Backstage Might Close in February : Theater: The founding producer of the storefront company says the pressure is too great and the rewards too small.

The Backstage Theatre, a storefront company that has produced more than a dozen shows since it began operating three years ago, may be headed for its final curtain in February.

“It doesn’t look like I’m going to continue,” founding producer Al Valletta said Thursday. “It’s too much pressure. The rewards are too minimal. I’m beginning to do things that are no fun. And the economy is not good.”

Valletta said his lease ends in February for the tiny space in an office mall at 1599 Superior Ave., where the 42-seat theater is.

“Even if I decided to keep a theater, I would definitely move,” he said. “It’s too cramped here. There’s just not enough room.”

Valletta emphasized that he has “made no plans to produce anything beyond February.”

Meanwhile, the Backstage’s season has been delayed a week. Originally scheduled to begin Friday, it will open Oct. 8 with Frederick Knott’s 1966 thriller “Wait Until Dark”.

Following that, Valletta said, will be an original musical, “Backstage Christmas” (opening Nov. 26), and Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune” (Jan. 12).

But even while he contemplates calling it quits, Valletta is hoping for a swan song. He said he wants to star as Willie Loman in his own production of “Death of a Salesman” in January at another venue to be decided.

“I’m looking to rent the Gem Theatre in Garden Grove,” he said. “If I don’t get the Gem, I look for another theater. And if I can’t get one, I don’t do the play.”

The Backstage started out in an industrial mall in Irvine, where it produced its first show (“Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris”) in November, 1990. After relocating to Marina High School in Huntington Beach for one show, it moved to its present quarters in February, 1991.