Geary Theater Stages Comeback After 1989 Quake

SAN FRANCISCO —  The American Conservatory Theater has been homeless since 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake severely damaged its Beaux Arts Geary Theater.

Oh, there have been plenty of temporary lodgings: The curtain rose at the barn-like Orpheum Theatre, for instance, and Hamlet played the Marina District, at the hard-to-find Palace of the Fine Arts. Last season, Tony Kushner’s two-part epic “Angels in America” was produced--seemingly with divine intervention--in the cramped, claustrophobic Marines Memorial Theatre. And shows have gone on in the acoustically and sight-line challenged Stage Door Theatre, once a ballroom and movie house.

“It’s been a long diaspora,” acknowledges ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff.

At last, though, the Tony Award-winning company is returning to its promised land--a completely refurbished, seismically updated, state-of-the-art Geary Theater. On Wednesday, the Geary, a historic landmark built in 1910 to replace another theater destroyed in that other San Francisco earthquake, reopens with a “salute to the past, present and future of the theater,” complete with ACT stars and pre- and post-performance parties. Then the company officially takes the stage again with Perloff’s production of “The Tempest” on Jan. 24.

ACT officials are now boasting they are on the verge of completing the nation’s largest theater capital campaign ever, although they are still a few hundred thousand dollars shy of the total $27.5 million they needed to raise to pay for the repairs.

The renovation, backed by $11.4 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, began in June 1994. The Loma Prieta quake had devastated the theater. The ornate vault over the proscenium arch collapsed. Tons of plaster buried the orchestra pit and the first six rows. But it could have been worse.

When the quake struck on Oct. 17, 1989, it was just after 5 p.m., well before curtain time for George Coates’ “Right Mind.” “God was on our side,” recalls longtime ACT actor William Paterson. “Three hours later it would have been a real disaster.”

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The remodeling campaign began in the early ‘90s, during California’s staggering recession. And as the company moved from theater to theater, it also struggled through a ticket sales slump, which at one point resulted in a $1-million shortfall and layoffs.

“When we first started three or four years ago we were talking about trying to raise $24 million. People didn’t quite snicker at us, but that was a lot of money,” recalls ACT Administrative Director Thomas Flynn. “ ‘ACT has never raised more than $2 million. How are you going to do that?’ ”

Would the itinerant ACT ever find its way home? “Four years and four months after the earthquake’s destructive blow, the Geary has become a kind of architectural ‘Waiting for Godot’ for ACT,’ ” wrote San Francisco Chronicle drama critic Steven Winn before reconstruction began. “Like Godot, a restored and much improved theater is always expected but never seems to arrive.”

But now it has arrived. “It shows what can happen if a community really believes in the role theater should play,” says Perloff, 36, who was hired just as the rebuilding campaign got underway. “It isn’t true that with the demise of the NEA this country has fallen into philistinism.”

The make-over of the 85-year-old Geary includes seismic strengthening and other improvements such as additional restrooms, roomier seats, improved sight lines, an elevator, and upstairs and downstairs bars. The gold plaster rosette archway above the stage and molded balconies have been restored.

The designers had to respect the structure’s landmark status, including working around an old brick wall everyone would rather have torn down. Permission was given to add new side doors to better accommodate audience traffic as long as “ghost doors” were preserved to indicate the original exits.

Updated technologies include a mechanically adjustable raking stage, computerized lighting and pulley systems and a new technical control booth. Unfortunately, about 350 seats--the cheapest--were eliminated by a 21-inch-thick building-strengthening wall, lowering house capacity to a little more than 1,000. But the Geary’s intimate horseshoe-shaped design remains.

“Actors love it,” Perloff says. “You stand on the stage and you feel absolutely that the audience is in the palm of your hand.”

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Though ACT has its theater back, the company faces still more challenges. The theater fund-raising drive put a pinch on donations to the company’s operating budget, Perloff says. In addition, company officials will soon begin yet another financial campaign, this time to establish an endowment.

The theater also has had to lure back to the city some drama devotees who discovered suburban theater while ACT bounced around San Francisco. But the company has begun to recover there as well.

Last season’s wildly successful run of “Angels in America” stirred renewed interest, particularly among young people. Indeed, during the past two years, as anticipation of the Geary’s reconstruction grew, the number of ACT subscribers has substantially increased. This year, about 18,500--up from about 13,000 in 1994-- signed on.

The successful Geary renovation, Perloff says, is indicative of a city that cherishes culture as much as others love sports teams.

“There has been this perception that San Francisco was a cultural backwater,” Perloff says of East Coast biases. “But the San Francisco Ballet is the best in the nation. The city has a strong opera. There has been a rejuvenation with Michael Tilson Thomas directing the symphony. ACT is undergoing a similar renaissance.”