Burbank OKs Funds for Live Theater Venue

Downtown Burbank has 28 theaters that show movies. Beginning next year, it also will have one that shows live actors.

After three years of proposals and plans, the Burbank City Council on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to a new performing arts center by voting to spend $1.28 million to convert part of the Media City Shopping Center into a 276-seat theater.

In a 4-0 vote, with one member absent, the council awarded the contract to States Link Construction Inc. of Huntington Beach. The renovations should begin before the end of the month and be completed by the end of the year, said Mary Alvord, director of Burbank’s Parks and Recreation Department.

That was good news to the Colony Studio Theatre, which has been waiting three years to become operator and primary tenant of the venue, tentatively called the Burbank Performing Arts Center.

“This was the step. This was the moment we’ve been waiting for,” said Barbara Beckley, the Colony’s producing director.

Beckley said the neighborhood is ideal. “The Burbank Village area is a very happening place. There’s night life, restaurants, plenty of secure parking. It’s also a more convenient location for many people. The one thing that’s been lacking in the area is live theater.”

The 14,000-square-foot building, situated on 3rd Street north of the indoor mall, is owned by the Media City Shopping Center. But under its arrangement with the city, the mall leases the space back to the city as a venue for social or cultural activities.

Until January 1996, the building had housed a branch of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, but the museum moved out when the city of Burbank chose not to subsidize the operations at a $300,000 annual level.

Under terms of the agreement, the Colony will sublease the completed theater and manage it, paying a yet-to-be-determined amount in rent. The company will also provide the theater equipment, such as lighting and sound systems. Also, the theater and other meeting spaces will be open to use by local groups such as the Burbank Civic Light Opera or the Burbank Chorale.

“The city shouldn’t incur any operations costs once it’s built,” Alvord said. “After we hand them the key, they’ll be the ones cleaning the carpets and making sure the toilets are good and the drapes are hung right.”

Officials said the Colony brings to the performing arts center 23 years of experience running a theater and a base of more than 3,000 subscribers. The Colony moved from its longtime home in Silver Lake because it needed room to expand.

Just to meet the demand for subscription ticket-holders, the Colony was forced to run plays for 12 weeks, Beckley said. As a result, the troupe could only mount three main-stage productions each year.

With more seats, Beckley said, the company will be able to do more shows with shorter runs--but still reach a larger audience.

To ease the transition, however, the Colony plans to present its first season using only 99 seats, allowing it to work under Actors Equity’s inexpensive 99-seat plan. Once the Colony starts using all 276 seats, it will have to negotiate a contract with the actors union, officials said.

“The move is going to shake up a lot of areas for us,” Beckley said. “We felt that having that one year to gain stability in a new location was good. We didn’t want to overreach.”

The project always had the support of the council, but city leaders had hoped to spend $1 million or less.

Initially, they set aside $750,000 of Community Redevelopment money, but a first round of bids showed the renovations would cost twice that much. After eliminating some amenities, the costs dropped somewhat during the second bidding process.