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Oregon Stage Works near deal on site A Street Market Place looks like theater's new home By SUSAN DEROSIA Ashland Daily Tidings Oregon Stage Works' Val Corbridge announced Tuesday the final negotiating stages of securing new theater space in the A Street Market Place. "We have a verbal agreement, a memo of understanding. Pending the signing of the final lease contract, as far as we're concerned there's just the technicality of not having the final lease signed." Not exactly a firm handshake and a clap on the back, but the statement by Corbridge, the executive director of Peter Alzado's year-old theater, brings to a close the long wait for a place to call home. Just over a year ago, on Sept. 4, 2002, Alzado had been ousted from Actors' Theatre by the board of directors. Alzado had served as artistic director for five years, and the board, in a 6-2 decision, decided not to renew his contract, claiming insubordination and lack of cooperation. As the controversy spilled into the community, other issues surfaced, including two questions: Who picks the plays? And what is the role of the board of directors? On the day of the Sept. 4 meeting, a large group of actors, directors and members of the theater community filled the Talent library to express their views and show support for Alzado. Among them were former executive director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Bill Patton, his wife, actress Shirley Patton, and their friend Bill Sauers, a former member of the OSF Board of Directors. Notwithstanding the show of support for Alzado, the result was the Actors' Theatre Board of Directors' final decision to replace Alzado with Livia Genise. A year later, as the dust settles on another Actors' Theatre controversy, Peter Alzado's new theater company is ready to sign the lease on its new home. Part of the momentum for the formation of Oregon Stage Works came from Bill Sauers. In addition to having been on the board of directors at OSF, he was a former president of the board of the San Jose Repertory Theatre, where he was instrumental in raising funds and facilitating the building of a new theater. He also helped to raise money for the building of OSF's Allen Pavilion. Sauers has clear ideas about the role of boards of directors and the role of artistic directors. "The only way a theater could succeed is to have an artistic director who would pick the plays," Sauers said. "History shows that anytime a theater's board decides to run the theater, it fails within a year." Oregon Stage Works has a three person board: Jeanette Larson, Lee Perlman and Sauers, who is chairman. Sauers defines the role of executive director as the person who handles the financial side of things. "They don't pick plays. They don't hire actors. They handle the finances," he said. "All of the big theaters that are worth anything have an executive director and an artistic director. An artistic director is creative and you have to be in order to run a theater. They don't count beans." Sauers stressed that income will come from a variety of sources, including fund-raisers, donations, grants and memberships - as well as tickets sales. "Unfortunately, all around the world, no theater makes money. Except in New York with some of the musicals." "Ticket sales," he said, "account for approximately 80 percent of revenue for OSF, 50 percent for San Jose Rep." He hopes for that OSW can raise between 50 and 80 percent from ticket sales. Like Sauers, Corbridge got involved in OSW by trying to prevent Alzado's ouster from Actors' Theatre. A former financial manager, Corbridge moved to the valley from the East Coast and had been taking acting classes with Alzado. "I got concerned and asked if I could look at the books. I made a verbal presentation at the library," she recalled. "Later he contacted me and that's how I got involved." Corbridge pointed out that although OSW had been successful raising money with fundraisers, not having a secured space was expensive. "The cost was high given all of the original production costs, complicated by the fact that you couldn't amortize it over time." The two performances at the Ashland Springs Hotel gave OSW exposure but cost around $8,000 each. "The major push for funding has been held pending securing the space," she said. Now, as negotiations for the large open space at the south end of the A Street Market Place near completion, Corbridge is enthusiastic about OSW's agreement with A Street Market Place LLC. "When it's finished, it will be a fully enclosed, fully functional, sound-proofed theatrical theater space, seating between 110 and 120 people, based on the configuration," she said. "(OSF designer) Richard Hay gave us advice on how we could configure the space. Ed Bemis is putting up walls. It will have a theatrical floor, lights, dressing rooms." When asked about the difficulty in getting audiences to come to A street from downtown, Corbridge replied, "Those four blocks are not going to prevent them from coming. People coming to the festival from out of town usually come with their tickets to specific plays, but there are a lot of local people. There's a lot of theater-thirsty people." OSW plans to produce six plays a year in its new space after completion of the theater in the spring of 2004. Meanwhile, there will be a fund-raiser for Oregon Stage Works - performances of Conor McPherson's "The Weir," at The Black Sheep beginning Monday, Oct. 13. "The Weir," directed by Caroline Shaffer, is an environmental theater performance including an evening of traditional Irish food, music and storytelling. Featured performers include OSF's Pat O'Scannel and Tim Blough, and Peter Alzado, Kate Sullivan and Jim Bowen. Performances will be Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from Oct. 13 through 29. 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