Old Globe gets $10-million gift

San Diego real estate magnate Conrad Prebys has given the Old Globe Theatre $10 million -- the largest gift the theater company has ever received.

The organization’s two indoor theaters will be renamed the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, but the individual venues will retain their current names, the Old Globe Theatre and Cassius Carter Centre Stage.

Prebys’ money is earmarked for capital expenditures. The 72-year-old donor said that the two theaters in the Prebys Center will be rebuilt, and he expects that the 38-year-old Cassius Carter will no longer be a theater in the round -- its current configuration reminds him of “an old dinner theater,” he said.

Old Globe Executive Director Louis Spisto declined to comment on details of the proposed changes but said they would be announced by early next year.

Prebys said his gift is a tribute to his late high school drama teacher in South Bend, Ind., who “turned my life around.”

After moving to San Diego in 1965, Prebys created his fortune through construction and real estate. He owns Progress Construction and Management Co. and lives in the Point Loma area.

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Don Shirley