Santa Ana to Lose Hunger Artists’ Act to Fullerton

The Hunger Artists Theater, a downtown Santa Ana fixture for 4 1/2 years, plans to move to Fullerton after closing its current production of “Hamlet” on May 26.

The Hunger Artists’ rent has more than doubled in recent years on a second-floor walk-up at 204 E. 4th St. that could seat only about 40 people. The cramped space limited the productions, and lugging props and scenery up the stairs presented a challenge. What’s more, the Hunger Artists’ location in a business strip is a cultural world--though only three blocks--away from the Artists Village, centered at Broadway and 2nd Street, where the city has placed most of its $11-million bet on galleries, theaters, restaurants, art schools and artists’ residences. The city is working to revitalize its downtown by creating a thriving urban arts scene.

“The Hunger Artists have been a significant player in presenting quality theater. It’s a loss,” said Jim Gilliam, the city’s arts administrator. The company’s rent problem is a symptom of rising property values as the neighborhood improves, Gilliam said. He tried to help the Hunger Artists find other quarters in the city.

But Mark Palkoner, the theater’s co-managing director, said Friday that everything in Santa Ana would have cost at least $2,000 a month. Palkoner said the company can double its seating capacity for little more than the $1,240 rent it pays now by moving to a warehouse district in Fullerton. It will occupy a 78-seat theater recently vacated by the Vanguard Theatre Ensemble. Vanguard, the longest-running storefront company in Orange County, is seeking a larger home.

The Hunger Artists, named after a story by Franz Kafka, always have lived hand to mouth while emphasizing out-of-the-mainstream plays. The company has $70 in the bank at the moment, said artistic director Melissa Petro. The average attendance per performance is about 20, she said. The tiny capacity has hurt the Hunger Artists because when they did score a hit, they had to turn away business. In the bigger Fullerton space, Petro said, the nonprofit company can expect a greater fiscal boost from each successful show.

Petro said the theater’s young core audience hasn’t been bothered by its barrio location. Still, with bars nearby, theater patrons sometimes encounter drunks and panhandlers, she said, and lately there has been an increase in automobile break-ins.

“There is no way we could make it in the space we’re at,” said Petro, an emergency-room nurse who is putting up about $3,000 of her own money to cover moving expenses. “I’m tired of fighting a losing battle. At least [in Fullerton] it’s a place that people recognize as a theater and it’s in a nice area. We have a chance; we have a hope.”

Not all the recent news for Santa Ana theater has been bad. The Rude Guerrilla Theater Company, a storefront in the Artists Village, has resolved rent problems with its landlord. It too had been threatening to move.

To bolster the prospects of theater in Santa Ana, Gilliam is spearheading the newly formed Theatre Alliance of Santa Ana. Ten companies belong. Among the goals, Gilliam said, are joint efforts to advertise and market theater productions and to establish a collective online ticketing service.