THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE AWARDED $400,000
FROM THE JAMES IRVINE FOUNDATION
GRANT WILL SUPPORT NEW COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM AIMED AT LONG-TERM CAPACITY-BUILDING.
OCTOBER 19, 2006 - LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA – The Laguna Playhouse, a leading nonprofit resident professional theatre company, has been awarded a grant of $400,000 from The James Irvine Foundation. The grant is intended to support the theatre’s mission to enrich lives through theatre by funding a new communications program designed to develop meaningful and sustained relationships with younger and diverse communities of theatregoers, while also deepening the theatre’s relationship with its existing audience.
In January, the James Irvine Foundation invited The Laguna Playhouse to apply for support from its new Arts Regional Initiative, a program designed to help California arts organizations build institutional capacity. The theatre was selected as a finalist in April and underwent a Foundation-directed process of organizational assessment to identify opportunities for capacity-building that met the theatre’s long-range strategic goals. This led to the submission of a comprehensive proposal in August.
Said Executive Director Richard Stein, “Having just completed a strategic planning process, The Laguna Playhouse was well-positioned to articulate its capacity-building priorities. We determined that, if approved, the James Irvine Foundation grant would provide us with the opportunity to implement a critical new communications strategy needed to strengthen our relationship with current theatregoers while improving our ability to attract a new, younger and more diverse audience that will sustain the Playhouse in the future. We are deeply grateful to the James Irvine Foundation for their generous support.”
The Laguna Playhouse is one of the region’s largest nonprofit resident professional theatre companies and is the oldest continuously operating theatre company on the West Coast, founded in 1920. In the 1990s, the leadership team of Richard Stein, Executive Director, and Andrew Barnicle, Artistic Director, transformed The Laguna Playhouse to professional status from its amateur origins.
Among its notable accomplishments have been the production of two national tours (Copenhagen, 2002, and Julie Harris in The Belle of Amherst, 2000-01), the first musical cast album produced by a nonprofit resident professional theatre outside of New York (Gunmetal Blues, 2000), the transfer of productions to Los Angeles (The Last Session and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, 1998) and San Jose (Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays With Morrie, 2004, co-produced with San Jose Repertory Theatre), and the production of numerous play premieres (world, U.S., West coast, and southern California), including two world premieres it commissioned being produced this season.
The Laguna Playhouse is also noted for outstanding educational programs for young audiences and in Southern California schools. The theatre currently offers more than 350 performances each season with yearly attendance of over 100,000 theatregoers, and operates on an annual budget of $7 million. The Laguna Playhouse is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, which represents the nation’s largest nonprofit professional theatres in collective bargaining with the theatre unions, including Actors’ Equity Association, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and United Scenic Artists.
Initially performing in homes and storefronts, The Laguna Playhouse built its first theatre on Ocean Avenue in downtown Laguna Beach in 1924. In 1969, it relocated to its new Moulton Theater on Laguna Canyon Road, next door to the Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters. Since the 1980s, The Laguna Playhouse has envisioned the expansion of its facilities to include a second theatre space in addition to the 420-seat, city-owned Moulton Theatre. In 1998, The Laguna Playhouse purchased an office complex at 580 Broadway, considered the ideal site for expansion since it is next door to the Moulton Theatre. The Laguna Playhouse is actively engaged in planning its new facility and will announce those plans at a later time.
The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, inclusive, and successful society. The Foundation was established in1937 by James Irvine, the California pioneer whose 110,000acre ranch in Southern California was among the largest privately owned land holdings in the state. With assets of more than $1.5billion, the Foundation expects to make grants of $69 million in 2006 for the people of California. For more information about the Foundation, please visit www.irvine.org.
