Balcony Seating May Be Available

The Balcony Theatre, upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse, may reopen--but not under the auspices of the same organization that stages plays downstairs.

Longtime San Fernando Valley producers David Cox and Ed Gaynes, operating under the banner of the newly formed C&G; Productions, are planning to use the small upstairs venue for “Panache,” a comedy featuring Gary Sandy and Lisa Pelikan. They’ll rent the space from the owner of the building, David Houk’s Pasadena Playhouse Associates--not to be confused with Pasadena Playhouse State Theatre of California (PPSTC), which produces plays in the main theater.

Although the two organizations with Pasadena Playhouse in their names are now divorced, they were married for years. Since the restoration of the playhouse in the early ‘80s, Houk not only owned the building via Pasadena Playhouse Associates, but his Theatre Corp. of America ran the programming on behalf of the nonprofit PPSTC. Houk reopened the upstairs Balcony Theatre in 1982, four years before the main stage reopened.

In 1995, however, Theatre Corp. foundered amid expensive expansion plans, and Pasadena Playhouse Associates soon followed suit. Both of Houk’s playhouse-related organizations eventually went into bankruptcy. But PPSTC was able to declare its independence and keep producing in the main theater. This was possible because, as part of his original deal to obtain the property, Houk leases the main theater and the adjacent store to the city of Pasadena, which in turn subleases those parts of the property to PPSTC.

Houk still controls the rest of the property, however. After Pasadena Playhouse Associates went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1998, he planned to sell it, but potential buyers were driven off by the obligations of the long-standing lease to the city and PPSTC, Houk said.

So Houk decided to use the rest of the property for rental revenue. Among his moves in that direction was to begin charging rent last fall for PPSTC’s use of offices and rehearsal space. He said he proposed charging half the market price. But PPSTC, which was Houk’s largest single creditor when his organizations went into bankruptcy, chose to move its offices and rehearsals off the premises.

Another part of the playhouse that Houk has rented, on occasion, is the restaurant space across the courtyard from the store. As part of one of those rentals, he cut off the utilities to the Balcony Theatre, immediately above the restaurant. But now, another tenant is planning to reopen the restaurant space, and Houk decided to reconnect the utilities to the Balcony Theatre and rent it as well--at which point Cox and Gaynes and “Panache” entered the picture.

The would-be producers almost immediately ran into opposition from Actors’ Equity. Cox and Gaynes wanted to present “Panache” under Equity’s 99-Seat Theater Plan, which requires only token fees for the actors. Their permit from the Pasadena Fire Department allows only 99 people to occupy the Balcony Theatre. However, in its most recent period of use, the space seated 120 and operated under more expensive Equity contracts.

Equity Western Regional Director John Holly said that the union can’t allow the space to move backward down the Equity compensation scale. Even if the Balcony Theatre has only 99 seats, it will still have to operate under a special agreement that compensates actors on better terms than those of the 99-Seat Plan, Holly said.

What those terms will be are now being worked out between the producers and Equity, with the results scheduled to come before Equity’s Western Regional Board on Aug. 24.

In the meantime, PPSTC artistic director Sheldon Epps isn’t worried that the revival of the Balcony Theatre might confuse theatergoers. “In our marketing efforts, it’s very clear what we’re producing and what we’re not,” Epps said. And while his organization wants a smaller second space, he said he’d prefer one that’s more flexible than the Balcony Theatre and also “large enough to be self-supporting,” which he defined as 200 to 300 seats (PPSTC is doing a feasibility study on a specific space in Old Town Pasadena).

So Epps doesn’t mind the renewal of activity upstairs. In fact, he said he welcomes it--extra foot traffic can only help his own productions, and furthermore, “one of the most depressing things in life is for any theater to be dark.” *