The dust has settled and the Malibu Stage Co. is finally going to have its inaugural season. A new board is in place after a year of turmoil, which ended in September with a mass resignation of board members and subsequent discontent aired in letters to the editor.
To start fresh, the theater will now be called The Malibu Performing Arts Center, home of Malibu Stage Co., according to Chairperson Geoffrey Oritz, vice president of Investments at Paine Webber in Beverly Hills.
“We want to get the community involved as much as we can with the facility,” said Ortiz. “If known as a center, other productions coming through will know its not just the Malibu Stage Company.”
To kick off the new season, an open house will take place on Dec. 16 where members, donors and the public are invited to partake in refreshments and listen to Christmas carols sung by the Malibu United Methodist Church Choir, St. Aidan’s choir, led by musical director Sara Banta, and possibly the Juan Cabrillo Elementary Children’s Choir.
The turmoil and upset that led to previous board members’ departures was caused by what many previously interviewed said were conflicts with artistic director Charles Marowitz.
In previous accounts, Marowitz has been accused of abusive behavior and of having allegedly misused funds designated for productions. A result of the allegations have been an audit suggested by the previous board and approved by the current one. Oritz said an independent CPA was hired to conduct the audit and that it was submitted to Julia James, administrative services director for the City of Malibu, last Wednesday or Thursday. However, as of Friday, James said she has not seen the audit.
Jacqueline Bridgeman, the board’s president emeritus, said discrepancies regarding credit card charges caused the former board to request the audit. She said many charges incurred by Marowitz were used to take people, including some of the former board members, to lunch.
“[He did] nothing felonious or untoward,” she said. “Marowitz is not dishonest. He may be impossible, but not dishonest.”
“They [the board] were screaming and hollering because they hated him,” said Bridgeman.
She said one reason the board members who left had problems in dealing with Marowitz was because they lost perspective.
“They were not show people, not theater people,” she said.
New board members include Patrick Aroff, an advertising executive, David Damus, an attorney with Systems Property Development, producer Deke Heyward and his wife, playwright Sandra Heyward, and actor Stacy Keach. Remaining members from the last board, including Oritz and Bridgeman, are Lynn Dornhelm and Jody Brightman Stump.
Despite the troubled past with its artistic director, Bridgeman is optimistic about the theater’s survival. She compared the struggles of the theater to bringing a child into the world.
“You can’t abandon it just it because it cries,” said Bridgeman.
One of the new board’s first orders of business is to try and collect some of the $75,000 matching grant the city approved in July of 1999. Oritz said the company already obtained, and spent, the matching funds.
“We have no means of income,” said Oritz.
Bridgeman said the company is three months behind in rent, something that has never happened before. She said the owner of the building, James Cowan, has not given her any problems, but his son, Clark, has been threatening with lawyers for collection.
To help bring in income, the company has been advertising to rent the theater space and plans to have an actor’s workshop and a children’s workshop. A co-production is already planned with a children’s theater group, working with Kathleen Mazzola. The play, “Cinderella Allakzoo,” is expected to be put on mid-February, said Oritz.
The inaugural season’s production will include “Taming of the Shrew,” “The Importance of Being Ernest,” “The Sunshine Boys,” and “Private Lives.”
Only one play, “Stage Fright,” has been produced in the 10-year existence of the theater. The company has mostly conducted play readings and fundraisers.
Dornhelm has faith in the success of the theater, even though some may consider it to be quite far to travel to from other areas of L.A. County.
“Everyone I’ve brought to Malibu says it’s the most beautiful 99-seat theater they’ve seen,” she said. “Once people see what we have, they are going to tell neighboring communities the beauty of what we have.”
Regarding the past year. Dornhelm said, “Those problems, in relation to what has been accomplished and what we intend to accomplish, are so minor and will fade from memories so fast …
“I believe with the efforts of the community and with his [Marowitz’s] vision, we’ll be able to bring first-rate theater to the community and put Malibu on the cultural map.”