It’s Curtains for Moorpark Melodrama Theater Operators

It was a scene straight out of a classic melodrama: The landlord demands the rent and casts out the tenants.

That’s what happened last week as the Magnificent Moorpark Melodrama & Vaudeville Company shut down after its current operators were forced out.

On Thursday, Ventura County Judge John J. Hunter returned the theater business to previous owner Linda Bredemann, along with a judgment for $9,600 in back rent.

Bredemann said Monday that the actual debt owed by operators Bob and Beverly Frazier exceeds $30,000.

Bob Frazier disputed her figures, saying, “We had an agreement that we saw one way and Linda saw another way.”

The Fraziers’ departure, Bredemann said, may spell the end of the melodrama performances at the playhouse, where the couple would mount several genre parodies each year, such as the recent “Fenster of the French Foreign Legion” and “The XYZ Files.”

The shows employed many young actors from the area, and the Melodrama & Vaudeville Company was one of the very few local theaters paying its performers.

The building on East High Street dates to the early decades of this century, having served as a silent movie theater, evangelical church and newspaper office, among other incarnations.

The Fraziers have run the Melodrama & Vaudeville Company since September after taking over from Bredemann, who had operated the business with her husband, Harvey, for a dozen years. Harvey Bredemann died in March 1997, leaving his wife to handle the business.

Soon afterward, Bredemann sold the theater business--but not the playhouse property--to the Fraziers. A seasoned television writer, Bob Frazier had run similar operations elsewhere with his wife, notably one near Mt. Rushmore.

“I didn’t realize how much I counted on Harvey until he passed--I had classic depression,” Bredemann said. “The Fraziers had the experience, and I didn’t want to close the theater down, so I let the Fraziers have it.”

After the Fraziers took over, the presentations changed somewhat. The scripts, most co-written by Bob Frazier, arguably retained the quality of those of earlier shows, but the sizes of the casts and the amount of money spent on sets and costumes dropped notably.

While Beverly Frazier ran the front office, Bob Frazier often participated in the shows, casting the couple’s several children as well. Some actors remained from earlier productions, but many would not work for--or were not hired by--the new operators.

To the Fraziers’ credit, the season ticket list nearly doubled, to 900, Bredemann said. Still, the theater failed to prosper under the new operators.

Frazier, who uses the name Fraser when acting, said Bredemann failed to improve the property as stated in their agreement and did not credit the couple with an early deposit of the first and last months’ rent, plus a security deposit.

“We’re theater people and got kind of whipsawed by her and her broker,” Frazier said.

Bredemann said she was aware of no such call for physical improvements.

The Melodrama & Vaudeville Company’s future remains unresolved. Bredemann--who said she is trying to find some way to compensate season ticket holders--has canceled the remainder of the announced season, and said that the melodrama format is probably gone forever at the playhouse.

A fund-raiser is expected in mid-August, with many alumni said to be returning for the shows. Bredemann said she is considering staging Broadway-style shows, including “The Fantasticks” and “I Do, I Do.”

“That’s funny,” said Frazier, when informed of her plans. “That’s what we suggested, and she wouldn’t let us do it.”