Edgemar Center for the Arts Is In the Works

photo and story by

Carolanne Sudderth 

Mirror staff writer

   Main Street’s Edgemar will have a theater company in residence, after all. 
   The Edgemar Center for the Arts, a new theater, will be installed in the 6,350 square foot wing of the complex that has stood vacant since the Santa Monica Museum of Art moved to Bergamot Station. The Loretta Theater proposed converting the space into a theater, but abruptly abandoned the project earlier this year. 
   The Creative Theater Group, a non-profit Santa Monica entity, plans to begin construction on the Center almost immediately. “There’s a concrete floor and some dry wall, but that’s it,” Managing Director Scott Bradley told the Mirror, “and that’s coming out.”
   The new facility will house two equity waiver theaters, a 65-seater and a 99-seater, as well as the Center’s administrative offices, and some artists’ lofts. The 99-seat theatre will be designed to be enlarged to 125-seat capacity to enable it to present occasional full, equity-house productions. 
   The new Center is under the artistic direction of Larry Moss and Michelle Danner, both Santa Monicans. Moss has been coaching actors in his studio on the Third Street Promenade for the past 10 years. 
   Among the proposed offerings are children’s productions, playwrights’ workshops and readings and a Tennessee Williams Festival. But the Center may also screen independent films and possibly host a jazz festival. “A couple of people from very famous jazz festivals said they might interested in [having] some jazz groups there,” Bradley said. 
   “That’s really what our goal is,” Bradley said, “to provide Santa Monica with a place for all the elements of the arts to come together.” 
   Funds are currently being sought for the project . Estimated costs for coversion of the space into theaters and offices are $500,000. “So we’re looking to raise $700,000 to $800,000, “ Bradley said. 
   Fundraising events began Saturday with a $250 per person party featuring a long list of actors and directors, including actors Jason Alexander and Sharon Lawrence and directors Michael Cimino, and Oliver Stone. 
   “We’re going to have another benefit at the space itself in late October for the community and friends of the theatre,” Bradley said. Ticket prices will range from $25 to $50.
   Bradley said that he was aware of some past unhappiness among the neighbors. “But we haven’t heard any objections at this time.”
   The installation of a theater in Edgemar was approved by the Santa Monica City Council in August 1997, and by the California Coastal Commission in February, 1998.
   Groundbreaking ceremonies will take place in the next two or three weeks, and the theatre(s) scheduled to open in June, 2000. 
   On the site of the old Edgemar Daries, Edgemar, a complex of restaurants, offices and shops. was designed by Frank O. Gehry, the Santa Monica-based architect who is now generally thought to be the world’s leading architect.