Theater Is Kept Alive by Pledge : Arts: The last-minute $100,000 anonymous gift saves the financially troubled Los Angeles complex from closing this week.

A last-minute $100,000 pledge saved the financially troubled Los Angeles Theatre Center from closing this week, officials said Tuesday.

The pledge, disclosed at a Tuesday morning press conference, brought the total raised in a crash fund-raising campaign to $315,000--$65,000 more than LATC artistic director Bill Bushnell said would be needed to prevent immediate closure of the downtown complex.

LATC still needs to raise another $185,000 by the end of the month, but the successful first round of fund raising was viewed by some as an indication that the theater center may finally have started to solve financial problems that have put it $1 million in debt.

“LATC is here to stay. It won’t be easy, but we will prevail,” Bushnell said.

The $100,000 gift--made late Monday night by a donor who refused to be identified, theater officials said--represented important progress toward reaching the $500,000 total set as a goal for the end of August. Bushnell has said that money is crucial to regaining financial stability through the end of the year.

The gift was made after a fund-raising benefit in the LATC’s Tom Bradley Theatre by cast members of the hit musical “The Phantom of the Opera” and several other performers. At the close of the benefit, the fund-raising campaign had actually yielded just $214,000, Bushnell said--well short of the figure on which the LATC had publicly staked its survival.

But a donation of $1,000 was received after the curtain from David Henry Hwang, the playwright and author of “M. Butterfly,” Bushnell said, and the $100,000 anonymous gift several hours later pushed to $315,000 the money raised since the LATC’s plight was publicly disclosed nearly two weeks ago.

Mayor Tom Bradley released a statement saying he was “delighted and encouraged” by news that the fund-raising milestone had apparently been passed. “The announcement today demonstrates that when the people of Los Angeles are asked to help, they respond,” Bradley said.

The euphoria was dampened hours later, however, when four LATC directors called a special meeting of the Board of Directors for Thursday night to consider a resolution to suspend operations.

The initiative was described in an internal board memorandum, dated Monday, as based on worry that the LATC’s precarious financial situation might result in creditors attempting to satisfy money claims by suing board members personally.

“The LATC continues to flounder. The financial prospects for LATC--even with the current fund-raising drive--provide little support for an expectation of financial stability,” the memo said. “We believe the board should formally exercise its responsibility. At the meeting, we will introduce a resolution calling for the suspension of LATC operations.”

Bushnell, who predicted that the initiative would be beaten back easily, called the demand for a special meeting extraordinary and self-destructive, coming at a moment that may represent a change in fortunes for the troubled Spring Street stage complex.

“For some members of the board to lose faith or have doubts is unfortunate,” Bushnell said, calling the shutdown resolution “the most ridiculous and absurd thing this institution could” undertake.

At the press conference, Bushnell announced that he would begin this week to reconstitute the 22-member board to include more members with proven fund-raising abilities.

James Hunter, director of the Central City Assn. and one of the dissident board members, said that despite Bushnell’s announcement of the conclusion of the emergency fund-raising campaign, “the memo is current and in force.” Asked when a shutdown might occur if the board voted for it, he said, “that’s just much too speculative at this point.”

However, Hunter said he would urge that the board get a detailed financial report from Bushnell before voting. “We need to know what the real financial situation is,” Hunter said.

The three other dissident board members are William Devine, an AT&T; Co. executive, Dennis Hunt of the Ogilvy & Mather public relations firm, and Leonard Rushfield of American Express International Bank.

Bushnell said a second celebrity benefit will be held at the LATC on Aug. 26 in what may become a series of Monday-night fund-raisers. He also said that negotiations have begun between the LATC and the Department of Cultural Affairs to produce a performing arts festival next summer in the four-stage complex.

After Bushnell made the dramatic disclosure of the apparent turn of events in favor of the center, Adolfo Nodal, manager of the cultural affairs department, said, “I hope this is the beginning of something.”

It would be Nodal’s job to find new tenants and uses for the $5.25-million Spring Street complex if the theater center closed.

“I’m very hopeful,” said Nodal, who has sometimes been skeptical of the theater center’s ability to bring order to its troubled finances.

Although he was concerned about the dissident memo, Nodal called it an internal issue for the LATC.

He said the new glitch, however, might turn out to be a positive development. “This may be what will get the board and the staff together again,” Nodal said.