by Robb Fulcher

The Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities will build an intimate theater of perhaps 150 seats next to the sparkling, 500-seat Hermosa Beach Playhouse that fronts the Community Center on Pier Avenue at Pacific Coast Highway.

The smaller facility will be used by the CLO for at least one small, simply-staged production, and will be available for a variety of uses by the local performing arts community, Assistant City Manager Mary Rooney said on Tuesday.

The Pier Avenue Second Story Theatre will be located in what is now a large meeting room in an upstairs portion of the Community Center, on the same level as the three-year-old Playhouse, said officials of the city and the CLO.

The Redondo-based CLO, which puts on shows at the Playhouse as well as the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, will pay for a renovation that calls for a new electrical power source, lighting, a modest stage riser, heating and air conditioning, said James Blackman, executive director of the CLO.

Instant theater

The new theater, complete with bolted-down seats in a horseshoe configuration, is expected to be completed by January, Blackman said.

"It’s really a very minor renovation," he said. Rooney said the CLO was close to securing a building permit for the renovation.

Blackman said the theater will seat 150 people, but Rooney said the exact number would be "up to the building inspector."

The CLO will use the theater to mount additional performances of Maripat Donovan’s acclaimed one-woman show "Late Nite Catechism," which easily sold out the larger Playhouse during a two-week Hermosa run, Blackman said. The CLO will pay rent to the city for use of the new theater.

The theater/meeting room, which will continue to be equipped with cooking facilities, will remain in use by the city and community, Rooney said.

Grassroots culture

In addition, the room will be available for a variety of performing uses, possibly including other one-person shows and readings of original poetry or plays, Rooney said. Officials of the Hermosa Arts Foundation have expressed interest in "developing local talent" with "smaller, amateur" endeavors at the theater, Rooney said.

"The CLO will pay for the renovation and pay rent on the room, and their improvements become the property of the city," Rooney said. "It’s a win-win."

The room regularly served as a performance space at least once before, when the local group Friends of the Arts used it as an equity-waiver theater in the 1970s.

Blackman already has distributed fliers advertising performances of "Late Nite Catechism" in the new theater beginning in January, and he said some of the shows already are sold out.

Tickets and information for "Late Night Catechism" are available at 372-4477. ER