Steppin' Out
Story
Theater opens the stage door to other arts groups
By Heather Zimmerman
One San Jose theater company becoming a nonprofit could actually end up profiting the local arts community all around. Theatre on San Pedro Square, founded in 2000 as a commercial company, changed to nonprofit status earlier this year. At the same time, it entered into an agreement with the city of San Jose that will enable the company to share its stage with fellow nonprofit arts groups, at no cost to the guest companies.
At Theatre on San Pedro Square, the stage door has always been open to nonprofit arts groups in need of a venue. "Throughout our history as a venue, we have often given it to a nonprofit," Gary De Mattei, co-founder and producing director of Theatre on San Pedro Square, says. "We always thought it certainly could house more than one company."
In a new agreement with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, Theatre on San Pedro Square will be available for use free to nonprofit community arts organizations for six months out of the year, through 2011. In return, the agency will subsidize the theater's rent for five years.
Arts groups will be able to use the 200-seat venue for free, and also have the use of the theater's lighting and sound equipment, and if needed, its box office. The theater also comes with technical expertise. De Mattei will be on hand to help guest companies with any technical issues.
"It's a sweet deal for groups that want an opportunity to showcase what they've got," De Mattei says, noting finding an affordable performance space is often the biggest obstacle for companies planning a production. Most small nonprofit arts groups can't afford to maintain their own theaters, but even renting a venue can be prohibitively expensive.
Audiences and arts groups have already had a chance to reap the benefits of the new arrangement. Theatre on San Pedro Square hosted some performances for the San Jose Jazz Festival earlier this summer; currently, the theater is featuring Dot You!, a locally produced original musical presented under the auspices of the Saratoga Drama Group.
A tiered-priority system has been implemented to determine groups' eligibility to use the theater, with San Jose-based nonprofits without a home theater receiving first priority. Companies will be able to book the theater for up to seven consecutive days during specific timeframes: January-September, 2007 and April-September, 2008-2011. The Theatre on San Pedro Square company will perform in the theater during the other six months of each year, except for 2007.
De Mattei says response from arts groups has been strong, with the theater booked through October, when the current window for nonprofit bookings ends. The Theatre on San Pedro Square company will come back to the theater for performances in November and December, and then begin its first full season as a nonprofit company in the fall of 2007.
"We're at ground zero," De Mattei says of the company, which is being restructured to include a board in order to meet its new nonprofit status. In November, the company plans to present a production of the popular modern opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, in a collaboration with opera director Daniel Helfgot (formerly of Opera San José), and Barbara Day Turner of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. The company's December production is likely to be a newer musical comedy.
Audiences will get their first chance to show their support for Theatre on San Pedro Square in its new nonprofit incarnation when the company holds a fundraiser on Nov. 4.
For more information about theater rentals, call 408.283.0200. For updates on the company's performances, see www.TOSPS.com.
