Ex-Pasadena Subscribers Stir Debate

Pasadena Playhouse was embroiled in a puzzling controversy last week, centering on how many former subscribers to the Pasadena Playhouse season failed to renew for the current winter/spring season because they felt the theater had scheduled too many black shows.

Two of this season’s three shows focus on mostly black characters--the current “Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting” and “The Emotions, Starring in Bigger Than Bubble Gum,” slated for May and June.

A front-page story last Monday in the Pasadena Star-News reported that “with many citing ‘disinterest’ in seeing two plays with African American themes, more than 1,000 subscribers did not renew their Pasadena Playhouse subscriptions for the current three-play season.” This was attributed to the playhouse’s publicist, Michael Sande.

Sande was quoted saying that “some longtime subscribers . . . expressed displeasure” over the black shows and “lost seats they had had for 10 years.” Later the article quoted Al Lowe, chairman of the playhouse board, saying that the subscription total had fallen from 18,000 to 16,000--in other words, 2,000 instead of 1,000--but that this was actually a normal attrition rate.

A shortened version of the story was sent out by a national news wire, and reprinted in USA Today.

In a conversation with The Times on Monday, Sande said that when sales staff called non-renewers to ask why they had dropped out, people who were speaking on behalf of as many as 1,000 of the former subscribers “mentioned that they didn’t want to see so many black shows. Some of them used language that was appalling. The n-word was used. ‘Colored’ came up a lot.” Though Sande estimated that these attitudes were reflected in comments from half of the non-renewers, he acknowledged that he didn’t know the precise number.

Sande’s boss, Lars Hansen, executive director of the playhouse, contradicted Sande after he arrived at the playhouse later in the day on Monday. Hansen said that the staff had been speculating on how many of the non-renewers objected to the season’s emphasis on African American themes, but he said “the hard-core fact is that only two people mentioned blacks or African Americans” when asked their reason. One of those two did, indeed, use “the n-word,” he said.

Reached Tuesday, a playhouse sales representative told The Times that in his conversations with former subscribers, “at least two or three” specified an excess of black programming as a reason. He especially remembered “the first shocker”--an attorney from Orange County who “told me we should not have so many black-oriented performances.” Other former subscribers “alluded” to it, he said. When asked for an example, he said the allusion might be in the form of “we don’t like these [particular] shows” or “we’ll skip this season” and then return.

This sales rep said six others in his office made the same kind of calls and were reporting the same results. So, hypothetically, if each sales rep heard an average of three people explicitly citing black-themed programming as a reason for dropping out, that could make a total of 21, considerably more than the two cited by Hansen. However, assuming that each of these represented two subscribed seats, even this hypothetical total of 42 seats would still be a far cry from Sande’s estimate of 1,000.

Upon hearing this report from his sales staff Tuesday, Hansen acknowledged that there may have been more than two who objected to the black programming and said he would examine all of the cards that record subscribers’ comments to come up with a better figure. However, he added, “it’s not going to be in the hundreds. It’s only going to be a dozen, I bet.” He said he didn’t know why Sande’s earlier estimate was so much higher, but he said the confusion may have arisen from the fact that only 1,000 of the 2,000 non-renewers cited any reason at all for quitting--the others were not reached or had nothing to say.

“It’s disturbing that this story is spinning out of control,” he said.

However, he said there had been some positive feedback a result of the story--a few people had called to support the theater with subscriptions or donations in response to those subscribers who had quit for racial reasons.

The fuss virtually drowned out a good deed that the playhouse was trying to publicize last week. Eight percent of the tickets to “Mr. Rickey”--valued at $100,000 by Hansen--were given free of charge to civic authorities for distribution to citizens who might not be able to afford the show. The playhouse intended it as a tribute to Pasadena native son Jackie Robinson, whose entry into the major leagues 50 years ago is the focus of “Mr. Rickey.”

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SHANNON BACK: Seattle doesn’t keep every emigre from L.A. Former L.A. director Peggy Shannon left a job as artistic director of Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre to spend more time with her family in Los Angeles and to pursue TV and film jobs, the theater announced. Shannon also will be an artistic affiliate with theaters in San Jose and Atlanta.