A home for their 40th

Tom Titus

Visiting the spacious theater utilized since 1994 by the Huntington

Beach Playhouse at the city’s main library, someone from another

community theater group would be forgiven for turning a little green.

Locally, only the Laguna Playhouse -- long since graduated from a

community theater to a full equity operation -- surpasses Huntington

Beach’s performing facility in scope and amenities. But, while the

Library Theater certainly is impressive, it’s not quite home sweet home.

Last season, the playhouse was in danger of continuing its nomadic

history when library trustees proposed a whopping rent increase. After

lengthy negotiations with the city, the playhouse has been allowed to

continue renting the Library Theater -- albeit with an added escalating

municipal ticket surcharge over the next five years.

Playgoers accustomed to strolling across the hall after the opening

night performance to partake of champagne and munchies now must drive a

few blocks to the playhouse’s rehearsal hall on Gothard Street to toast

the latest production. And the theater was obliged to cut one weekend off

the run of each show, necessitating the addition of Saturday matinees and

Thursday evening performances.

Last fall, members of the playhouse took what may be a first step

toward locating a permanent home for their theater. They acquired 300

plush, folding seats donated by the Westminster Mall following the

closure of the shopping center’s movie theater complex. Now that they

have the seats, all they need is a theater.

As its president, Bette Muellenberg, points out, the Huntington Beach

Playhouse is an independent, nonprofit organization not affiliated with

the city of Huntington Beach, and board members recognize the need for

the theater to have its own venue.

That has been more easily said than done over the group’s first 39

years. Organized in 1963, the playhouse started out in the music room of

Huntington Beach High School and since performed at a series of different

venues, including the municipal courthouse (for the courtroom drama

“Night of January 16th”), downtown’s Memorial Hall, a storefront in the

Seacliff Village shopping center and, most recently, the Gisler School

auditorium.

Perhaps the playhouse’s most memorable location was “The Barn,” an

abandoned rural shed owned by the Huntington Beach Company inhabited by

owls and pigeons, which became a horseshoe-shaped stage from 1964 to

1976. This gave way to the bulldozers after a dozen years, and the

players moved across the street to the shopping center.

“In spite of the facility inconveniences, our audiences seemed to

enjoy the Seacliff location,” Muellenberg observed.

But progress once again pushed the actors out, first to a hotel and

restaurant in Long Beach for a brief stint, then to Gisler School, where

spiraling maintenance needs and vandalism presented a different set of

problems.

The thespians must have thought they’d died and gone to heaven in 1994

when then moved into their present location, the Library Theater.

There, they present eight shows a year, including a “Shakespeare in

the Park” attraction in the adjacent Central Park Amphitheater (this year

it’s “Henry IV, Part 1,” opening in early July). But, as they were to

learn, the promised land wasn’t abounding in milk and honey.

While marking time in the Library Theater, the playhouse board members

are attempting to establish a building and equipment fund, secure

corporate sponsors, identify and apply for grants and establish major

fund-raising programs.

“We recognize the need for our own venue,” Muellenberg states. “In the

near future we plan to purchase and renovate or build a new theater

facility as a permanent home. Acquiring the (movie theater) seats is just

the first step down that road.”

A new, permanent home. Wouldn’t that be a perfect 40th birthday

present?

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.