Dorothy has dazzling adventures over the rainbow but aches for just one thing: Home. The folks at Camino Real Playhouse — and, it turns out, many other arts organizations in the O.C. — know exactly how she feels.
“I have been trying for more than two years to find a new space, gone down every possible rabbit hole, knocked on doors of buildings that aren’t for sale,” said Leslie Eisner, artistic director of the nearly 35-year-old company that’s losing its city-owned home near the historic San Juan Capistrano Mission to a redevelopment project.
“We’ve had five realtors working with us. We still don’t have a space. I just don’t know what else to do. The clock is ticking.”
There’s the low point in every second act where all seems hopelessly, desperately, irretrievably lost — and the Camino Real Playhouse seems to be there right now. But soft, what light in yonder window breaks? It’s at these most hopeless junctures that miracles can happen, actor Carla Naragon said.
“In every story there’s a hero and a villain and unexpected strangers who show kindness,” she said. “There’s an opportunity for heroes to show up. Maybe there’s a hero out there somewhere — maybe it’s in someone’s cosmic contract to come forward and have the experience of being a savior or a silent angel. This story has room for those people to come forward.”
It would be tragic to lose a community theater that managed to survive pandemic shutdowns, only to be felled by the outrageous fortune of California real estate. But it’s happening. Over the past several years, the Attic Theater lost its spot in Santa Ana. STAGEStheatre lost its spot in Fullerton. The Modjeska Playhouse lost its spot in Lake Forest.
“Real estate is expensive,” said Richard Stein, president and CEO of Arts Orange County. “It’s a bigger problem than just the community theaters — it’s everywhere in the arts. It’s very difficult to find affordable places to perform or…
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