Citing an increase in the cost of producing shows at the Hermosa Playhouse, the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities has moved its smaller productions to El Segundo, ending a 14-year run in Hermosa Beach.
In a separate move, the CLO is relocating its larger productions to San Pedro from the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, after being evicted from the Redondo facility for $200,000 in back rent.
The smaller move to the El Segundo Playhouse followed a decision by the Hermosa Arts Foundation to begin charging rent – equal to about 25 percent of the costs to operate the 474-seat Playhouse, on a performance-by-performance basis – to organizations such as Family Theater, Belasco and the CLO.
Executive Director James Blackman said the CLO had received overtures from the El Segundo Playhouse, which boasts 800 new seats, a new backstage, “fabulous parking,” a high-end sound system and a fly tower to move equipment and sets.
“It’s crazy flawless,” he said.
Blackman said the cost increase at the Hermosa Playhouse — $1,800 to $2,000 per show – made it “about a wash” with the El Segundo facility. On top of that, set builders, prop handlers, actors and others, from theater groups such as Palos Verdes Players, Manhattan Beach Community Church and Westchester Playhouse, came forward to offer their services for free.
“I’m completely gob smacked,” Blackman said. “…It’s a wonderful life, the musical theater version.”
With that help, Blackman said, he was able to move to El Segundo, fully exploit the larger theater, and finish a performance season for which subscribers had already paid.
Blackman added that he loved his time at the Hermosa Playhouse, a city-owned facility on the corner of Pier Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway.
Rick Koenig, president of the Hermosa Arts Foundation, said the Foundation board decided to charge rent to the organizations after a city fee study in March 2011 identified the Playhouse as a loss leader.
“The [city’s] consultant came back with some staggering numbers that I personally dispute,” Koenig said. “The city was talking about taking away our hours, and that would have put the Foundation in the history books.”
The consultant, Revenue and Cost Specialists, reported that the Playhouse costs about $485,000 a year to operate, and the city was recovering only about 15 percent of that cost. The consultant urged the city to end the practice of giving the performance hours to the Arts Foundation for allocation.
“The city should undertake a more thorough marketing and pricing review of the theater to determine what is possible for this facility,” the consultant wrote.
Since the 1970s, the city had allowed the nonprofit Arts Foundation to allocate 1,500 performance hours a year to organizations that put on performances there.
Koenig said the Foundation strives to serve the organizations, City Hall and the community, and also funds improvements to the Community Center, such as a $150,000 renovation of the Playhouse lobby, which was accomplished through a donation by Sea Sprite hotelier Thelma Greenwald.
The new rents being collected by the Arts Foundation go into a fund for improvements to the Playhouse and the rest of the Community Center grounds.
Koenig said Blackman did not object to the new rent plan when it was proposed at a Foundation board meeting last year.
“James Blackman was at that meeting. He was all for it,” Koenig said. “His comment was to the effect that, ‘I’d rather get a 75 percent discount than pay full fare.’”
Blackman said he did not think that a decision had been reached on the rent plan. He said he proposed a detailed analysis of the city’s costs, followed by a call for sponsorship from local businesses to help make up the city’s shortfall.
