STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : Performers Pitching In to Help Save Blackfriars

In times of struggle, companies try to discover fresh approaches to old problems. Blackfriars Theatre’s response to its shrinking budget is to metamorphose into a company of artists.

San Diego’s smallest Equity theater will open its 1992-93 season with Oscar Wilde’s witty case of mistaken identity, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Oct. 14 at the Bristol Court Playhouse.

The stars of the show will be mainly local actors who will now be considered members of the company: Erin Kelly, who starred in Blackfriars’ production of “Teibele and Her Demons,” among others, and who has recently returned to San Diego from New York; Ralph Elias, the company’s artistic director; Allison Brennan, who starred in “Abundance,” among other Blackfriars’ productions, and who until recently was on the staff; Philip Charles Sneed, who starred in “The Glass Menagerie” at Blackfriars, and Ron Choularton, presently playing Merlin in Starlight Musical Theatre’s “Camelot”.

Besides acting, company members will take on administrative jobs. Designers who will be part of the company--Beeb Salzer, Lawrence Czoka, Stacey Rae, Clare Henkel, James A. Roth--will also help run the theater. Even board members plan to take on administrative and managerial tasks.

The company employs four staff people--Elias, managing director Dan Halleck, associate producer Dan Campbell and bookkeeper Chrissy Vogele--on an annual budget of $150,000. That’s a big cut from last year’s budget of $225,000, which was a cut from the $240,000 of the year before. Elias said there isn’t much of a deficit but that cash flow is an ongoing problem.

“The efforts of company and board members are going to have to compensate for the staff time we can’t pay for,” Elias said. In addition, he said, the theater will be able to count on “quality people who are committed to work with us. These are designers and actors who feel that this is their artistic home. They may work at the Globe or the Rep, they may work out of town, they may work at the Gaslamp, but they have someone they know is going to work with them, and we know that having a commitment from them means that we will have quality productions.”

Another change: Blackfriars will continue to produce from the fall to the spring, but it plans to stop announcing a subscription season with set dates, in order to allow it to extend hits without worrying about bumping another show off the schedule.

One aspect of the old Blackfriars that will continue is the company’s Community Collaborations Outreach Program, which provides technical and marketing support for local theater companies that reflect the city’s multicultural diversity.

The company’s next such project will be with Grass Roots Theatre, with whom it will co-produce “Dutchman” and “The Toilet,” two one-acts by African-American playwright Amiri Baraka, Sept. 17-Oct. 4. Call 232-4088 for more information.

Women, who traditionally make a high percentage of theater ticket-buying decisions for their families, seem to be behind the success of the touring “The Secret Garden,” a 1991 Broadway musical based on Francis Hodgson Burnett’s book about an orphan whose life changes when she discovers a secret walled garden on her uncle’s estate.

The show, playing through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre, out-blockbustered a previous gross ticket sales record for a week of performances at Los Angeles’ Shubert Theatre.

“Les Miserables” in its most recent Los Angeles outing sold $628,520 for one of the weeks of its run. “The Secret Garden” grossed $649,460 for Aug. 11-16, its final week of performances at the Shubert.

While there are no marketing surveys breaking down the sales of tickets, promoters say they are reaching out--successfully--for the family audience. The show, which won three Tonys, has done better at the box office than anyone would have guessed, given the mixed Broadway reviews. The theory is that women can’t wait to take their kids to the musical based on the book they loved when they were young. Call 236-6510 or 278-TIXS for more information.

The Fern Street Circus, a one-ring community circus sans animals, is reconvening in Golden Hill on Sept. 26. John Highkin, who founded the circus last year, plans a new show within the show called “The Ordinary and the Amazing!” It centers on a boy (performer Jamie Adkins) who goes from knowing nothing about acrobatics to going 12 feet off the ground on a slack wire.

Also featured are three members of the Canestrelli family who performed at Sea World’s City Streets before that show was shut down. Oreste, Ottavio and Pietro Canestrelli will be the core of the acrobatic team. The entire circus is made up of nine adults, five kids and two musicians, including Highkin (who plays the bass and the mandolin). Highkin will also be one of the two stilt walkers. Gale McNeeley will direct.

The circus will again be preceded by a free parade on opening day in which participation by community groups and individuals is encouraged. Admission to the circus is $1 for children under 12 and $4 for adults, with special family rates available. Call 235-9756 for more information. Tickets will be sold at the door, or call 238-3810 to order them.

