Santa Monica Playhouse in final month of fund-raising
The Santa Monica Playhouse has 26 days to come up with more than $100,000 or it’s curtains for the city’s oldest theater company.
With a June 1 deadline looming, organizers of the local theater are scrambling to pull in the last $140,000 of the $500,000 they need to make a down payment and buy the building from their landlord.
If organizers fail to come up with the cash, officials said the 40-year-old playhouse will have to close its doors for good.
Fundraising has kicked into high gear this month with intense phone banking, weekly benefit events and other efforts to raise awareness while attracting dollars.
The goal is to draw in $3,000 in fund-raising each day, on top of raising money at scheduled events, officials said.
439,“We get calls every day,” said Evelyn Rudie, co-artistic director for the playhouse. “We’re getting checks in the mail. A lady called the other day and said, ‘I sent you a check yesterday for $50 and then I realized it wasn’t enough. So here is my credit card number.’”
Senior citizens, who for years have seen shows for free at the theater, are emptying their pockets. Little kids are kicking in their lunch money. And even actors are finding spare pennies to contribute to the cause, Rudie said.
“The money that we’ve raised so far has almost all been in grassroots support,” said Rudie, who started teaching acting classes at the playhouse in 1969.
“We get calls everyday. We’re getting checks in the mail. A lady called the other day and said, ‘I sent you a check yesterday for $50 and then I realized it wasn’t enough. So here is my credit card number.’” — — EVELYN RUDIE Co-artistic director
The internationally acclaimed playhouse, which is the oldest continuously producing theater company and conservatory in the city, opened in its current location on Fourth Street between Wilshire Boulevard and Arizona Avenue, in 1962.
Back then, it paid $200 a month in rent, said Sandra Zeitzew, director of public relations. Today, it pays $10,000 and if it stays past May, the rent will be bumped up to $13,000, Zeitzew said.
Fundraising for the Santa Monica Playhouse began 18 months ago. According to the terms of the deal with the landlord, local attorney Jules Kievits, the Santa Monica Playhouse must hand over a $500,000 down payment June 1 for its portion of the property — which includes two theaters, a rehearsal area and a dressing room.
The playhouse has met each of its six-month goals over the past year and a half to make sure it’s on track for the deadline.
“This is our final benchmark,” Zeitzew said. “If we’re able to raise the money we’re trying to raise by the end of the month, it’ll cement the deal.”
If they’re successful in purchasing the theater, playhouse officials expect their mortgage payments to be as little as half as much as their current rent payments.
While the theater continues passing the donation basket at its weekly fundraiser shows, Zeitzew said they’re looking at every possible revenue source.
City officials last year agreed to pitch in $75,000 to the ailing theater.
1EE,“It’s always been a multi-pronged approach,” she said. “We’re doing the grassroots fundraising and at the same time we’re approaching the bigger business, the corporations, the foundations.”
- Evelyn Rudie, co-artistic director
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 6, 2003. Read the original PDF.