At one o’clock in the morning on one of the worst days of his life, James Blackman was sitting in the parking lot of the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, weeping.
The city had that day formally evicted The Civic Light Opera of the South Bay, the award-winning theatrical production company that Blackman founded twenty years ago. The organization had succeeded against all odds from the very beginning, launching in a dilapidated auditorium at the former Aviation High School in the depths of recession in 1991. The CLOSB went on to develop a devout following, helping establish the Performing Arts Center as a viable venue and reestablish musical theater as an art form regionally.
It had been like an urban fairytale come true. Blackman, a 6’ 6” larger-than-life character who spouts hyper-articulate, meandering sentences like a fountain sprays water, had grown up in a trailer park down the street in Lawndale. He was literally too large – and perhaps too theatrical – for Lawndale High, so a kindly teacher sent him up the street to Aviation. He found himself, and his calling, performing in that auditorium. His entire life seemed aligned with the building.
But everything came crashing down two weeks ago when the city essentially kicked Blackman out. He’d fallen $209,000 behind in rent, and the cash-strapped city had run out of patience. Blackman was publically humiliated – even the TV news cameras showed up, televising his embarrassment – but what was worse is he’d lost what essentially had been his home.
He did one last thing before leaving. He walked up to the building and leaned into it.
“I was bawling my eyes out,” Blackman said in an interview this week. “I kind of hugged the building, and said goodbye.”
Bleary-eyed, he was slightly disoriented as he drove down the street in search of the 405 Freeway. He accidentally ended up at the corner of Inglewood and Marine avenues. What he saw there made him stop in his tracks.
“I sat there with nobody behind me – I am sure I sat through eight lights,” Blackman said. “I forgot everything I was doing. I was gob smacked.”
What rose before him was Lawndale High’s newly unveiled Centinela Valley Center for the Performing Arts. He drove up to it and approached a security guard named Mr. Rodriquez.
“Is this available?” he asked.
As far as he knew, yes, said the guard.
“How many seats?”
“1,200.”
“How come it’s so tall?”
“Well, it has a balcony, and an elevator.”
Blackman couldn’t help but smile. Within days, he entered negotiations with the school district that appear very likely to result in a new home for the Civic Light Opera. Blackman, it appears, is going home to Lawndale.
Centinela Valley Union High School District Superintendent Jose Fernandez cautioned that his school board has yet to formally sign off on the deal – it comes before the board on Sept. 27 – but he did express hope that the pieces would come together.
“They came to us with a very interesting proposal, and there are some really fabulous opportunities – there are some synchronicities that could definitely be created for the community,” Fernandez said. “It’s a great possibility.”
The proposal includes an opportunity for students at the high school to work with and learn from the CLOSB, a non-profit organization that includes education in its mission statement.
Blackman is ecstatic with the possibilities.
“Jose Fernandez has got a great vision…if anybody has got any designs in theater or musical theater or anything technical in that area of arts or production, that is going to be the Julliard of the South Bay,” Blackman said. “It’s a real good fit for us. Right now we are just getting everything as finalized as quickly as possible…So far so good.”
The facility itself has been somewhat controversial in Lawndale. It was approved as part of $57 million school bond project in 2002 but was more ambitious than either Hernandez or the current school board has been quite comfortable with, in the end costing around $30 million. But the community has emphatically supported its schools – subsequently passing two even larger school bonds – and now the arts center is part of Lawndale’s larger revitalization. The city has also recently built a new library and community center.
Lawndale Chamber of Commerce president Dyan Davis said the deal is far from done, but she described Blackman’s return to Lawndale and the possibility of the CLO finding a new home a the high school a “best-case scenario.”
“It’s the prodigal son coming home,” Davis said. “It’s an amazing story, and it’s definitely come full circle. Everybody is crossing their fingers hoping a deal can get done as soon as possible.” ER
