Making a Deal: How a $500,000 Rescue is Reshaping Laguna Playhouse
- Joel Beers
- Feb 25
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 11
The Evolution of Laguna Playhouse, Part 1: Beyond the city council vote lies a complicated lease amendment, new access for nonprofits and hard financial trade-offs for the historic Laguna Beach theater.
This is PART ONE in a two-part series about the evolution of Laguna Playhouse.
To read PART TWO, go to: From Simon to ‘The Shark’: Laguna Playhouse Launches Its Reinvention
Adelle Adkins was new to Laguna Beach when she was hired as managing director of the Laguna Playhouse in July 2025. But she knew two things even before her final interview: The playhouse needed to strengthen its relationship with local arts nonprofits, and its business model required profound shifts to remain financially sustainable.
What she didn’t know was that within five months she would be standing before the Laguna Beach City Council requesting $500,000, or that she, and the playhouse, would soon become very familiar with those nonprofits.
In January, the council unanimously approved the playhouse’s request, helping it avert a financial crisis and underscoring Adkins’ belief that its business model required restructuring. But it also laid a giant welcome mat at the playhouse door for local nonprofits: The city’s decision to provide funding was contingent on an idea proposed by Adkins: amending the lease for the city-owned Moulton Theatre to allow nonprofits to book performance and event space for up to 10 weeks each year.
Arts and cultural groups will be limited to a maximum of three weeks a year and will pay $2,800 per night for rehearsals and performances ($3,500 if they are not based in Laguna Beach).
Questions, concerns raised
Adkins first suggested changing the lease, which continues until 2040, during an October meeting with city officials. It was first discussed before the city council on Dec. 9 and was unanimously approved Jan. 17. Both meetings were lively, with several council members and arts representatives seeking clarity on fuzzy details and some expressing reservations about funding sources, ticketing surcharges, concessions, the $2,800 daily rent and just how dates would be allocated. But no one questioned the benefit to the city’s arts and culture scene of opening the playhouse to nonprofits.
Ron Harris, a board member of the Laguna Musical Festival, said one of the changes to the lease, requiring the playhouse to announce available dates every July 15 for the following fiscal year, effectively allowing nonprofits to reserve dates as far out as two years, would significantly help organizations such as his.
“A number of years we encountered the issue of having to get slotted between various productions, which made it really difficult to do any kind of consistent programming,” he said.
Harris noted that many musicians contracted through the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, which copresents the music festival with Laguna Live!, are sometimes booked two years out, making advance access to performance dates essential for consistent programming. “We need to have a designated space and time so that we can bring to the community the kind of musicians that this city deserves.”
Aligns with playhouse’s new direction
Gary Jenkins, a playhouse board member, told the council at the Dec. 9 meeting that approving the proposal aligns with the theater’s new direction – and with the board’s additional $530,000 matching contribution.
“Since COVID, playhouses around the country have closed or are in financial distress,” Jenkins said. “The Laguna Playhouse has not been exempt from these pressures. The board has done an exhaustive search to find new leadership and a new direction for the future. A central part of our new vision is to become a center for the community. The city has needed additional performance space for arts for a long time. The playhouse is now uniquely suited to provide that space and all that is required to make it work.”
Joe Hanauer, a former chair of the playhouse’s board, said at the same meeting that arts organizations have long struggled for adequate performance space in Laguna Beach. If the initiative moved forward, he said, the 420-seat playhouse would be available for multiple weeks throughout the year, expanding access while strengthening the theater’s own financial footing.
“Our arts organizations continually battle for performance space in Laguna,” despite constant talk and money spent on the city’s unsuccessful plans to build a new venue, he said. “There’s finally a realization that we have spaces in town that simply haven’t been accessible and weren’t available often enough. If tonight’s initiative moves forward, there will be a 420-seat playhouse available for multiple weeks scattered throughout the year. We’re going to have a large number of organizations that can access the facilities, and the playhouse itself will be able to have stronger, better performances because economically it will be able to afford to do some things it just hasn’t been able to afford so far.”
A vote for the city’s soul
Mark Saville, vice president of advancement for the Laguna College of Art + Design, told the council Dec. 9 that voting for the lease amendment was nothing short of a vote for the city’s soul.
