SANTA MONICA : Council Backs Range of Uses for Renovated Playhouse

The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday approved the first step in an almost $1-million renovation of the historic Miles Memorial Playhouse in Lincoln Park.

The council endorsed an interior design that would be suitable for a range of uses. The $975,000 renovation would create open assembly spaces in the basement levels of the 1929 building while preserving the stage and an auditorium that seats more than 200 people.

Although it heard pleas from almost 30 speakers vying for the use of the site, the council did not decide who would be the primary user of the facility. That decision, city staff said, will be made in the next several months after organizations submit their requests.

Numerous performing arts groups lined up to ask that the distinctive Spanish Colonial Revival-style building be dedicated to theater uses. In the meantime, the Santa Monica Historical Society lobbied to make the playhouse its permanent home.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to provide a desperately needed mid-size theater,” said Chris DeCarlo, director of the Santa Monica Playhouse & Group Theatre. He and other speakers said the city needs more dance and theater space and noted that the playhouse’s wood stage was designed and constructed specifically for dance performances.

However, the historical society has other ideas.

“We’ve had our eyes on (Miles Playhouse) for years,” said Louise Gabriel, president of the society. She said the building would be ideal for the society’s growing research library and youth tours run in cooperation with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

The playhouse was donated by former Councilman J. Euclid Miles, who specified his gift be used as a “recreation hall for the children and young men and women” of Santa Monica.

Over the years, the playhouse was used for community theater, musical and dance rehearsals and performances, community classes and meetings.

The council’s action allows the city to invite the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state Office of Emergency Services and the state Historic Preservation Office to determine the amount of renovation funds available.

The city hopes to begin renovations at the end of the year with a completion date toward the end of 1996, according to Susan McCarthy, director of community and cultural services.

The council’s approval of the design plans does not rule out any particular use or group as the primary user, McCarthy said.

Council members Ruth Ebner and Bob Holbrook opposed the plan, with Holbrook complaining that the design essentially dictates the building will be used solely as a theater.

However, historical society officials disagreed.

“The museum would utilize the stage, and we would be anxious to work with theater groups and organizations,” Gabriel said Wednesday, adding: “It’s appropriate that the historic museum be used for performances.”