STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : San Diego County Theaters Struggle to Stay in Black

The 1992 recession has eroded the safety zone in most San Diego theater budgets. The only surprise is how, through a combination of luck and careful management, many theaters have managed to stay in the black--even if just barely.

Because of disappointing box office sales during the year, Thomas Hall, the managing director of the Old Globe Theatre, expected to end the company’s fiscal year on Oct. 31 with a deficit that as recently as last summer looked like it might be in the six figures. Instead, thanks to what Hall calls “relentless cost-cutting” and the phenomenal success of the return of “Forever Plaid,” the Globe expects to end this year in the black or--as Hall prefers to term it--”a dull gray.”

Meanwhile, “Forever Plaid, which is in its third return engagement in two years and was to close Dec. 20, has been extended through Jan. 3. The show sold its 100,000th ticket Tuesday.

The Old Globe will continue to watch expenses, Hall said: Staff who leave won’t be replaced, salaries will remain frozen, seasonal hires will be reduced. Keeping in mind the deficit that could have been, Hall plans to lower the budget by a couple of hundred thousand--from $8.2 million in 1992 to just under $8 million in 1993.

At the other end of the San Diego theater spectrum, San Diego’s smallest Equity theater, Blackfriars Theatre, also has good news. There were times this year when the existence of Blackfriars seemed to be in jeopardy. But thanks to the careful management of Dan Halleck, who signed on as managing director this summer, and the success of Blackfriars’ newly formed acting company--currently performing in “The Importance of Being Earnest” which likely will be extended past its Dec. 20 closing date--the company has hopes of retiring its longstanding deficit by the end of the year. The deficit--$30,000 at its height--is now down to about $6,000-$7,000, Halleck said Monday.

The conservatively managed North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach continues to stay in the black with the help of hits such as “Rumors,” the currently running “Greetings!” and a substantial increase in subscription sales. In fact, the company has done $20,000 better in revenues than last year, largely due to a 25% increase in subscriptions.

Thanks to the advance box office sales of Lamb’s Players Theatre’s annual “A Festival of Christmas” (in previews tonight and opening Friday) and its new “An American Christmas,” (opening next Thursday) the company expects to end its cash-strapped year in the black. Of the 37 performances left in “A Festival,” only five had seats available as of early this week. Likewise, of the 18 performances of “An American Christmas,” opening Dec. 8, only two had seats remaining.

But on the dark side, the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company’s first scheduled show of 1993, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” has been canceled and Terry Hughes, president of the Board of Trustees, said he does not know at this point exactly what the theater will offer next year.

“We are trying to survive, we’re squirming and squiggling and planning and plotting and cutting and pasting,” Hughes said. “We may present, co-produce, do other kinds of programs, lectures, a theater appreciation week, jazz in theater, all sorts of things that offer people entertainment, but as far as sending out notices for subscriptions and saying here’s what we’re going to do for the next eight months--forget it.”

The recession has hit the Gaslamp in subscription sales, ticket sales and contributions. Still, the theater has managed to whittle down its deficit from a high of $1 million to between $600,000 and $700,000, Hughes said. The company’s critically acclaimed San Diego premiere of “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” has been selling well on the weekends and will be extended Friday and Saturday nights throughout the run of “Sholem Aleichem,” which opens Tuesday. “Sholem Aleichem” will play at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, preceding the 8 p.m. curtain of “Lips Together.”

Despite the success of the La Jolla Playhouse production of “Tommy,” the world premiere smash musical set to go to Broadway this spring, the Playhouse had to contend with a shortfall in ticket sales for other shows that may leave the theater with a break-even season at best. The Playhouse had a $1.2 million deficit as of its 1991 fiscal year that ended Oct. 31, 1991. The company has not yet closed the books on this fiscal year.

“Without ‘Tommy,’ we would have been under enormous financial pressures,” Managing Director Terrence Dwyer said. “It hasn’t solved all our problems. But we hope it’s the beginning of a turnaround.”

The fictional Annie Warbucks may be rich, but the San Diego Civic Light Opera, which kicked off its first winter season with the musical sequel to “Annie,” isn’t--and disappointing sales for “Annie Warbucks” in October were largely to blame. San Diego Civic Light Opera is looking at the largest deficit in its history--approximately $500,000--as it faces the end of its fiscal year. But the run of “Fiddler on the Roof” that followed exceeded projections and gave the company sufficient encouragement to continue with its first winter season next year.

The San Diego Repertory Theatre, which this year gave up the Sixth Avenue Playhouse--its third theater space--continues to labor with a $400,000 deficit. On the bright side, the Rep is close to completing negotiations on its second seven-year lease to continue managing in the Lyceum Theatre and Lyceum Space facilities in Horton Plaza. The lease is expected to be approved Dec. 9.

