Old Venue Readies for Resurgence

VENTURA —  The “V” in Ventura is still missing from the marquee on Chestnut Street, but life is stirring again at the old Ventura Theater.

Trucks are unloading beer and liquor to stock the bar, and electrical workers are revamping the sound system in preparation for the theater’s first show under its new management Wednesday.

The opening show will be a performance by Dave Nelson, who once played alongside Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, said Ardas Khalsa, one of the theater’s new management partners.

A schedule including ska and rock bands will fill the venue over the next few weeks.

However, the formal grand opening, says manager Robert Antonini, is scheduled for later in November.

He has already booked John Lee Hooker for Nov. 22, and Rickie Lee Jones will also perform in late November.

“That’s going to be our real, official, grand opening weekend,” Antonini said.

Khalsa was mum on who would play after that--because Antonini is still in negotiations--but offered that there would be “a lot of big-name acts.”

Mayor Jack Tingstrom, who saw “The Sound of Music,” “Towering Inferno” and other films from the theater’s bouncy balcony seats back in the 1970s, expressed relief that the 1928 art-deco theater will be reopening again.

“I think it’s going to be a great addition to the downtown,” he said. “That’s a real landmark. Now if only we could find something to do with the Mayfair Theater, everything would be perfect.”

The new operators of the Ventura Theater are Khalsa, Antonini, Rick Williams and Mark Kaplan. All four have worked in the music and concert promotion business in the Santa Barbara area during the last decade.

The Ventura Theater’s most recent lease operators, Glenis Gross and Dan Catullo, took control of the 69-year-old theater this past spring with grandiose promises to lure big-name acts like David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen.

Those plans never materialized. And after pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into restoring the venerable old theater to its former glory, Gross and Catullo were evicted for falling behind in their rent payments. That was four months ago, and Ventura Theater has sat shuttered and quiet since.

Antonini and his partners have picked up the renovations where Gross and Catullo left off.

They have laid carpet, installed an upgraded sound system and finished putting in long-burned-out lighting fixtures.

Khalsa, who is in charge of the building, said Catullo appeared to have installed a new movie screen. The new management is working to get the old film projector operating again, he said.

As in the past, the venue will serve dinner. Roy Gandy, who runs Roy’s restaurant in Santa Barbara, will be cooking up California cuisine in the newly remodeled kitchen, Khalsa said, though there will be no food for the first few shows.

Khalsa estimated that tickets for most shows will be in the $10-$25 range. And he emphasized that the theater will not limit itself to any one kind of music.

“We are planning to do anything from alternative to symphony, and everything we can possibly do in between,” he said. “We want to make this into a room the whole community can enjoy.”

Poking around the old theater and cleaning up forgotten corners, Khalsa said he finally stumbled upon the lost letters for the marquee stashed in a back room on Wednesday.

“I’m going to change the marquee tomorrow,” he said.