Barnum to become more than high school theater
CITY HALL — After spending more than $7.5 million to restore Santa Monica High School’s Barnum Hall to its original glory, school officials are considering an additional $176,500 to make the theater suitable for expanded community and commercial use.
The majority of the money — $88,000 — would go towards hiring a theater manager to oversee the daily maintenance of the historic performance hall, as well as hiring technical staff for various productions, and who would be responsible for artistic programming.
That individual also would serve as an adjunct professor to the Stage Craft Technology class, teaching Samohi students how to run lights and sound boards, as well as how to operate a theater day-to-day. The class is currently offered at Malibu High School, however, the school board is expected to approve its expansion to Samohi.
Other expenditures would include marketing to expand awareness at the hall and attract quality acts; cosmetic improvements such as new bathrooms, landscaping and a marquee; new signage to direct visitors to public parking; installing an LCD projector, a podium and computer network for power point presentations; and creating an annual operating budget of $15,000.
The school board Thursday directed district staff to move forward with those recommendations, which were made by Mitze Productions, a firm specializing in performance spaces. The firm was hired by the school district in February for $20,000 to evaluate the feasibility of Barnum operating as a full-fledged performance space instead of just an auditorium for student productions. Since Barnum re-opened two years ago, school officials realized that the theater has been underutilized and there could be a potential to rent it to outside groups, which could bring in new revenue for the district.
“The key is to really have someone there full-time who can answer the phones, prepare contracts and offer estimates … making sure the facility is kept clean and safe,” said Marnie Mitze, the managing director of the Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University, who runs Mitze Productions with her husband Tom, managing director of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center.
“You must maintain quality control,” Mitze said.
While the hall is “a gem, a beauty, with great space and great acoustics,” additional money needs to be spent to make the hall competitive with others in Southern California, Mitze said.
“You are going to have to deal with creating easy and attractive access for the public because the hall is situated on campus, but with the proper signage that shouldn’t be a problem,” Mitze said. “There is a lot of discussion around making schools community centers and that’s what we’re dealing with here.”
Built in 1938 by the federal Works Project Administration (WPA) Barnum once served as Santa Monica’s civic auditorium for several years. It was designed to be the cultural center of the city — hosting concerts, plays, musicals, ballets, operas and solo acts.
The school board is looking to bring that back.
“To exploit the full potential of Barnum Hall, I believe these recommendations are essential,” said school board member Jose Escarce, who, along with other elected officials and audience members, seemed excited about the possibility of Barnum being utilized 365 days a year.
The Streamline-Art Deco design of Barnum was created by the architectural firm of Marsh, Smith & Powell. Norman Marsh is best known for designing the many sculptures, plaques, reliefs, murals, and fountains at USC during the mid 1970s, as well as several buildings on the UCLA campus in the mid 1950s and buildings in Venice, Calif. in 1904, according to school district officials.
One of Barnum Hall’s original designers, Henry Alfred Buxton, also worked on the design of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, now Mann’s Chinese Theatre.
The theater’s original design went way beyond those of a traditional high school theater.
Santa Monica artist Stanton MacDonald-Wright directed leading WPA artisans to create such works as the Viking mural on the fire curtain and the mosaic in the lobby. Additionally on the front facade of the hall is a concrete bas-relief of a comedy-tragedy mask and musical instruments portrayed in the art deco style that was preeminent for many public buildings in the 1930s.
The theater was neglected for nearly 40 years, creating the need for significant repairs and upgrades. The effort was funded by bond measures, roughly $1 million from City Hall and donations from community and business leaders.
“I whole heartedly believe in these recommendations,”said Ralph Mechur, a member of the Samohi Performing Arts Community Enterprise (SPACE), which was formed to review and evaluate the condition and potential use of Barnum Hall and the Greek Theater, an outdoor performance space with concrete seats used for Samohi graduations and fundraisers.
“This is a really positive venture and we must not forget that the city gave the district $1 million with the expectations that Barnum would become a community venue,” Mechur added. “We should keep our promise to everybody.”
The school board was in full support of the recommendations, only requesting that preference be given to student performances and graduation ceremonies over private events.
A fee schedule was submitted by Mitze Productions, which included rates charged for use. For one performance, non-profits would be charged $1,600 per day, while others would pay $3,200 per day to use Barnum. For the Greek, the daily rates jump to $2,000 for non-profits and $6,000 for others.
While some board members have concerns that the fees were too high, Mitze assured them that they were below the rates charged by other performance halls.
Based on conservative estimates, Mitze said Barnum would need the district’s financial support to pay for the new operation’s start-up costs during for the first year. But the theater would become self sufficient as operations would provide enough revenue to pay for continued maintenance, ensuring the theater would not fall into disrepair. Mitze envisions at least 100 non-school events to be held at Barnum each year.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 19, 2006. Read the original PDF.