Show on the road Show on the road (August 06, 2003)

With the loss of its theater and storage space, the Menlo Players Guild is looking beyond Menlo Park. After 64 years as the city's resident theater group, will the MPG become the Mid-Peninsula Guild?

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

Anyone who's ever gone on stage wearing a costume held together with electrical tape, then danced without music after the power went out again, knows that people in community theater are a resilient -- and resourceful -- bunch.

Like their peers, the Menlo Players Guild folk have weathered many a crisis.

"Once we had an actress who got sick on opening night, and we were doing an original play. I was doing lights for the show, and I came down and said, 'Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is live theater,'" recalls Dean Burgi, who has done everything from acting to building sets for the guild.

Fortunately, the playwright was in the audience, so she obligingly came on stage and played the part.

"We said to the audience, 'We'll give you your money back.' But not a person left," Mr. Burgi says, chuckling.

Recently, though, the Menlo Players Guild has been confronted with more daunting challenges. And this time, it's not so easy to find an angel in the house.

The guild's home, the Burgess Theatre at the Civic Center in Menlo Park, was demolished last year due to structural damage, driving the itinerant players to perform in the City Council chambers, the Burgess recreation center and the historic courthouse in Redwood City. The guild has also staged summer Shakespeare festivals on the grounds of the Mid-Peninsula High School in Menlo Park, working with the Los Gatos-based Festival Theatre Ensemble.

In another blow, the guild stands to lose its space for storage and scenery-building. The theater annex, which is next to the gravel-covered space where the Burgess Theatre stood, is scheduled to be torn down as part of a major revamp of Burgess Park. Construction is set to start in December.

Guild board president Kelly Torrans says she has a good lead on a storage area in Menlo Park, but that space is limited and the guild will likely have to get rid of most of its costumes and props.

The group's 75 active members, who include sound technicians, set designers, costumers and performers, enjoy supportive audiences in Menlo Park and would like to keep the city as a home base, Ms. Torrans says. They've kept the guild going by attracting ticket sales, donations and grant funding, but a long-term -- and affordable -- venue for performances and large-scale storage is harder to come by.

City officials say budget and space constraints keep them from offering another option. In any event, no one seems to be stepping up with any permanent solution for keeping the guild in Menlo Park.

So guild members have expanded their search for performance and storage areas beyond Menlo Park to the rest of the Peninsula, sounding out schools, warehouses, vacant lots and even cafes.

After 64 years as Menlo Park's resident theater group, it's hard to think of going elsewhere, guild members say. But Ms. Torrans insists they're determined that the show will go on, no matter where.

"We probably will be a bit nomadic, but our intentions are to have a full (2003-04) season and keep it on the Peninsula," she says. "Hopefully our audience base will follow us."

Guild members are also seriously considering a name change. Right now, the top choice seems to be the Mid-Peninsula Guild, to keep the MPG initials, Ms. Torrans says.

Baubles and bangles

If this forest of costumes lining the upstairs of the Menlo Players Guild's theater annex were someone's closet, that person would be a strange one indeed. A herringbone overcoat snuggles up to a silk wrap, near sparkly dresses, military uniforms, 1970s pants, hats in cardboard boxes, and choir robes.

"I was probably married in this tuxedo, and my wife's wedding dress is in here somewhere," Mr. Burgi says, his voice muffled by heavy curtains of clothing.

The two-story annex, which the guild shares with the Festival Theatre Ensemble, is packed with theater paraphernalia. In the office, "Picnic" and "Fortinbras" posters decorate a bulletin board, and paper tickets rustle in a plastic bag. The props area includes a Victorian clock, shelves of dishes and an enormous silver hair dryer from "Steel Magnolias."

Downstairs, surrounded by tools and wood in the set-building shop, Mr. Burgi says: "We knew this building would be destroyed. The problem is that this is a perfectly good building."

The theater groups together have paid about $700 a year to use the annex, along with a $4,000 lump sum for a utility hook-up.

A playwright and self-described former wallflower with a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry, Mr. Burgi is typical of many people in community theater. He's got a day job (in the biotech industry), but since 1988 has put in long hours volunteering in the theater milieu he loves.

