Marin theater closure plan for seismic work distresses arts groups

A plan to close the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium for as long as nine months for seismic work has performing arts groups scrambling for alternative venues.

The groups likely to be affected include the Marin Symphony, Marin Ballet, the MPSF Speaker Series, Just Dance Academy, Love2Dance and Roco Dance & Fitness.

The closure of the San Rafael venue would be just the latest challenge for art organizations that had to cancel performances in recent years because of power outages during wildfires and pandemic-related shutdowns.

“It is a very severe impact to us because we work all year long to be able to present our Nutcracker performance in December,” said Nancy Rehkopf, executive director of Marin Ballet. “It’s really important for our students and their experience as dancers, and it is very financially important to Marin Ballet.”

Tod Brody, the Marin Symphony’s executive director, said, “We honestly don’t know what next season is going to look like for us.”

“Normally we would already have announced our next season and be marketing it,” Brody said.

The symphony’s season normally stretches from October through April. The plan to close the auditorium beginning on May 14 would make the building unavailable during part of the season.

“We were originally told that the VMA would be closed starting in July 2022,” Brody said. “That is when they originally planned to do it. Since then the project has been delayed four times.”

Brody and some other directors of performing arts groups lobbied county supervisors prior to their meeting on Tuesday. Brody said they hoped the supervisors would delay the retrofitting work until a plan could be put together for a more comprehensive renovation of the auditorium.

“The VMA is a building that is in serious need of renovation,” Brody said. “It is only 50 years old, but it seems like it is 100 years old. There is a lot of deferred maintenance.”

According to the county Department of Public Works, the auditorium needs $13.5 million worth of deferred maintenance.

A request for the supervisors to authorize the public works department to open bids on the project next month was on the supervisors’ consent calendar Tuesday, meaning there would have been no discussion of the plan. However, Supervisor Mary Sackett had the item pulled and quizzed Public Works Director Rosemarie Gaglione on the plan.

“I know there are concerns over having the VMA out of commission for almost nine months that the project will take,” Gaglione said.

But Gaglione said that if the project’s launch were delayed, the county would risk losing some or all of a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to help pay for the work.

“We have to have this project completed by April 2024 and invoiced to get the maximum reimbursement from FEMA,” she said.

Gaglione said that even if the county were considering replacing the building, the project would be necessary because that would take time.

“We never know when an earthquake is going to come,” she said.

The project’s scope includes strengthening the theater stage roof diaphragm, strengthening stage walls, bracing the plaster ceilings and reroofing above the theater stage.

Sackett asked if the public works department is certain it will be ready to begin the project in May. Last July, the county opened the four bids it received on the construction work, and they all exceeded the available funds for the project.

Gaglione said the county then had to request a time extension from FEMA, since it had already received $365,000 to help cover design and bidding costs, and more money to cover construction.

In June, public works engineers estimated the construction contract would cost $2.86 million. Now they estimate it will cost $3.53 million.

However, the total project — including project management, design administration, construction management, inspections and permits — is estimated to cost $4.91 million. FEMA has agreed to pay a maximum of 75% of that final cost, or $3.68 million.

Gaglione did agree to delay closure of the auditorium by a week, until May 14, to allow the Just Dance Academy to perform in the building.

Deanna Masgay, owner and director of the Just Dance Academy, said her studio for children mounts two performances a year at the end of its fall and spring sessions.

“If we didn’t have performances, I doubt I would be in business,” Masgay said. “It’s just integral to what we do.”

Masgay has no idea where she will be able to find a suitable alternative while the auditorium is closed.

“Even if we go outside of Marin,” Masgay said, “it is nearly impossible to get in anywhere.”

When arts groups were initially told that the work at the auditorium would begin last summer, some organizations started planning to move their performances to the county’s adjacent Exhibit Hall, a much smaller space that lacks a stage.

Gabriella Calicchio, director of the county’s Department of Cultural Services, said the Exhibit Hall can accommodate a maximum of 1,500 seats, depending on what kind of stage is needed, compared to the 2,000 in the auditorium.

Calicchio said a temporary stage in the Exhibit Hall would place the dancers above the audience on the space’s flat floor, making it difficult for them to see the legs and feet of the performers.

“In order to get sight lines the way dance companies want them,” Calicchio said, “they would have only 850 seats.”

Rehkopf said, “Our options for presenting the show in other venues are financially disastrous for us.”

Rehkopf said that in addition to having fewer seats, the Exhibit Hall lacks rigging, so Marin Ballet would be unable to use backdrops and rolling sets when staging its Nutcracker performance.

Brody said, “We would lose a ton of money to put a season on there.”

Brody said that because of a loyal audience and strong fundraising, his organization has managed to remain financially stable during the recent series of “anomaly years.”

In 2019, the symphony had to cancel a week of performances because of a power shutdown by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to prevent wildfires. Then the symphony had to cancel the last third of its season when the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, and couldn’t stage any performances the following year because of the continuing health emergency.

As recently as January 2022, the symphony had to reschedule a performance because of a surge of COVID-19 cases.

“There is a price to pay for that kind of uncertainty and instability,” Brody said. “We’ve paid that price.”