10:30am | Between the Garage Theatre and the Found Theatre, both up on Long Beach Boulevard near 7th Street, and the International City Theatre‘s Center Theatre on Ocean Boulevard, the dramatic arts are a presence in downtown Long Beach.

But if you know you’re local history, you know it could be more so, because there on Broadway, just east of Pine Avenue, is the Edison Theatre, which has sat idle for going on a half-dozen years.

Originally home to California Repertory Company, CSULB’s graduate program in Theatre Arts, the Edison was vacated in 2006 when a structural analysis revealed that it — or more specifically, the Liberty Bonds building next door — did not meet California State University’s new seismic code. 

For well over a year the City hoped CSULB would be willing to effect the necessary retrofitting and make the Edison its permanent home. But after weighing the possibility, the university decided such a project was not economically feasible — especially considering that Cal Rep had poured $250,000 into the theatre prior to their 1998 move-in, then spent $70,000 refurbishing the lobby.¹ 

And so in 2008 the City had on its hands this perfectly good theatre²,  with no prospective tenant. But it sat unused throughout that year. And the next. And the next. And the next. 

Now it’s 2012, and because of the Redevelopment fiasco, it is possible the Edison may never again host theatre.

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According to a report put together by the Arts Council for Long Beach last year, “the building is structurally sound. It was brought up to code for earthquake safety in the 1980s, and has functioning electrical and air-conditioning systems that were installed in the last two decades. The majority of the costs for restoring the theater to use would be for interior build-out, equipment, and furnishings.”

The report puts those costs at $1 million to $1.5 million, but Kamran Assadi, board chair for the Arts Council, explains that this estimate was for permanently installing the Arts Council at the space and making complete, state-of-the-art renovations.

But when grant applications to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Ford Foundation were rejected, the Arts Council decided the project was too risky to take on.

“We really didn’t have the money to hire a facility manager, technical design people, light people,” Assadi explains. “Some people at the Board level thought it would be a risky proposition to enter into this agreement.”

Then came ABX1 26 and ABX1 27, the California laws passed last summer as part of an effort to deal with the state’s dire budgetary problems. ABX1 26 eliminated Redevelopment agencies (RDAs) statewide, while ABX1 27 provided the option for the agencies’ continued existence if they could pay the state $1.7 billion (the estimated amount the state would save annually from the elimination of RDAs). 

As the old year became the new one, the California Supreme Court overturned ABX1 27, but ABX1 26 survived the legal challenge. That survival was the official death knell for Redevelopment in California.

In the wake of these happenings is a knot of questions tied to RDA properties — one of which is the Edison. “Part of this is trying to figure out who owns the property,” says John Glaza, interim executive director of the Arts Council for Long Beach.  

According to Amy Bodek, director of Development Services and erstwhile executive director of the RDA here in Long Beach, “All assets are under the purview of a successor agency. […] We’re [now] dealing with a new bureaucracy formed by the state. […] We are taking the position that the property was transferred to the City of Long Beach in March of last year, but we’re not able to make any lease agreements until dissolution process is underway.” 

But she says that process could take anywhere “from months to years” to sort out.

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The shame of it all is that it wouldn’t have taken a million dollars to get a tenant into the Edison — a move that would have obviated the RDA issues.

“Part of these estimates [viz., the $1 million to $1.5 million] were driven by the Arts Council moving their offices to the back and upstairs part of the theater,” says one participant in the creation of the Arts Council’s original proposal. “We felt it could be done for less then this, but used these figures to be safe. […] I think if the ‘will’ exists, they could reopen the theatre with relatively minor repairs, but I am not a contractor and would defer to others on that question.”

So how much would those “relatively minor repairs” cost? Something along the lines of $25,000. At least, that’s the figure Assadi attaches to a proposal submitted by Glaza to Bodek (in her RDA capacity) in December, a figure echoed by other insiders who have seen the space.

That proposal called for the Garage Theatre (TGT) and Alive Theatre (AT) companies to furnish 80% of the programming at the Edison, with the remaining 20% by other community organizations. “We estimate that TGT/AT would be able to have the Edison Theatre up and running, with active productions on-stage, within 90 days of the doors being opened to us,” Glaza wrote. “[…] In the first 30-60 days an assessment of the state of the facilities (including plumbing & electrical) would be completed, followed by performing or arranging for necessary repairs thereof, installing theatrical equipment (including seats, lighting, and sound equipment), interior touch-ups, and planning the initial programming schedule.”

Bodek says she was  and is on board with the idea. “Not that [the most recent proposal] didn’t have validity,” she says. “[But] the timing was such that we didn’t have time to react. […] Basically after June of 2011 [i.e., when ABX1 26/27 were passed], that’s when our hands were virtually tied. Now [with the Supreme Court upholding ABX1 26] they’re no longer tied, they’re cut off.”

If there’s a lesson here, it may be that there is value in getting while the getting’s good. A more modest original goal on the part of the Arts Council, and theatre would be taking place in the Edison right now. And if you feel all this adds up to a missed opportunity, you’re not the only one.

“I hate to say this, but I think you’re right,” Bodek says. “I think there was a window of opportunity. But no one saw this Armageddon-type situation.”

Assadi is understandably regretful: “No one could have predicted what happened with the RDA. The Arts Council had a noble idea: activating a theatre downtown that could be used by many different organizations. But of course now I wish we had just signed a deal to take over the space.”

All involved remain hopeful that, sooner or later, the Edison Theatre will resume life as a theatre, rather than continue on in suspended animation as a monument to what might have been.

I’m not sure if there’s a clear moral to this story. But there’s no doubt that having an arts resource like the Edison sit untapped for half a decade is an absolute sin. 

FOOTNOTES:

¹These figures according to Joanne Gordon, Cal Rep’s artistic director. There seems to be some question whether Cal Rep might have been able to stay put if only the City, in better financial times, didn’t try to place the entire burden on CSULB. Gordon says the Theatre Department was willing to take a 30-year loan to cover the mortgage, but that the City’s refusal to chip in with the refurbishments (as an example she cites a $60,000 estimate for installing an elevator for ADA compliance — this despite the fact that the upstairs was for cast and crew only) made the endeavor cost-prohibitive. “The whole thing got completely out of control,” she says. Bodek could not confirm or deny details such as those relating to the elevator, but said negotiations were not with Cal Rep but with the CSULB Foundation, referring me to Moe Tidemanis. Tidemanis did not reply to the Long Beach Post’s requests for comment. For her part, Gordon looks wistfully on the missed opportunity: “I have no recrimination, just deep regrets. As Cal Rep we were part of the renaissance of downtown. […] Seeing the real deterioration there since we left makes me sad.” 

²Though Cal Rep had taken their seats and lights with them to the Armory, their interim stop between the Edison and their current digs at the Royal Theatre aboard the Queen Mary.

CORRECTION: This article originally stated International City Theatre performs at the Terrace Theatre; it is home at Center Theatre, while the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra is home at Terrace Theatre.