After a decade leasing its playhouse, Malibu Stage Company holds its annual fundraiser as it looks into buying the building.
By Michael Aushenker / Special to The Malibu Times
Richard Johnson illustrated how fleeting fame can be, rattling off a list of once-famous theater actors. “No one knows who they are anymore,” he said. “But the craft of theater must continue.”
Bent on keeping that creative dialogue between culture and community flowing, Johnson, artistic director and board member of Malibu Stage Company (MSC), is feverishly rehearsing with his actors as the director of two simultaneous productions: Arthur Miller’s “The Ride Down Mount Morgan,” to premiere in September, and, on the front burner, the Aug. 20 annual benefit which, for three years, has helped subsidize MSC’s programming.
The latter event begins at 7 p.m. with dinner and drinks, courtesy of Malibu Wines, followed by 90 minutes of scenes from stage works including “Master Harold and the Boys,” “The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow,” “Children’s Hour,” “As You Like It,” and MSC’s 2009 production, “Rabbit Hole.”
“We’d like to raise $10,000 in the best case scenario,” Johnson said. (The most they’ve raised has been $6,000.)
Because this $100-a-head fundraiser provides crucial support for the company, Johnson said that rather than ring up a bill holding a banquet at some swanky hotel, MSC will host it at home base “to keep costs down,” and forward as much of the proceeds as possible to the theater company.
Additionally, a week after the benefit, on the following Saturday, a reading of “An Omelet for Vinnie,” by Jayne Lyn Stahl, will be performed by Ed Asner (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Pixar’s “Up”), John Savage (“The Deer Hunter”) and local actor Oscar Best.
Charles Marowitz and Jacqueline Bridgeman founded Malibu Stage Company in 1990, and their first presentation was Jerome Kilty’s “Dear Liar,” with Nan Martin and Dan O’Herlihy, mounted at the Smothers Theatre at Pepperdine University. In 2002, the year Marowitz premiered his Elizabethan mystery “Murdering Marlowe,” MSC moved into its current facility, a 99-seat theater with a parking lot accessed from Pacific Coast Highway, north of Heathercliff Road. In its 21 years, MSC has presented plays by Shaw, Wilde, Ibsen, Mamet, peopled with local talent as well as established stars, including Martin Sheen, Dick Van Dyke, Katherine Ross, and original big-screen Captain America, Matt Salinger.
Marowitz and Bridgeman were not the only ones who believed in MSC’s mission early on. Actors Leo Penn and wife Eileen Ryan (parents of Sean Penn) were crucial in “deciding to stage great theater in Malibu,” Johnson said. Twenty-five-year Malibu resident Van Dyke recently underwrote the venue’s new state-of-the-art sound system.
MSC’s history has had its share of growing pains and infighting. As reported in past articles in The Malibu Times, the company struggled financially for years while various internal power struggles resulted in Marowitz stepping down as artistic director in 2002, and Bridgeman resigning in 2008.
For a decade, the theater building has been leased for a song to MSC, a nonprofit corporation, which is currently in talks with property owners to buy the land and building. Johnson said the building just went on the market and they are in the early stages of negotiating with owner James Cowan, but said he welcomes outside benefactors in facilitating the purchase. Johnson also wants to add 50 seats to turn MSC into an equity theater and raise its actors’ pay.
Attracting a consistent audience is never a given for a community theater. Yet MSC has packed them in with past-season productions “A Soldier’s Play,” “The Wild Party” and the recent “Glorious!”
In addition to stars such as Asner, and Dick and Jerry Van Dyke in “The Sunshine Boys,” MSC has attracted top off-stage talents, including playwright Peter Quilter, who broke-in two plays in a row this year: “A Night at the Oscars” and “Glorious!”
Best, who performed in “A Soldier’s Play” and “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” is proud of MSC’s plucky output.
“These were two plays that were strong plays, strong selections,” Best said of “Soldier’s Play” and “The Wild Party.” While rehearsing the latter, a politically incorrect Flapper-era musical, a worried Best wasn’t even sure it was working. Yet “Party” proved successful. Best credits Johnson.
“Rick Johnson really looks for plays that are challenging for us,” Best said. “He takes more risks. He’s done a great job of managing [the company] for nothing.”
Not entirely nothing, as MSC’s artistic director explains the benefits of running his small factory of quirky, compelling fare.
“I’m first and foremost an actor,” Johnson said. “[Via] my heavy involvement, I’m forced to constantly analyze scripts and characters.”
Such repetition hones one’s craft. “My confidence as an actor is through the roof,” he said.
Johnson commended his colleagues for letting him mount adventurous fare.
“The board has trusted me with selecting the material,” Johnson said. “They’ve given me the job unfettered.”
Malibu Stage Company is located at 29243 Pacific Coast Highway. Tickets for the Aug. 20 benefit and/or the Aug. 27 reading of “An Omelet for Vinnie,” can be obtained by calling 310.589.1998 or online at malibustagecompany.org.