December 6, 2007

McCallum raises curtain on future

Palm Desert Sun

Kudos to the McCallum Theatre and its president and CEO, Ted Giatas.

First, the theater's Thursday night 20th anniversary gala with headliner Liza Minnelli raised a record $1.4 million. That's $400,000 more than the 2006 gala raised with Tony Bennett performing. And that gala broke the record set in 2005 with headliner Barry Manilow.

Even McCallum board chairman Harold Matzner was impressed.

He noted in a story by Desert Sun reporter Bruce Fessier that it was "the biggest (benefit) I've run into in my stay here."

As noteworthy as that is, it's the theater's look to the future that's even more exciting and beneficial to Coachella Valley residents.

Giatas and the board are looking to add a 2,500-seat theater, a 300-seat cabaret theater, and an educational building, plus giving the McCallum Theatre a facelift.

Board members James Houston and Peter Solomon are focusing on architectural plans to determine how much the project will cost before the board can launch a capital campaign. They hope to have a price tag by late January.

Here are thoughts Giatas shared with Fessier on the theater's development.

The new complex

"We have selected an architect and a theater consultant and we're very much into defining the architectural program of this performing arts center."

Fundraising

"We're not going to break ground until we have a huge, if not all, the moneys committed. If we end up with 75 percent of the monies committed, we might break ground.

"I got this place out of debt, I'm not interested in putting it back into debt. You have to look at the finances. It's not just getting the money to do it, it's getting the people in to support it.

"When I came here, the theater was so upside down financially, the board said, 'You'd better financially be successful.'

"If you take chances, sometimes you're successful, sometimes you're not.

"I think we could be a little more (daring) for the right reasons. With the cabaret theater, there's a huge market of comedy and jazz clubs that takes everything to a different level. "

McCallum Theatre Institute

"I would love to see the arts have an important place in the school curriculum.

"That's why an important component of this whole project is the McCallum Theatre Institute having it's own building, its own space for rehearsal and some type of performance where we can bring students in and teach.

"The aesthetic education program is important because we actually train teachers who then take what they've learned back in the classroom.

"I'd like to see a lot more field trip programs. With the two theaters, that's possible.

"If a company doing an evening performance stays over the next day and does a morning performance, we can book a comic that night because there's really no set-up for that sort of thing.

"I think it would open the McCallum or even the cabaret up more for field trips."