Taking a bow as foundation’s leader

The Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation announced last week

that it had completed its six-month search for an executive director

when it hired Mary Lonich of San Jose. The reinvention of the Balboa

Peninsula theater has been a dream for about seven years now and has

endured what Lonich dubs “hiccups.”

But Lonich, who started the job July 15, has enthusiasm and a

plethora of ideas for making the dream a reality. On Friday, City

Editor James Meier sat down with Lonich outside a nearby coffee shop

overlooking the water and discussed her new job, the challenges, the

solutions and the future of the East Balboa Boulevard venue.

You started a month ago, but the position had been vacant for

about six months before that. Was there a lot of catching up to do?

I think whenever you’re new to an organization, it’s not so much

catch-up. It’s really taking the time to talk to enough people to

understand where the organization’s at. And that’s really what I’ve

spent the good majority of my time doing -- talking everything from

staff to board members to those who have made major investments in

the organization, city officials and then just some general people in

the community.

Sometimes, I’ll just walk into a coffee shop and I’ll ask someone

I don’t even know what they know about the theater project. I want to

capture what the people in the area know about the project and where

is it really at. As well as going through the financial records and

some of the recent history.

So that’s really where I’ve spent my time. [Thursday] was one

month to the day I started and I made my initial preliminary

proposals to the board of directors. I captured what I heard and put

it into some action plans. You’ll hear me talking about putting

things in place that are consistent with good industry business

practices. That’s really what I’m trying to do with all of the things

I’m putting in place.

This project, while a wonderful dream with eventually a great

result, has run into some setbacks and obstacles. What convinced you

to take it on?

First of all, projects have bumps and hiccups. They’re very

typical. It would be very unusual from the start of a major project

like this to just have everything go from start to finish without

left or right turns, or ups or downs. It’s very typical of a project.

So I don’t think there’s anything unusual about that.

One of the things that might be unusual is the fact that typically

those ups and downs, right and left turns aren’t something that is

necessarily so public. But when you have a small community like this,

all of a sudden, all of those things become very public knowledge.

And, of course, that’s not necessarily bad, but the interesting piece

of that is that the general public isn’t intimately involved in the

project so they’re looking at it from the peripheral and don’t

necessarily know or understand why some of these things are happening

and whether they’re good or bad from the project. So I don’t think

there’s anything untypical, just other than that it’s been a little

more public.

Why I took is because there is a tremendous potential. I mean this

is a place where you talk to people throughout Orange County and

mention the Balboa Theater and many, many people have really fond

memories of the Balboa Theater. So to bring that memory to life again

and build a facility that will live long-term -- their memories are

in film -- we know that from a business standpoint that to make that

project live long-term, we have to bring more to it and that’s why we

look at a multipurpose venue. It serves more people.

So I saw a tremendous potential. It’s an absolutely beautiful

place. It’s a one-of-a-kind location; quite frankly, you don’t [see]

places like this everywhere. And a little theater that a lot of

people are very passionate about. A lot of those ingredients, you

know, spell out success.

Now, because of that community’s passion, they probably have a lot

of ideas of their own. So, have you welcomed all of their ideas or do

you have some ideas that don’t mix well with theirs?

I think the important thing about any project is that everybody be

able to express their ideas. And the object is, and one of the things

you going to start seeing gel with this project, the best thing you

can do is get people together and get their ideas on a table and

collaboratively come up with the ultimate vision that everyone can

put their arms around and work for. Then you have a real cohesive

group of people who all buy into the vision, all are willing to put

time and energy into making that vision come to be, so I can tell you

that some of the recommendations I made to the board involve just

that.

It’s making sure that those that made major investments in the

organization are part of the process in shaping the organization. We

should be meeting with them all the time one on one. They should know

exactly where we are. We should be seeking their advice. These people

are good business people. They have a lot to share with the

organization that we can benefit from. So let’s get those people on

board and stay very, very close to them. Let’s make sure they have

every opportunity to give and share their advice and that we have

every opportunity to share with them everything we’re doing. That’s

one piece of it.

The other piece is taking the board -- and we have 15 board

members, hardly what I would call a huge board -- the unique

opportunity we have is each of those people brings expertise to the

organization that we can utilize in a better way than we are. So you

take those individuals and you take their expertise and you put them

as a leader in charge of a team. They then are charged to go out to

the greater community and get people to work with them in their

particular area of expertise that they’re working toward for the

theater. Now all of a sudden you’ve engaged people from the broader

community -- not just the peninsula -- who care about the project,

who have ideas for the project. We take all of those ideas, we put

them in a bucket and we work with them. That’s how you end up with a

good project. You need to be open to everybody’s ideas. I could come

in and design a project of my very own, but it’s not the Mary Lonich

Balboa Theater. It’s the community’s theater, so we have to develop a

structure that enables us to reach and engage those people so we end

up with a community theater.

