September 6, 2007

Laguna Playhouse, sans Stein
As the Laguna Playhouse prepares for a new era, many praise the achievements of its former executive director, Richard Stein.
By PAUL HODGINS
The Orange County Register

When the Laguna Playhouse begins its 2007-08 season this week with Yasmina Reza's comedy, "Art," a familiar face will be missing from the opening-night crowd for the first time in almost two decades: Richard Stein.

Stein served as the playhouse's executive director from 1990 until his resignation earlier this summer. Along with playhouse artistic director Andrew Barnicle, who arrived in 1991, Stein presided over some of the most sweeping changes in the eight-decade history of the venerable theater, which has been active since 1920 and first began staging plays in a permanent theater in 1924.

Before the pair arrived, it was an amateur playhouse (although its size and longevity, and the quality of its productions, distinguished it from most other community theaters). Quickly, but not without some pain and conflict, Stein and Barnicle professionalized it. They also steadily expanded its budget, from around $750,000 when they arrived to around $7 million last season.

"Rick will always be seen as the person that really made that transition happen," said David Emmes, producing artistic director of South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. "We had to do it ourselves at SCR, and I know that's no mean feat."

Barnicle agrees with Emmes' assessment.

"Very clearly, our biggest achievement during Rick's time here was moving from being a community theater that used occasional guest artists to a (fully professional) situation. It took a long time; it was an evolution, not a revolution."

During Stein's tenure, the playhouse's size and scope expanded hugely and he showed a knack for making a dollar in unusual ways.

Its Youth Theatre program became one of the most respected in Southern California, and musicals for families were some of the playhouse's biggest hits under Stein's leadership. During the 1990s, the playhouse began programming summer shows – at first nonsubscription, later part of the regular season – and they proved to be a box-office bonanza. So did "Late Nite Catechism," a one-person show that played regularly on Mondays – usually a "dark" day when theaters make no money.

The playhouse also mounted national touring productions of Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen" and Julie Harris' one-woman Emily Dickinson show, "The Belle of Amherst," and occasionally presented world premieres, including the first-ever American commission for Irish playwright Bernard Farrell.

Its programming became more varied and challenging, too: David Mamet's edgy "American Buffalo," Moises Kaufman's "The Laramie Project," the AIDS musical "The Last Session." Along the way, the playhouse's traditional audience was gradually enhanced by new, noticeably younger season-ticket subscribers.

But Stein left a large dream unfulfilled. He and Barnicle had long planned to expand the playhouse into a two-venue facility. In 1994, a bank branch in south Laguna was purchased to create a second stage.

Though the fundraising for that plan fizzled, the project was revitalized in 1998 when the bank property was sold at a profit and the money was used to buy an office building adjacent to the playhouse's main stage on Laguna Canyon Road. Despite several large donations, including a $5 million gift from Laguna residents James and Suzanne Mellor, the two-theater concept remains in the planning stages. Emmes and others confirmed that Stein was working on the project until shortly before his sudden and unexpected departure.

California State Fullerton theater professor Jim Volz is helping the playhouse's search committee find a successor for Stein. The process is still in its early stages. "We're just getting the ball rolling," he said. Volz said the search will be international in scope: "There are a lot of capable administrators working in Canada and England, too." Volz thinks the playhouse's solid financial footing and its artistic transformation during the last 15 years make it an attractive destination for ambitious theater professionals.

The deferred expansion notwithstanding, many in the Orange County theater community credited Stein with turning the playhouse into a major regional theater with a national reputation – and for his sheer longevity.

"It takes a lot of skill and determination to last that long in this business," said Dave Barton, cofounder of Santa Ana's Rude Guerrilla Theater Company. "It can wear down the best of us."

Stein's influence and generosity toward other theater companies will be missed, said Charles Johanson of Grove Theater Center. "He was a valuable mentor, and he was always forthcoming and very supportive. Whenever we asked for help or advice, he went the extra mile."