick Scott will give concerts (while Scott tells stories from the Arctic). And Sandra Maclees will tell older children about California history.

Tickets are $5 per person with children age 2 and under free. For more information call 234-5031.