Final curtain for the Pasadena Playhouse -- for awhile, at least

The final curtain has come down at the Pasadena Playhouse -- for now.

Sunday marked not only the last performance of "Camelot," the theater's current show, but the closing of the historic theater as its leaders search for a way out of its money woes.

"The beautiful theater has been filled with the art of theater,"  Sheldon Epps, the theater's artistic director, told the audience. "I'm grateful to all of you for staying with us."

It was announced in late January that the theater would halt productions on its main stage because of financial difficulties. The 90-year-old landmark is strapped for cash and faces more than $500,000 in immediate bills, as well as payments on more than $1.5 million in bank loans and other debts.

"Tonight, in a quasi-ceremony we are closing this theater," said Stephen Eich, the theater's executive director. "We know not for how long, but we are absolutely optimistic that it will, in fact, reopen."

That seemed to be the sentiment among those in attendance Sunday night. Whispers of "this just can't be the end" and "it's an institution...it will pull through" filtered through the space.

"It's a little bump in the road," said Lenore Almanzar, 75, a theater house manager and volunteer with Friends of the Pasadena Playhouse. "We'll pull through this. We just need to wipe the slate clean."

Almanzar, a former student, has strolled through the theater's courtyard thousands of times since she first walked through the doors at 17. She's seen it struggle and triumph and said she had no doubt the theater would persevere.

'We've been through a lot together," she said. "The journey isn't over."

Before the final bow, Epps said, "Think of this not as a grand finale, but as an intermission...we will come back again and begin the next act."

--Yvonne Villarreal

Related stories:

Pasadena Playhouse will close Feb. 7

Pasadena Playhouse's impending closure brings surprise, dismay

Top photo: Pasadena Playhouse Board Chair Michele Dedeaux Engemann, Executive Director Stephen Eich and Artistic Director Sheldon Epps surrounded by the staff, board and members of Friends of the Pasadena Playhouse for the final bow. Credit: Craig Schwartz

Bottom photo: Epps addressing the audience. Credit: Yvonne Villarreal/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Sharon G.]

It is sad to see an arts institution like the Pasadena Playhouse close for the time being. The question is how it got to be in such a situation. The responsibility for such a debt lies with the management and Board of Directors of the institution.

These economic times have put some arts organizations and the viability of their management plans to the test. MOCA had a rude rude awakening with its high-flying exhibitions that turned out to be unsustainable ambition by its CEO and certain board members. The management at the Autry Museum in Griffith Park wanted to swallow the Southwest Museum's collection for itself and led its gullible Board into an overblown expansion of its museum building only to see its fundraising fall so short it canceled the entire project. And now the Pasadena Playhouse reveals it is up to its neck in debt.

"If we build it, they will come" dreams of unrealistic management and Board of Director "strategic plans" have come crashing down to the ground in many places in Los Angeles. These crashes require the Boards to take responsibility for lax oversight of egoistic CEOs. Often times, the institutions need to simply return to what they do well and skip the dreams of building some new edifice or undertaking overblown programming that does not fire the imagination of their public.

Hint: If your attendance is flat or declining, don't think that spending more money on programming or a building will necessarily "cure" the problem. Cut costs, operate smart, use your existing resources in ways that speak to young people and core constituencies.

[Ted]

This story breaks my heart. So many wonderful memories of days and nights at the Playhouse.

[E. Kazle Zimmerman]

The Pasadena Playhouse has arisen once or twice before out of the ashes and I have no doubt that the artisians and citizens of the great city of Pasadena will ressurect it once again. Perhaps, once more with the help of some brave theatrical entreprenurs. This, as many long time residents know, has has happened at least once before. This is rather an important context to this story that the amazing LA Times fails to mention in the article. Perhaps the long history of this venerable institution is out of reach of the knowledge or research base of the current editorial staff.