The play’s the thing, and so is a good picture
The last 10 years have vanished in the blink of an eye, which doesn’t bode well for the next 10, does it? Nonetheless, where local playhouses and art galleries are concerned, there have been some key moments, swan songs and miracle births, with a few promises for tomorrow always waiting in the wings.
Live theater, still breathing
In local theater, James Blackman and the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities was and remains the most popular game in town. Although it started out as the Aviation High School gymnasium, the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center presents the company’s popular offerings for three weeks, four times a year. As before, they’re “dedicated to the preservation and presentation of our unique musical art forms.”
Over the past decade, CLOSBC has continued to stage the classics – “Carousel,” “Evita,” Ragtime,” even a reprise of “42nd Street,” to name a few – but for them the event of the decade must surely be the $11 million makeover at the end of 2002 of the lobby and other areas of the venue. Furthermore, the company’s Ovation awards and nominations have brought it to the attention of theatergoers outside of the area.
CLOSBC also took over the Hermosa Beach Playhouse – actually just before the Millennium – and (thanks in the main to Stephanie Coltrin) has been presenting four plays each year: Entertaining, yes, and occasionally thought-provoking.
The Palos Verdes Players, a virtual institution for several decades, closed shop after heavy rains during the winter of 2004-5 damaged their theater in south Torrance. A lease for a new venue fell through. They’d begun their Second Stage Theater a few years earlier, to complement the productions in their larger house.
The Actors’ Repertory Theatre in Rolling Hills Estates also ceased operations. Their production of Edward Albee’s “Seascape” was memorable. About three years ago the Neighborhood Playhouse at the Neighborhood Church in Palos Verdes Estates emerged with a handful of extraordinary shows, including “Parade” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” but then proved to be yet another bright comet across the night sky. I’m hopeful that fate won’t befall Jeryll Adler’s Pacific Stages, just across the border from Manhattan Beach in El Segundo. “Lobby Hero” and “Something Happened” were exceptional works, and the latter is up for a few Ovation Awards, to be announced in February.
The Torrance Theater Company, Gia Inferrera’s labor of love, continues at the George Nakano Theatre and the James Armstrong Theatre, the latter venue used a couple of times a year by the Aerospace Players of El Segundo. In Hermosa Beach, Angelo Masino tries to jumpstart the 2nd Story Playhouse from time to time. The Manhattan Beach Community Church stages popular, accessible works, as does the Norris Theatre in Rolling Hills Estates. The latter’s artistic director, Jim Gruessing, points out that, during the time of this sluggish economy, “many theaters… have been scaling back in the size and scope of the shows or doing smaller cast shows in an effort to save money.” But he notes that it is important for theaters “not to cut programming or marketing; after all, that is the basis of why we’re in business.” Instead, theaters should be sure they know what their audience wants to see, and then program more of it.
Stimulating theater, by and large, has been a tough sell in the South Bay. That’s why the Westside exists, and North Hollywood.
Just north of us, the Kentwood Players in Westchester bring out several plays or musicals each season, as they have for the past 61 years. Shari Barrett, who oversees their publicity, says that the biggest change she’s seen has come via the internet: “Theaters today must use online sites, more than just their own websites, to reach people who will never pick up a newspaper when deciding on what entertainment choice to make.” Barrett also observes that fewer people opt to become season subscribers, as in the past, in part because there are so many options available, not just in theater but in competing art forms, and perhaps the tendency has been – in this depressed climate – to be more selective rather than to commit entirely to one venue.
Art galleries forever
The local art scene’s World Trade Center was Gallery C in Hermosa Beach, which opened in June of 2003 and was hit by the airplanes of a bad economy maybe three years back. It had become the jewel of the downtown area, in the nicely refurbished space of the former Bijou Theatre. At the height of its success it even spawned and nurtured an additional small gallery on the corner of Tenth and Hermosa Avenue.
These days, Hermosa Beach has no art gallery, no movie house, and no bookstore. Either/Or: Sigh, let’s not go there! Okay, on to Manhattan Beach and the Creative Arts Center, which sometimes displays appealing work, especially when Homeira Goldstein and Arts Manhattan step in and utilize the space for a few weeks.
On the other end of the spectrum is slouching, paint-splattered Richard Stephens, who’s been running Cannery Row Art Studios in Redondo Beach for 20 years. The city probably wants to tear it down, but that would be the equivalent, would it not, of New York City demolishing the Statue of Liberty.
This isn’t to say that Stephens is pulling in the bucks. “This is my passion,” he says. “I have lost money every year since I started. I bitch about it, but when I look at the big picture I have gotten the chance to be whomever I want, and my choice is gallery owner, or [promoter] of the arts.”
The Alex Hailey Gallery in Gardena had a short but lively run during the second half of the decade. PS Zask Gallery at Golden Cove in Rancho Palos Verdes recently acquired a larger space, and ArtLife Gallery in El Segundo Plaza just opened its doors. Summer Studios in Lomita has public gatherings on the fourth Friday of each month. The Palos Verdes Art Center remains a venerable institution, and the art galleries at El Camino College and UC Dominguez Hills have regular art exhibits. The biggest change has been the transformation of the Joslyn Fine Arts Gallery at the Cultural Arts Center in Torrance into the Torrance Art Museum, which got off to an impressive start with Kristina Newhouse and is now curated by Max Presneill. The venue actually picks up where Gallery C left off, proving, once again, that what ceases to exist in one corner of the South Bay may very likely take root and flourish in another. ER