Let me just touch one other thing that I think is really, really

important. There are some organizations that currently live and exist

in greater Orange County that need space. They either need a home to

present their product, they need a space to do rehearsals. Those

people exist. We need to bring those people together in a users

group. We need to hear and understand what their needs are. When we

build this multiuse venue, we need to make sure we’re serving the

needs of those who are going to use it. So we need to get those

people together, they need to, again, be part of shaping the project

if we want the project to be successful, which I think we all do.

Another piece I personally think we have an opportunity with are

-- and I certainly could be proven wrong, but I want to test the

waters -- corporations. I believe that corporations look for places

like this where they can bring their employees and have meetings. So

they’re looking for a setting where they can have a professional

presentation/meeting structure. But at the same time, they’re looking

for someplace they can entertain their employees after the meeting --

so to take them out deep sea-fishing, sailing, to be able to go out

to a restaurant or spend the night -- and I think this area provides

a great opportunity for that. So one of the things I don’t want to

forget is -- just as we get together the users -- I think we need to

reach out to the corporations and say “You may not have thought about

the Balboa Peninsula in this way, but can we get a couple of you

folks together and talk about what you really look for, and then see

how we can build that into our project as well.”

What are some short-term goals at this point?

My short-term goals are to transform the organization into a

professional organization. I think we have to be there to really get

to where we want to be. And what does that include? It’s everything

from creating a productive workspace to identifying administrative

skills needed and hiring accordingly to building a board structure

that enables us to fully utilize the expertise on the board, to make

sure that the standards we’ve developed for board membership are

consistent with the best practices in our industry, to make sure that

we’re following good development practice -- which means involving

our investors, involving the community.

Fund-raising isn’t really about just going out and asking for

money. It’s about engaging people in what you’re doing. And truly, if

we’re going to be a venue that serves the greater Orange County, then

we need to engage the greater Orange County. We need as an

organization to understand that, as professionals, you put benchmarks

and measures in place and that we report on your successes and

achievements as opposed to what it can be. I think when you first

come out and say “Boy, isn’t this a great idea,” you need to do that

because you need people to know where you’re going. But from that

point forward, you should really be reporting on your achievements,

which are all set up by your benchmarks and your measures that you

put in place. I think it’s very, very important for the organization

to transform into that. Then, achievement will come.

One of the things we’d like to do in the very short-term is to

clean up the facade of the building a little bit. We’re going to be

reaching out to the community because, again, we’re, like a start-up

company, in the very beginning stages of where we need to go. So this

isn’t a time where we go out and spend a lot of money dressing up the

outside of the building. But I think it is important to bring some

excitement and bring some life to the building, so we are working to

clean it up and addressing ways we can bring some life, so people can

start to see and feel the future.

Realistically, how early can the theater open?

I don’t think it’s appropriate to put a timeline out there at this

point. But I will say this. I think the project’s very doable.

There’s no question in my mind that it can take life. It’s absolutely

going to happen. And we will put out there a timeline. And we will

commit to certain fund-raising objectives and timelines. That will

happen.

One of the recommendations I put forward to the board was that we

put some standing committees in place as well as some as these teams

in place. But the standing committees are going to address some of

these things. There’s now a standing committee for development, which

is really fund-raising.

What’s going to feed into that is some of the input we’re getting

from the community. The users group should feed into our business

plan. Some of the task teams are working on different things. We’re

doing a market analysis, a very important piece in developing the

business plan.

Now, again, we have a preliminary business place that was put in

place. We need to revisit that and we need to make sure it’s aligned

with where we think we can go after we get the input and do the

homework we need to do.

How much has been raised so far?

Two point three million, not including the purchase of the theater

by the city. The goal out there now is $6.5 million, but we need to

make sure that’s absolutely accurate.

You know one of the things that’s something the public is

interested in. A strategic decision that the organization made that I

believe is a very good decision is the difference between is this

going to be a film house or a multiuse venue. And I can tell you that

when they first got behind this project, the original thought was

we’ll bring back to life this film house and we’ll renovate the

theater to bring back this film house. I think it was a very, very

smart business decision to transform that from a film house into a

multiuse venue because I think you need to look at the long-term. And

you don’t to put something up as a film house and, in five years,

have trouble.

I think a multiuse venue really allows them the flexibility to

serve a lot more people and do a lot of different things. That’s one

of those things that may have looked like bump in the road, but I

think it was a very good strategic decision to do that.

It’s amazing to me how many people are excited about the potential

of this theater. I mean, it’s great. It’s a good feeling. They want

it to be. They really want it to be. There’s a lot of power in that.

If you can take that energy and put it into some good work, it’s

great.

Any final thoughts?

I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of this project, to be part of

bringing back so many fond memories. And it’s a great place to be.

People here really care and want to help. One of the things I’ve

notice when I’ve gone and met with just a lot of people, everybody

wants to do something.

And that’s not necessarily something you find everywhere.

Everybody wants to help. So the challenge is on us to engage those

people. It’s a great feeling when you’re trying to make something

happen to have so many people who want to help out.