Closed theater shares revival strategy

 

Posted on Thursday, September. 21, 2006

COCONUT GROVE

Closed theater shares revival strategy

The Coconut Grove Playhouse is making moves to settle its financial affairs and move forward as a theater nearly five months after it closed its doors because of $4 million in debt.

BY DANIEL CHANG AND CHRISTINE DOLEN
dchang@MiamiHerald.com

With a new slate of officers and a conciliatory tone, the board of directors for the embattled Coconut Grove Playhouse announced Wednesday a series of steps aimed at restoring public confidence in the theater, untangling its legal conflicts, and paying down more than $4 million in debts.

''We're trying to breathe new life into this theater,'' said Emily Cardenas, the newly appointed vice chair. "People have been waiting for quite a while for this to happen. And I think that the board has gotten tighter and leaner and the end result will be we have this synergy now where people are ready, willing and able to make the tough decisions that need to be made to move this theater along.''

Among the decisions that the Playhouse board announced in a written statement are:

• A settlement with The Miami Herald, which sued the Playhouse in May seeking former Playhouse Producing Artistic Director Arnold Mittelman's employment contract and other financial records. The Playhouse agreed to give The Herald all the records.

• Plans to repay $125,000, plus interest, to the Florida Department of State for a restricted grant that Mittelman misused as collateral for a loan in March. Mittelman used the loan to pay employee salaries, including his own.

• A settlement of the Playhouse's appeal of a historic designation conferred on the 1926 landmark theater by the city of Miami in October 2005. The designation restricted changes to the Mediterranean Revival exterior -- and dashed the board's plans to sell the theater for $8 million to a developer who planned to raze it and build condominiums, shops and two smaller theaters on the property.

• Plans to notify Coconut Grove Bank that the Playhouse will not repay a $125,000 loan that was obtained by using the state grant as collateral.

• The launch of a fundraising campaign.

The 23-member Playhouse board, down from 35 since April, also struck a conciliatory chord with former employees and patrons -- many of whom said the board ignored their pleas to be repaid hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

''We want to apologize for that,'' Cardenas said, "and I think we've been dealing with a lot of the legal issues and we've been in this sort of malaise in trying to deal with the debt and crunching the figures and trying to get out of that hole.''

Mittelman did not answer calls to his home Wednesday; he has refused attempts to be interviewed by The Miami Herald since early April. The board is expected to release Mittelman's contract and other financial documents to The Miami Herald by Sept. 30.

TURNING POINT

Wednesday's announcement marked a turning point in the Playhouse's recovery efforts, which until now had been largely behind the scenes and sometimes contentious. Over the summer, the Playhouse board weathered the resignations of several members and an unsuccessful attempt to force Board Chair Shelly Spivack from her post.

Former employees, theater subscribers and local cultural leaders greeted the announcement with emotions ranging from optimism to anger to disbelief.

Michael Spring, director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, has met several times with Playhouse leaders since shortly after the announcement in April that it would close.

''This is a great sign,'' Spring said. "It's about the board taking responsibility. . . . These are admittedly first steps, but they're such real, bold and transparent steps.''

Playhouse leaders are able to take these steps largely because the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners awarded the theater $150,000 in July to hire a management consultant, AMS Research and Planning of Connecticut.

''We want the consultants to help us develop a way of governing that makes sense,'' Spivack said.

UNSATISFIED FAN

Leonard Northrup, a Playhouse subscriber since 1996, has been trying since April to recoup $704 that he prepaid for the now-defunct 2006-07 season. ''Half a loaf is better than no loaf,'' the Miramar retiree said.

Northrup said the Playhouse never responded to his phone calls seeking a refund. And when he attempted to file a claim against the theater's insurers, Northrup said, he was stonewalled by Playhouse attorneys.

Terri Schermer, a 28-year Playhouse employee, said the theater owes her $8,500 for Playhouse-related charges on her American Express card, and she questions how the Playhouse board will stage a ''mini-season,'' as Spivack has said she hopes to do. ''I think it would be wonderful if they could get something on that stage again,'' Schermer said. "But ... where are they going to get the money? Where are they going to get the personnel?''

Among the issues not addressed in the theater's announcement are its fractured relationships with the unions representing actors, directors and other theater professionals.

The unions have said they will not work with the Playhouse or Mittelman. No show using union actors, directors, choreographers, stage managers and technicians can be staged until the debt is paid and the bans lifted.

Playhouse leaders are hopeful that the management consultants will help resolve those issues and others. But the theater's biggest obstacle will be regaining the public's trust, Cardenas said. ''Perhaps too many people were ready to ring the death knell on the Coconut Grove Playhouse,'' she said, "and I think none of us on this board are prepared to let this theater go quietly into the good night.

"We're going to fight it every step of the way, and I hope the public feels the same way.''

Copyright 2006 Miami Herald Media Co.

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