Martin Gregg Dies, Led Effort to Save Theater

Martin Gregg, who emerged in recent years as a one-man restoration force hoping to save the dormant North Park Theatre, died Sunday, friends and associates said, from complications resulting from AIDS.

Gregg, 50, came to San Diego in 1958 from his native Portland, Me. He graduated from San Diego High School in 1960, when he was named Most Likely to Succeed. He devoted his life to the theater, with one highlight as co-star with Yul Brynner in “The King and I.”

Much of Gregg’s later career was devoted to children’s theater. He co-founded the Robert F. Kennedy Theatre for Children in New York, and for several years staged an annual Manhattan production of “Bah! Humbug,” the musical adaptation of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

In the 1980s, Gregg returned to San Diego, where he established the California Performing Arts Centre for Children. The company staged, among many other productions, “Yankee Doodle Boy” and “Toby Tyler at the Circus.”

In March, 1990, Gregg established the North Park Theatre Foundation, which drew members from the business, ethnic and theatrical community committed, behind Gregg, to restoring the North Park Theatre, which closed in 1987 after a concert by pop singer Suzanne Vega.

Janet Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the North Park Theatre Foundation, said Tuesday the group plans to meet this week with city officials in hopes of signing a one-year lease that will clear the way for raising $1.2 million to $1.5 million to renovate the theater.

The North Park Theatre opened in 1929, just before the onset of the Great Depression, and during its history has served as host to Dickensian plays, silent and “talkie” movies, stand-up comics, body-building forums, opera, rock ‘n’ roll and fundamentalist faith-healing.

After the foundation completes the restoration, Jenkins said it hopes to reopen the 1,186-seat theater on a permanent basis, serving, as Gregg envisioned, as a home for road companies and small arts groups, particularly those from San Diego’s ethnic communities.

But much remains to be done.

Shortly after acquiring the building five years ago, the city closed its doors, saying it failed to live up to modern seismic codes. Jenkins said an architectural firm specializing in theater restoration has put the rebuilding estimate as high as $1.5 million.

In recent years, the city has even used the building as a training center for its “canine corps” of German shepherd police dogs.

Jenkins said the foundation hopes to sign a lease that includes a clause permitting an option to purchase the structure or at least to acquire a long-term lease.

Bob Collins, a deputy director in the city’s property department, said Tuesday “the foundation thinks by raising $1.2 million that that will be enough, but the (city) staff has not taken the position of whether that’s realistic or not. We’re asking them to produce a plan whereby they intend to meet seismic standards and then reopen the theater.”

Jenkins said Gregg’s death has served as a motivating force.

“I feel quite confident that we will double our efforts to do this in his memory,” she said.

She called Gregg’s effort to save the theater one of “total, total commitment . . . This was his life, to get this theater reopened. He just cared a great deal about theater, and his dream was to have a place for children’s theater in San Diego as well as one that encompassed small groups and the various ethnic and cultural groups. All of that was fundamental with him.”