GLENDALE : $5 Million Approved for 2 Theater Groups

The Glendale Redevelopment Agency voted Tuesday to set aside $5 million of its $24-million 1994-95 fiscal year budget for two theater companies to pay for proposed renovation and construction activities.

The agency, whose members are the same as those who sit on the City Council, agreed to set aside $2.5 million each for A Noise Within and The Colony Studio Theatre.

Agency funds set aside to assist area theaters increased from $3 million to $5 million as part of a push by city officials to create a citywide theater district, said JeanneArmstrong, redevelopment agency director.

Representatives from the two theater groups must devise business plans and map out how they will raise matching funds before they can receive agency money, Armstrong said.

Once plans are established and authorized by the city, agency members will be able to vote on how agency money set aside for both theater groups is distributed to them, said City Manager David Ramsay.

Representatives of The Colony Studio Theatre originally requested funds from the city in November, 1992, so that the company could build a 299-seat playhouse in Glendale, along with a 99-seat second stage.

The 75-member company is now reviewing several relocation options, including a spot in The Exchange building on Brand Boulevard and property adjacent to The Exchange, said Earl Katz, Colony Studio’s development director.

The Los Angeles-based group hopes to open its 1996 season in a theater in Glendale. The company chose Glendale as its new location after a poll of season ticket holders showed they preferred Glendale to six other Los Angeles County locations, Katz said.

The 19-year-old company is now over-subscribed and is unable to accommodate all those who wish to attend its four stage performances a year in a 99-seat theater at 1944 Riverside Drive near Silverlake, he said.

A Noise Within will use $100,000 of its portion of agency funds for a study that will determine if the classical theater group should move from the Masonic Temple at 234 S. Brand Blvd. in Glendale to a new theater complex.

Executive Director Julia Rodriguez Elliott said her company would prefer to stay in the Masonic Temple and to move from the building’s third floor to its first floor, which would be revamped to hold a 350- to 500-seat theater.

Pending the outcome of the study, Rodriguez Elliott said, the 2 1/2-year-old theater group hopes to use a majority of its $2.5 million in set-aside funds to refurbish the Masonic Temple or to build a new theater.

This expansion is necessary because the theater company has been running at 95% capacity at the 99-seat stage it now uses, Rodriguez Elliott said.

A Noise Within has also requested that about $400,000 in agency funds be used to install a fire sprinkler system in the Masonic Temple and to offset rent costs.

City staff members said the two playhouses would join the newly renovated Alex Theatre along the Brand Boulevard corridor in a theater district designed to attract patrons to the downtown central business district.