Wallis Annenberg Center raises 2nd-season curtain amid challenges

In the performing arts, the show must go on, even after the leading actor has exited the stage.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts kicked off its second season last week in a dramatically different state than when it first opened its doors to the public a year ago this month.

Since the abrupt departure of executive director Lou Moore in July, the Beverly Hills company has had to reconfigure its leadership structure and finalize a season that had only been partially filled in when Moore stepped down. The new leadership team is also focused on fundraising, including paying down construction loans on the $75-million center, which is anchored by the former Beverly Hills post office building.

The most recent public financial statements show that as of last year the Wallis owed nearly $21 million in construction-related loans and had $2.3 million in cash on hand. Wallis executives say the loan balance is down to $15 million, of which $9 million has been raised, and that the company is on sound financial footing.

“We’re on track to repay them. We are raising funds to pay down the loans — it’s continuing and we’re very far along,” said Tania Camargo, the Wallis’ managing director.

Perhaps the bigger challenge for the Wallis is to establish itself as a performing arts destination when Westside audiences already have an abundance of other venues to choose from, according to Kenneth Foster, director of an arts leadership program at USC.

Those venues include the Broad Stage, the Geffen Playhouse, the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. And the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles is just 12 miles away.

“I’m not one to say that there’s too much arts activity, but there may be too many buildings,” Foster said.

Foster added that midsize venues like the Wallis — which has a main 500-seat theater and a second 150-seat theater — have a disadvantage compared with larger auditoriums that can sell more tickets.

“You can’t make enough at the box office to pay for what you put on stage,” said Foster, who previously headed San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The Wallis is named after philanthropist Wallis Annenberg, whose $25-million donation got the center off the ground. But after Annenberg, it is perhaps most closely associated with Moore, the former chief executive who spent nearly a decade raising money for the center before resigning this past summer.

At the time she resigned, Moore said she left over a “differing vision for the programming” and that the board wanted to focus on presenting existing stage productions, while she wanted to produce original works. She declined to comment for this story.

Board President Jerry Magnin said the company has no plans to find a new executive director to succeed Moore.

Instead, the Wallis is now being headed by a trio of executives: Camargo, the managing director; Patricia Wolff, the interim artistic director; and James D’Asaro, the interim producing director.

The new season will see a mix of presented shows and homegrown productions, Wolff said. One late addition to the new season is a production of the musical “Into the Woods” from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The new season will see about 50 more performances than last season, for an estimated total of 240 spread over twice the number of programs.

“This year, we’re shortening runs and offering more variety,” D’Asaro said.

This year’s operating budget will be comparable to the $8 million spent for the debut season, Wallis’ leaders said. They said nearly 45,000 people attended the first season, with attendance averaging approximately 70% of capacity.

Children’s shows are a large component of the Wallis’ programming. The new season began last week with the kid-friendly “The Man Who Planted Trees,” from the Puppet State Theatre Company in Edinburgh, Scotland.

“Trees” tells the story of a man who decides to plant a forest on a barren wasteland.

“It struck me as the perfect way to start the season,” said Wolff. “It’s an example of the kind of ambitious programming we wish to do.”

The city of Beverly Hills — which leases the land to the Wallis for a nominal $100 per year — has no complaints.

“We’ve tried for a long time to get something like this for the city — something for nightlife activity, and it fits the bill nicely,” said David Lightner, deputy city manager. “We view [the Wallis] as a great asset for the city.”

david.ng@latimes.com