One of San Diego’s best theater bargains is back. A free child’s ticket is available for every full-price adult ticket during Family Theatre Days, sponsored by the San Diego Theatre League, Target Stores and the San Diego Family Press.

The tickets go on sale Sept. 9 for seven weeks at the Times Arts Tix booth in Horton Plaza and will be good for more than 20 performances playing Sept. 16-Dec. 31 at theaters in San Diego County.

Among the tickets available: the Old Globe Theatre’s “The Winter’s Tale,” La Jolla Playhouse’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol,” Lyon Opera Ballet’s “Cinderella” and Starlight Musical Theatre’s “Annie Warbucks.” A brochure with a performance schedule and recommended age range for each show is available by calling the San Diego Theatre League at 238-0700.

PROGRAM NOTES: Sledgehammer Theatre has postponed the opening of “The Saint Plays,” a selection of Erik Ehn’s short plays about the saints, to Sept. 12. The plays will open at the company’s home at St. Cecelia’s (formerly the Sixth Avenue Playhouse) and close Sept. 27. Call 544-1484 for more information.

The upcoming Stop Cancer Tom Bosley Golf and Tennis Classic at the La Costa Resort and Spa plans to donate $10,000 to PATH, the Performing Arts Theatre of the Handicapped, which operates free workshops for disabled performers in La Costa and Hollywood. PATH volunteers will host the Sept. 4-6 celebrity event, which will feature actor Tom Bosley (a founder of PATH), astronaut Buzz Aldrin, entertainers Ned Beatty, Dick Van Patten, Gary Collins, Barbara Eden, Howard Keel, Heather Lowe, Hal Linden, Mary Ann Mobley, Donald O’Connor, Chuck Woolery, Monte Hall, Jack Carter, Shecky Green and Arte Johnson.

The fund-raiser includes a gala dinner and celebrity show Sept. 5 at La Costa with an auction for a round-the-Orient trip for two and a golf tour of London and Scotland. For more information, call PATH at 753-3386 or Stop Cancer at 310-824-5200.

“Beauty Shop 2: The Laughter Continues,” continues in its world premiere at the Spreckels Theatre through Sunday. The show, written, directed and produced by Shelly Garrett, is billed as a sequel to his high-grossing comedy, “Beauty Shop.” Call 278-TIXS or 235-9500.

California Secretary of State March Fong Eu has issued a proclamation honoring the Spreckels Theatre on its 80th anniversary. The Spreckels opened its doors as a legitimate theater Aug. 23, 1912, with the New York production of “Bought and Paid For.”

The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company is holding auditions for Equity and non-union actors and actresses for Terrence McNally’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” Aug. 29-30 at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre. Call Jack Foster at 232-9608.

The La Jolla Stage Company will hold auditions for Emlyn Williams’ “Night Must Fall,” Sept. 8 and 9 at 7 p.m. at Parker Auditorium in La Jolla. Call 459-7773.

It may just be August, but Lamb’s Players Theatre knows what it will be doing for the holidays. The company will bring back a 7-year-old Kerry Meads’ “Festival of Christmas” script for a Nov. 27-Dec. 27 run at the resident stage. Set in 1939, it tells the story of the staff and students left behind for the Christmas holidays in a small Illinois town. The company will also offer a new show, “An American Christmas,” featuring a musical version of “The Gift of the Magi” and dinner Dec. 8-26 at Granger Music Hall. Call 474-3385.

Local actor, director and choreographer Robert Joseph has been named the new artistic director of Diversionary Theatre.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

EARTHY LOVE STORY

Don’t let the dreadful movie version of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” spoil you for the real thing. Terrence McNally’s earthy play about two scarred, middle-aged people (a short-order cook and a waitress) who struggle to make love work, gets tender treatment at the North Coast Repertory Theatre. Opening night was far from flawless--the ending seemed far too pat--but the tough performances by Vinny Ferrelli as Johnny and Lynette Winter as Frankie held promise. The atmosphere--the awful humdrumness of Frankie’s flat--provides part of the punch. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday through Sept. 22. Tickets are $12-$14, with a $2 discount for seniors, students and military. At Lomas Santa Fe Plaza. Call 481-1055.