7-Year Itch

The Elite Theatre Company opens its seventh season, appropriately enough, on New Year’s Eve. Those who have seen the group’s earlier productions, in the basement of the historic Petit House in Oxnard’s Heritage Square, are in for some surprises: New paint and carpets and improved sight lines (those cumbersome pillars reduced in diameter by 6 inches!) are among them.

“At the seven-year mark, there’s a big hump you’ve got to go over,” said Patricia Lynn-Strickland, the company’s artistic director. “This is a volunteer-based community theater and the artists have brought it as far as they could, but to keep it going you have to bring some business people in.”

Earlier this year, a virtually new board of directors came aboard, headed by Gary Blum. Blum, who is site manager and events director for Heritage Square, has been involved in the historic district since its inception nearly 15 years ago. He’s also owner of the Petit House, built by his great-grandparents.

“Community theater can be such a fly-by-night thing,” said Blum, who had originally leased the space to Elite and even helped build the original stage. “I think when you get a good group that really strives to do some quality stuff, it’s important to keep them in the community.”

Among the new board members, Blum said, are Rebecca Barkley, a professional designer who is consulting on the interior revamp; Gullwings Children’s Museum executive director Leanna Bowman, who is applying for grants on Elite’s behalf; marketing consultant Ruth Bernstein Ballin; and Armando Lopez, who has helped the theater establish a business plan and develop liaisons with the local business community.

“What was astounding to me and (Elite founder) Judy Heiliger was the response we got from the public--the city of Oxnard does not want us gone,” Blum said. “Business professionals and the Chamber of Commerce do not want to see the theater leave Oxnard.”

Local businesses--in addition to those already on board--have helped raise the money needed for redecoration. Already manifest is the group’s new season brochure, budgeted at more than $2,500, according to Blum, and more professional-looking--in full color--than its predecessors. “Now,” Blum said, “we have something that we can distribute in hotels, visitor centers and other places where people potentially interested in the theater can find it.

“We’ve already doubled the number of grants [to four] we’ve received,” Blum said. “The next steps are getting more season-ticket subscribers and local donors and developing the audience.”

Two other companies--the Greenhouse Theater Group and Teatro de las Americas--have been sharing space with Elite; Lynn-Strickland thinks the groups, which appeal to different audiences (Greenhouse’s is younger, the Teatro’s Spanish-speaking) should provide some synergy.

“A surprising portion of the population of Ventura County has never seen a live play,” she said. “Once they’ve seen one, they tend to come back and check out other companies.”

Elite’s upcoming season is the same blend of light and heavy, known and experimental shows that the group has been producing in its 40-seat space since the beginning.

Opening Sunday is “Quiet on the Set,” a comedy set backstage at a television soap opera; followed by Lee Blessing’s psychological thriller, “Down the Road”; Jack Sharkey’s parody of British murder mysteries, “The Murder Room”; Mark Medoff’s “Children of a Lesser God”; and Patricia Bird’s new adaptation of one of Elite’s more successful shows, “Little Women,” setting the Louisa May Alcott novel in the 1940s.

DETAILS

“Quiet on the Set” opens Sunday at 9 p.m. at the Elite Theatre Company, 730 South B St. in Oxnard’s Heritage Square. Tickets for this show only are $25, which includes a post-performance cold buffet, noisemakers and other New Year’s Eve merriment. Regular performances will begin Jan. 5 and continue Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. through Feb. 11. Tickets are $12 general, $10 seniors. Tickets for New Year’s Eve must be purchased in advance and confirmed by credit card; reservations are recommended for subsequent performances. For reservations or further information, call 483-5118.

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Last week’s reference to the Santa Susana Repertory Company’s production of “A Christmas Carol” being the only one this year failed to note an annual presentation held at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa as part of its “Christmas With Dickens.” Gerald Charles Dickens, great-great-grandson of the author, performs excerpts from the story between courses of a holiday dinner. The event runs two nights only, and this year’s sold out by early November. He’ll be back next year.

Todd Everett can be reached at teverett@concentric.net.