Board members say limited usage will squeeze nonprofit theater out of existence.
By Chris Wallace/Special to The Malibu Times
The Malibu Stage Co. has been a headline hotbed of controversy, letters to the editor and scandal since its inception more than 10 years ago.
And now, another battle heats up as the Malibu Stage Co. Board of Directors appeals a limited usage permit, which Geoffrey Ortiz, president of the board, claims will financially suffocate the nonprofit, equity-waiver theater out of existence.
The Conditional Use Permit (CUP), which was granted last month by the Planning Commission after a hearing of testimonials from Ortiz and five members of a Bonsall Canyon homeowners organization, will last three years and restrict the company to 60 performances, 18 children’s performances and two fundraising days per year. The theater is located off Pacific Coast Highway near Bonsall Canyon.
The board is appealing the permit and the limited schedule, “because it will put a great financial hardship on Malibu Stage and render it unable to ever be self-sufficient,” asking for 22 more performance days per year. In a letter Ortiz wrote to the Malibu City Council, he explained that, “we currently spend about $20,000 per production, and plan a minimal season of four plays with six-week runs. At 70 percent attendance and an average ticket of $15 we stand to make $18,900 per six-week run, putting us in the red on every production even at these levels. Our ability to do fundraisers and put on readings or other performances that might have lower overhead is instrumental to our ability to just break even.”
Russell Drago, one of the homeowners to speak at the planning hearing last month, claims that adding more performance dates to the company’s schedule isn’t necessarily the only way to increase the theater’s income.
“They could survive on 80 days, 90 or 100,” he said. “What is most important is how successful you are at getting the community and all of Malibu involved-getting donations, finding volunteers.”
Stage Company board member Jacqueline Bridgeman agrees. “Fundraising is the only way we can exist. We would not survive on our box office,” she said. “The company is entirely community financed.
“I would love to have a sponsor for each production but that is difficult to get, so the company has two fundraising events a year to raise the funds for production costs. The most we can hope for at an event is $10,000 after expenses.”
Drago voiced concerns that more days on the permit, and more people at the theater would endanger the community physically. “This is a rural, residential, single-family home neighborhood. That is a nursery that the Stage Company sits on up there. There are heavy machines and all this water going into the soil, from watering and rain and the septic system. There is no sewer in this area, so the hill just absorbs all that water, and the water table will go up.”
Plumbing companies that were contacted regarding this concern didn’t feel they could comment as to its validity without studying the area. City officials couldn’t be reached.
Ortiz, attempting to address all possible concerns, said that the company’s goal “is to stay a community-based, 99-seat theater that serves Malibu. We’re not going to become a big venue and compete with Pepperdine. We don’t want anyone to feel like we’re infringing on his or her peace. We’ve sent board members down to make sure the sound and traffic noise during performances wasn’t to a point where it would bother the residents. And it was fine.”
The theater, a Lutheran church in the 1950s, which was later converted into a nursery, sits at the top of a hill off Pacific Coast Highway, next to Bonsall Canyon.
Drago, who is not focusing his argument on noise and traffic complaints, and the other residents in the area are at the bottom of the hill and about 500 to 1,000 feet from the theater. Some of the houses share a property line with the nursery.
Ortiz and Drago are both exhausted by the two-year process (Drago has been involved with zoning issues for the Stage Company property since the late 1980s).
Ortiz is frustrated that a restriction on days was never discussed before the hearing.
“It was never mentioned,” he said. “I wanted to meet with [the residents] before the hearing and it never happened. I have tried to contact them since and haven’t heard back.”
Ortiz said he sent certified mail to Drago hoping for a response and eventually a meeting to discuss the details of the permit. Drago said he received the letter after sending word to Ortiz that resident Al Giuliani and not he would be the ‘point man’ in the discussion.
Drago said, “I’ve seen the fights they’ve been having in the paper and I don’t want to get involved with that.”
He added, “I’m not trying to make it difficult for the theater to be commercially viable. We are neighbors and I want to make sure that we respect the environment and take care of this area. And as far as them making enough money, I know it’s hard. I wish them luck because I know it’s no easy task.”
Planning Commissioner Robert Adler said the Planning Commission had “weighed everything equally and looked at what was being asked for [by the company and by the residents].”
He couldn’t remember the details off-hand, but said that he thought “the residents felt an increase [in performance days] would affect their lives.”