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# Theater drama transforms into public plea
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/theater-drama-transforms-into-public-plea/
- Published: 2002-01-25T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T23:58:47.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Entertainment, Downtown, #archive-import

*Group needs to raise $500K or it’s a wrap*

Hollywood couldn’t write a story as dramatic: A small town playhouse needs to raise $25,000 in 24 hours to save their theater, the last few dollars arriving by courier only minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline. Thousands of old friends and alumni around the world, contacted through a little boy’s e-mail campaign, sent in cash gifts to save the landmark.

But this is a real-life, local drama. The Santa Monica Playhouse has been told its rent will be increased to more than $12,000 a month starting next January, but the venerable theater group can barely pay the current $10,000-a-month rent for its prime downtown location on Fourth Street, between Wilshire Boulevard and Arizona Avenue.

However, the theater group’s landlord, local attorney Jules Kievits, isn’t viewed as the villain.

He is giving the theater group 18 months to raise $500,000 to buy the building. Every six months the group must reach fundraising milestones, or risk losing it all.

By the end of the month, the group must raise another $20,000 — of which $14,000 already has been raised.

Earlier this week, the group presented its case to the Santa Monica City Council. Organizers need matching funds from the city of Santa Monica to attract corporate sponsorship. Without it, many companies won’t take a chance on the group, theater organizers say.

“We have found over the past few years that the first question asked whenever we look for corporate sponsorship is ‘what kind of support do you get from your city,’” said Rudie. “If the city can help us, then we would be able to say to them ‘we have this seed money from the city now what can you do to match it.’”

To bring in outside sponsors needed to save the theater, the group says its going to need a large grant from the city.

“We’re looking for a $100,000 pledge, or a 2-1 matching grant,” said Rudie. “Short of that, anything the city can afford to give us we would be happy to have.”

But the city is having a tough time during the recent economic downturn. Taxes from retail sales and hotel room bookings are down and every non-profit organization the city typically funds are vying for what’s available.

Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown has proposed spending the majority of the city council’s discretionary fund of $117,000 to help the group.

“We as a community must be willing to make wise investments in our youth,” he said. “Stage arts, like field sports, teach teamwork, poise and leadership.”

McKeown argues it would not be unprecedented for the city to help a struggling arts group.

He points to the $234,000 in grants the city annually provides to 10 local cultural organizations; the $6,000 the city spends on busing school kids to cultural events; the $66,000 the city pays annually for cultural events; and the free board given to two local museums and subsidized artist loft space at the airport as past signs of subsidizing the arts.

> “Our landlord’s not the mustached twirling melodramatic landlord at all; he has been very supportive.” — said Evelyn Rudie, a co-artistic director at the theater since 1967\. — EVELYN RUDIE Playhouse co-artist director

> “Our landlord’s not the mustached twirling melodramatic landlord at all; he has been very supportive,”

“So this is not an unprecedented action. What makes this critical and time sensitive is that they could lose the building and have no place else to go in Santa Monica,” said McKeown. “Everybody watches television now, and not enough people go out and see live theater any-more. What’s happened is the large venues attract enough attention to stay afloat but the little guys get squeezed out. If we don’t work to protect our small theaters now, we are going to lose them and that would be a terrible thing.”

Typically, the city council picks a “pet project” each year to spend its discretionary funds on. Last year it was for marching band uniforms. The previous year the city helped send school kids to Washington, D.C.

“The council has a certain amount of money in a discretionary account for these kinds of things. Mostly, they are used for one time events, where once they are done, they are done,” said McKeown. “This would be one payment that would have a pay off for years to come.”

But not every council member is as eager as McKeown to hand over the money.

Councilman Richard Bloom wants to see the theater group’s books first, to make sure the city’s investment does not go to waste.

Also, he wants to see how the city can come up with the money without cutting too deeply into other non-profit groups which need funding too.

“My view of the playhouse’s plight is that we need to have our staff look into it thoroughly before we take any action. We need to have a clear understanding of what things there are in a practical nature that we can do,” he said. “But there is no question this is a valuable institution to the city and they are currently in some dire financial constraints.”

Every year, the city audits non-profits it funds to make sure the money was spent as pledged.

“We spend millions of dollars every year assisting a variety of non-profits in the area. And in exchange, or as part of that process, we require those non-profits to open their books for review so that we know our money is well spent,” said Bloom.

“I have nothing but deep respect for the playhouse. But we need to know that our money, the very first thing we need to know, is whether it’s fiscally prudent to invest it.

“There are a good many of agencies that we serve that are suffering right now, for a variety of reasons, but mostly due to the downturn in the economy, and I think that’s something we have to bear in mind with this request,” Bloom continued.

Bloom said the council made the correct move, voting to postpone McKeown’s proposal until next month’s meeting because only four of the seven council members remained at the meeting that went well beyond 1 a.m.

“If you look at what Kevin was asking us to allocate that night, it would have been way more than 50 percent of our discretionary funds,” he said. “But whether or not I agree with what (the other council members) decide in the end, they have a right to have a say in how we use that money.”

The theater group already is moving ahead with plans to host 40 productions over the next 18 months to celebrate the theater’s 40-year anniversary. International groups the theater has worked with in Japan and Europe have pledged to hold benefits to help raise the needed money.

“We are very confident that we can do this,” said Rudie. “Especially when we see what our kids have done and the response we’ve been getting from our alumni.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 25, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/012502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)