Playhouse to raise more funds
After more than 40 years of paying rent, directors at the Santa Monica Playhouse on Fourth Street have secured the right to buy their building.
An 18-month, $500,000 fundraising drive culminated Wednesday evening, just hours before the final deadline for the theater to come up with a down payment on the building.
“You should have heard the screaming when the last $1,000 came in,” said Evelyn Rudie, co-artistic director at the playhouse. “People were sticking their heads out the windows to see what was going on.”
The landlord, Jules Kievits, told playhouse officials last year that the nonprofit organization would have to pay an extra $60,000 in rent a year, move out or buy the building.
With the cash in hand, Rudie said she and Chris DeCarlo, another co-artistic director, will now enter into negotiations to buy their portion of the property, which includes two small theaters, a workspace and several offices.
Neither Rudie nor DeCarlo would comment on the value of the property, saying it would compromise the ongoing negotiations with Kievits. It also is unclear how much more playhouse officials need to raise, but they plan to go to corporations, banks and other organizations for donations.
2DD,“Now we’re at the table and we’re real,” DeCarlo said. “It positions us so that we’re no longer hat-in-hand.”
“Now we’re at the table and we’re real.” — — CHRIS DECARLO SM Playhouse Co-artistic director
Nearly all of the money raised so far has been in grassroots donations, except a $75,000 grant from the city. The fundraising campaign was thrown into high gear on Friday night when an anonymous donor called to pledge a grant that matched all incoming donations up to $50,000.
“We’d been on the phones and the donations we’re coming in, but the matching grant just absolutely galvanized people,” Rudie said.
DeCarlo called the response among donors amazing, and credited a base of 50 to 100 stalwarts for donating at the last minute before each of the three deadlines the theater was asked to meet over the past 18 months.
They described Kievits, a local attorney, as a patient and supportive man who stands behind their goal and purpose.
When the playhouse moved into its building in 1962, the rent was a mere $200 a month, though the space it occupied was just half of what it is today. In 1978, when residents benefited from a freeze on residential rents, the rent on the playhouse had climbed to $550.
If all goes forward as planned, the theater will begin making mortgage payments this summer. Rudie and DeCarlo said the payments should be about the same as their current $10,000 monthly rent, but far lower than the $15,000 rent Kievits had asked for.
The playhouse — which over the years has worked with actors Kate Hudson, Fred Savage and Robert Norse — has produced a number of popular plays over the past four decades. “Author, author: An evening with Sholom Aleichem” is, at 26 years, the longest-running Jewish musical in L.A. And “Dear Gabby: The confessions of an over-achiever” is, at 16 years, the longest-running teen drama.
Both sides said once the building is purchased they hope to get back to a system where the theater depends far less on donations than it does on its own $500,000 annual revenue.
The trick, said DeCarlo, is protecting the integrity of the classes and the performances while still bringing in the money.
“We have to keep these things on a human scale,” he said. “Being in control of our property and having a permanency is really going to help us.”
Chris DeCarlo
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 6, 2003. Read the original PDF.