Mr. Burgi speaks longingly of Mountain View's performing arts center, which is on restaurant-thronged Castro Street and attracts large crowds to TheatreWorks plays. He would love to see the Menlo Players Guild an integral part of a downtown, bringing in theater-goers and enhancing an area.

While both he and Ms. Torrans say they're grateful that city officials have allowed the guild to hold small performances in the Burgess center and council chambers, they said that overall performing arts appears to be less of a priority for city officials than athletics.

"They've got soccer fields on their minds," Ms. Torrans says.

And Menlo Park as a whole, Mr. Burgi says, has suffered from losing its theater and not replacing it.

"It's like deforestation," he says. "I'm afraid we're going to become an artistic wasteland."

Money changes everything

The prospect of losing creativity is anathema to Nancy Chillag, who chairs Menlo Park's Arts Commission. Although she has spoken in favor of a $13 million theater being planned for city and school use at Menlo-Atherton High School, she's saddened by the fact that the Menlo Players Guild most likely wouldn't be able to use it.

The guild must have unlimited access to the theater during the weeks that a show is running, making it difficult or impossible to synchronize with drama students' schedules, Ms. Torrans says. City officials expect to use the M-A theater to bring in lectures and cultural events such as dance performances.

Originally, the Arts Commission and the guild pushed for the city to build a theater of its own, and hoped to find funding in the Measure T recreation-facilities bond measure, which was approved by city voters in 2001.

But before the election, city officials scaled back the Measure T amount from $62 million to $38 million, after a community survey showed that voters probably wouldn't approve the larger amount. A theater was among the projects officials cut from the decreased Measure T funding list, guided by results of a community survey.

Overall, Ms. Chillag believes city officials are interested in the guild and have wanted them to stay. For instance, she said, City Council members have frequently asked about finding a way for the guild to use the planned M-A theater.

"I think that the economics of things have dictated some decisions ... The city doesn't have land and space sitting around," she says. "I just don't know what else the city could do to support them. If they could find a facility in Menlo Park, I'm sure the city would bend over backwards to make the permit process easier."

Losing the guild, Ms. Chillag says, would be a real blow to Menlo Park. Not only have the performances been popular, but the guild has provided a place for residents to come and learn theater skills.

"It was community theater at its best. Anyone from the community could come in and learn any aspect," she says. "They're such a talented group that anything less than their own home theater really undermines what they are."

Councilman Paul Collacchi agrees that the quality of the guild shows he's seen has been "excellent," and says the city should be doing more to support the group -- but he doesn't know what more can be done.

"We knew we couldn't address all the needs in Measure T, and I felt bad about that," he says. "Government has limited powers."

Councilwoman Lee Duboc said she is still optimistic that a plan could be worked out for the guild to use the theater at Menlo-Atherton.

"The plan is not in blood yet," she says. "M-A is very accommodating."

She adds, "I think we're doing the best we can with the budget situation."

No business like show business

Budget concerns, of course, do not only plague city officials. The Menlo Players Guild, whose lifeblood is ticket sales and donations, has to keep an eye on costs when each show costs between $5,000 and $6,000, Mr. Burgi says.

"There's two words: show and business," he notes.

Ticking off performance expenses, Mr. Burgi mentions rent for a venue ($60 to $500 a night), royalties for scripts and songs (often $300 to $500 per show), and publicity such as fliers, photos and programs (at least $2,000 per show). Sets can cost $1,000 to $1,500 per show.

The guild has found some sponsorship funding, including a recent $5,000 grant from the Varian Foundation and three grants from Wells Fargo ranging between $2,000 and $5,000, Mr. Burgi says.

And the group, like many a community theater, draws much support from within. Members volunteer time and services, donate costumes and props, and help cover expenses. For his part, Mr. Burgi says he gives $5,000 to $10,000 to the guild each year.

All this pulling together reflects members' determination to keep their guild thriving. But it also shows how close they have been as a group, through thick and thin.

"We had seven couples married from the Menlo Players Guild, couples who met at the theater and got married," Mr. Burgi says. "They're still together, as far as I know."

INFORMATION

For more information about the Menlo Players Guild, call 322-3261 or go to www.menloplayersguild.org.