“The arts are at the heart of this community, and this body’s support for the arts is not just an investment in creativity, but a declaration toward securing the identity and legacy of what makes this city so special,” he said. “The Laguna Playhouse is a vital space where art comes to life, where local talent thrives, and where residents and visitors alike can experience the transformative nature of both the visual and the performing arts. We believe that supporting the playhouse ensures the continued vibrancy and cultural relevance of Laguna Beach, making this city a beacon of creativity and artistic expression.”
Even those who expressed concerns about the proposal, most notably Billy Fried, chairman and lead listening officer for KXFM Radio (104.7 FM), who would like to book a two-week musical performance at the playhouse, thinks it’s a positive for arts and culture in the city.
“I look at it as a golden opportunity for us to help the city and bring more cultural content to our town,” he said.
One of Fried’s chief concerns was whether the process to allocate open dates to nonprofits would be transparent and fair.
“The biggest issue for me is, how are those 10 weeks going to be allocated? It says they're going to be presented in July. But what is the actual process?”
Mentioning the actual text of the lease amendment, Fried said, “The playhouse shall immediately begin to work with community organizations to identify 10 weeks of programming. But why only 10 weeks?”
Playhouse facing enormous financial hit
Adkins responded to the 10-week question and the $2,800 daily rental fee in the same answer, reminding everyone of the potential economic hit the playhouse may face.
Whenever a week is blocked out for nonprofits, she said “everyone will pay the same $19,000 a week,” ($2,800 multiplied by seven). But if the playhouse were producing a show, it would earn far more.
“This summer we’re bringing in a touring musical group, and we’re looking at a minimum net of $60,000 per week,” she said. “Multiply that by 10 weeks, and that could be a $200,000 to $300,000 hit to the playhouse …. And I think what can’t be forgotten is, yes, we’ve received $500,000 for the runway to get to July 1. Then that money’s gone. But I’m determined that I can figure out a way to take that $200,000 to $300,000 hit, because I believe deeply in this collaboration.
“And I understand that $2,800 is a lot of money. I understand because I’ve run nonprofits my whole career. We all fight for it. But it’s a hit to us, too, because we could be making five times that.”
The one thing she can’t do, she said, is put the “playhouse in jeopardy till 2040 to just bleed money to help others. We just can’t afford it. So, we’re trying to figure out, along with all the nonprofits, how we can work together so we all win. And that’s really at the heart of this.”
Keep your eye on the prize
Council member Bob Whalen said shortly before the January vote that wading through the details of the proposed amended lease was challenging, but the broader purpose should remain front and center.
“I think as we're finishing to make the sausage up here, we shouldn't lose sight of the bigger issue, which is this is really a tremendous opportunity that nonprofits have never had in Laguna Beach, which is to get 10 guaranteed weeks a year to do things that they haven't been able to do in other locations. So, we're agonizing over some of the details, and we should, and probably won't get them all right, but I think there's some safeguards in there to bring it back to mutual discussion if we need to, but it's going to be a big win for everyone.”
One safeguard requires the playhouse to report to the council each Dec. 15 with an update on the program’s implementation, including whether nonprofits are treated equitably and whether there is demand for more than 10 weeks.
“You can't predict the future,” Whalen said. “You don't know how these things are going to play out. I think we could just really get twisted around the axle trying to draft how we're going to do this. So, I just say, if there's more than 10 weeks of demand from nonprofits for a year, the city manager and the playhouse will sit down and figure out an equitable allocation schedule.”
Nonprofits benefit, but what about the playhouse?
The new agreement is a game changer for nonprofits in terms of securing performance dates, offering stability in scheduling and performances in one of the highest-profile venues in the county, with its 420-seat theater, open-air courtyard and professional staff.
But how does potentially losing more than two months of in-house programming benefit the playhouse? And how will the new lease impact its artistic choices as it pursues a new business model?
That’s for Part 2.
For now, here’s a preview: fewer in-house productions but longer runs; fewer Arthur Miller or August Wilson titles in the foreseeable future, but more well-known musicals and marketable titles; and, most immediately, Neil Simon benched in favor of a play about a movie in which a great white shark terrorizes a seaside community not called Laguna Beach.