Lamb’s Players Theatre, which went mainly for laughs this year with such mind candy as “The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall” and “Barefoot in the Park,” has a more ambitious season planned for 1993.

The season begins Feb. 26-March 27 with the San Diego premiere of Arthur Giron’s “Becoming Memories,” a story about three generations, followed by Moliere’s classic comedy “Tartuffe,” in Christopher Hampton’s translation April 23-May 22, Elizabeth Swados’ “Alice in Concert,” a musical version of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” June 18-July 24 and “The Elephant Man,” by Bernard Pomerance,” based on the true story of John Merrick Aug. 13-Sept. 11.

The season ends with a world premiere musical, “Boomers,” which is currently being developed by Lamb’s Players Theatre associate guest artist Vanda Eggington and associate artistic director Kerry Meads.

Meads and Eggington originally did musical vignettes on baby boomers for a February banquet for Lamb’s Players Theatre’s members. The reception was so positive that Lamb’s artistic director Robert Smyth gave them a green light to develop the work into a full-blown musical.

Meads, 39, and Eggington, 36, are planning to go beyond their own boomer experience to include interviews with other baby boomers, some of whom will perform in the show.

“It’s basically social research in the style of what Studs Terkel does,” Meads said. “We’re developing a small group of men and women that have had a real variety of experiences.”

Which is not to say that the piece won’t have a light side: After all, the material that got the biggest laughs at the banquet were the Ozzie and Harriet take-offs, the television medleys and the sixties’ hairstyles.

After the Old Globe Theatre concludes the run of its bilingual “Pastorela ‘92: A Shepherd’s Play” Dec. 20, San Diego will not be pastorela-less. Puro Teatro, the San Diego Repertory Theatre and the Mexican Consulate will present its version of “La Pastorela” Dec. 22-27 in Spanish at the Lyceum Space in Horton Plaza.

Luis Torner founded Puro Teatro in December 1991 in the course of producing a pastorela called “Child of the Star” with the University of San Diego and the Mexican Consulate. This year’s pastorela will feature 30 actors and musicians in its retelling of the story of the pregnant Maria and Jose trying to escape the clutches of King Herod as they travel to Bethlehem.

Puro Teatro will also present Dario Fo’s “I Won’t Pay, I Won’t Pay” at the Lyceum in January 1993.

PROGRAM NOTES: Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company co-founder and former managing director Kit Goldman will step in for Kate Kiley as Chloe in the extension of the Gaslamp’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre. Kiley has to leave for London at the conclusion of the show’s originally scheduled run this week. . . .

If you happen to be in New York Saturday, you can audition for the Broadway production of The Who’s “Tommy,” directed by La Jolla Playhouse director Des McAnuff for an April 22 opening. There will be an open call for singers, ages 17-30, at 10 a.m. at the Minskoff Theatre at 200 West 45th St. Be prepared to sing classic rock and roll and dance. No union affiliation is necessary. Call (212)307-6690 for further information. . . .

The San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Teatro Sin Fronteras council announced the winners of its second annual Student Poetry Competition for poems based on the theme, “The Gift of Giving.”

Viridiana Valverde won from Baker Elementary School, Catherine de Jesus Avila from Balboa Elementary, Rafel Gomez from Emerson Elementary, Victor Fernandez from King elementary, Porsha Dunn from Logan Elementary, Argelia Ramirez from Pence Elementary and Dora Angulo from Sherman Elementary. . . .

UC San Diego alum Danny Burstein (class of ‘90) is performing with Tony Roberts, Jon Voight and Tyne Daly in New York’s National Actors Theatre’s production of “The Seagull,” directed by Marshall Mason through Jan. 10 at New York’s Lyceum Theatre. . . .

The La Jolla Stage Company will hold auditions for “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” Monday and Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Parker Auditorium in La Jolla. Call 459-7773 for further information.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

LIPS AND TEETH

Don’t miss “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” the exquisitely realized San Diego premiere of Terrence McNally’s latest at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company. Nothing and everything happens in this story about two couples spending the Fourth of July together in a beach house on Fire Island that was bequeathed to one of the women by her gay brother, who died of AIDS complications. The show touches on everything--mortality, fear, prejudice, love, intimacy and the ultimate fragility of life--with humor and underlying pathos. The show finishes its run with its original cast Saturday. Afterwards, Kit Goldman steps in for Kate Kiley as Chloe, the hyperactive sister-in-law of the woman who lost her brother Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., for an indefinite extension. Performances are 8 p.m. Tickets are $20-$25. At the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre, 444 4th Ave., 234-9583.