New Turn for Old Globe in ‘Garden of Delights’

Pinch me. I must be daydreaming. The staid Old Globe Theatre is going avant-garde. Well, for at least one show next year.

Last week’s announcement that the Globe will produce Martha Clarke’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” marks a dramatic change for the venerable theater, which has generally relied on traditional and classic productions.

A mixture of dance, theater and music, “The Garden of Earthly Delights” is a fantastical theater piece that contains no spoken script. The actors frequently resemble absurd creatures straight out of a nightmare.

Clarke, a director-choreographer who co-founded the Pilobolus dance company, based “The Garden of Earthly Delights” on the striking, imaginative paintings of the 16-Century primitive Flemish artist Hieronymus Bosch. Clarke will bring her own company of actor-dancer-musicians to town for the May 4-28 show.

The Globe move to Clarke is venturesome and welcome.

“It is challenging and risky. . . . but Martha Clarke has got to be one of the most extraordinary American artists going,” said Jack O’Brien, Globe artistic director.

O’Brien saw “The Garden of Earthly Delights” in New York a year ago and calls it “the most indelible theater experience I’ve ever had in my life. I would like the Globe to see it.

Clarke “is affecting the way a lot of us think. When the seminal minds are available to us, I would like our audience to participate,” O’Brien said.

But why now?

It is part of broadening the Globe’s repertoire to match the wider tastes of its expanded audience, O’Brien said. The number of season subscribers has nearly quadrupled since O’Brien arrived in San Diego in 1981. And they don’t all like the same things. Some don’t even want to see Shakespeare, he said.

This summer’s “Timon of Athens” and “Coriolanus,” set to open July 28, are examples of stretching the boundaries of theater at the Globe, O’Brien said. That’s not to say that the Globe will turn its back on its trusting theatergoers.

“I don’t think we can ever betray our audience,” O’Brien said.

Indeed, the Globe will not force “The Garden” on its subscribers. Instead, they may attend either the Clarke piece or a performance of Garcia Lorca’s “Blood Wedding,” imported from the Great Lakes Theatre Festival.

“I feel that to be an American classical theater does not mean you’re a museum. A full range of possibilities are out there.”

Hear! Hear!

Arts groups may soon get a call from their friendly local businessman who will ask for a list of their needs and a complete financial statement. San Diego is about to get a local chapter of the Business Committee for the Arts. The nearest chapter of the national organization is in Orange County. Known as BCAs, the committees allow business people to learn about and aid the arts through cash, donated services and volunteers.

Bill Nelson, a former president of the San Diego Opera and now chairman of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, has worked to put together a BCA for a year and a half.

“It’s about being good citizens,” he said.

It’s also a way for businesses to improve their image through involvement in the community. The arts stand to benefit both directly and indirectly. For instance, Nelson said, if an arts group’s financial statement indicates it does not have a handle on its finances, “we can tell them that and try to get someone involved on their board.”

BCAs are not fund-raising organizations, he cautioned, but rather clearinghouses for business people to learn about the arts. Nelson hopes to start the local BCA within a month with a small office at the San Diego Community Foundation.

Bad news from the San Diego Symphony. Ticket sales to its Summer Pops concert series at Mission Bay Park are running far below projections.

Tickets sold during the first four weeks totaled 26,735, contrasted with 44,734 for the same period in 1986, a symphony spokesman said. That was the last year the symphony produced pops concerts at the 3,600-seat outdoor performance site.

That means precious income from the summer series is also below projections, said Les Smith, symphony public relations director. Last week’s concerts with the McLain Family bluegrass band set a record low attendance mark, with only 4,800 tickets sold for the four concerts, said Smith.

“We haven’t been able to put our fingers on what specifically . . . is wrong,” Smith said. “We’re working feverishly to get (sales) up.”

The two lowest nights each week are Wednesdays and Thursdays, Smith said, when attendance has averaged 1,100 to 1,200. The symphony is designing discount packages for those nights for the remaining concerts in the 12-week season.

Beginning next week, groups of six can buy pops gallery seating Wednesday or Thursday for $25. Without the discount, the tickets would cost at least $45, Smith said.

The symphony is also preparing mini-subscription packages for Wednesdays and Thursdays. Series of from three to six concerts will be available, with savings ranging from 20% to 35%, Smith said.

Meanwhile, if you’re among those who believe culture is the life blood of a community, you can make a literal contribution, and get two tickets for a Pops concert free. Radio station KFSD-FM, in conjunction with the Symphony and the San Diego Blood Bank, is offering two free tickets to a Pops concert for each donated pint of blood.

It’s a good deal for you, and a great deal for the Blood Bank. According to a Blood Bank spokeswoman, a pint of the vital fluid goes for about $74 these days.