MIRACLE THEATRE PRODUCTIONS MOVING ON

Miracle Theatre Productions (MTP) will be moving on after almost fifteen years at The Theatre in Old Town. The Old Town venue is owned by the State of California and is part of the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Since 1992, MTP has operated the Theatre under a concession contract with the State.

In May the State put the theatre concession out to bid. The State received only one bid in response to the RFP and the Award Board recently recommended awarding the concession contract to the sole bidder, Insta-Theatre. The Director of State Parks is expected to officially announce the award soon and as of January 2007, Insta-Theatre will operate the venue under a new name yet to be announced.

MTP Producing Director Jill K. Mesaros said her company chose not to bid because it did not make good business sense to do so. "The financial and programming requirements for the 10 year contract as outlined by the State bid process made it prohibitive for us to participate."

Mesaros pointed to substantial drop offs in Old Town visitation as another factor in MTP’s decision not to bid. "Ever since the demise of Bazaar del Mundo, business has been way off. Locals simply are not coming to Old Town like they used to and the majority of our patrons are local San Diegans. The tourist trade is a very small part of our patron base so being located in a tourist area is not really beneficial to us, without strong local support," Mesaros added. "We are looking to relocate to a more vital, growing part of the city."

According to Mesaros, she and her business partners, Artistic Director Paula Kalustian and Associate Artistic Director Steve Anthony, have been looking to expand their operation for quite some time and will take this opportunity to rethink and revamp their producing efforts in the San Diego market. "The Theatre in Old Town venue has been a great artistic home for us for almost 15 years and we are proud of the award-winning, audience-friendly shows we have produced there," Kalustian said. "But," she continued, "we are extremely excited about the new venue options we’re pursuing." MTP has been in negotiations with the City of Encinitas as well as with a private developer with a large commercial project planned for the North County coastal area.

When MTP took over operation of Theatre in Old Town, it was a little known and under utilized venue. "For the first five years or so we had the daunting task of just letting people know that there was a theatre in Old Town," Mesaros said. Although the theatre was built by the State in the late 1970’s, it had never had a successful operator despite many different tenants. "Sadly, this little gem of a theatre space was virtually unknown to most San Diegans when we first took it over," Kalustian added.

MTP’s first production BEEHIVE, THE 60’S MUSICAL was the runaway hit of the 1992 theatre season and it was followed by several critically acclaimed successes including ALL NITE STRUT, the West Coast premiere of SONG OF SINGAPORE and GILLIGAN’S ISLAND…THE MUSICAL. MTP was the first producer to establish the concept of open-ended runs of commercial hits to the San Diego market. It was MTP’s long-running production of FOREVER PLAID (1996-2001) that put The Theatre in Old Town on the map and solidified MTP’s standing in the San Diego theatre community. FOREVER PLAID’s unprecedented success even led to the City of San Diego to rename the section of Twiggs Street in front of the theatre "Forever Plaid Lane" in honor of the show’s fourth year in the space.

FOREVER PLAID was followed by other long running hits including SHEAR MADNESS, I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE, THE MALE INTELLECT: AN OXYMORON, TOO OLD FOR THE CHORUS, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY:SVU and a two-year 10th anniversary run of BEEHIVE beginning in 2002.

MTP concludes its programming at the Theatre in Old Town with two upbeat, family-friendly shows running simultaneously in November and December, SISTER’S CHRISTMAS CATECHISM, the holiday version of the hit LATE NITE CATECHISM and THE WONDER BREAD YEARS, a nostalgic look at childhood by Seinfeld writer and stand-up comedian Pat Hazell.

"We’re so grateful for the support our patrons have shown us over the years," Mesaros said. "And we hope everyone will get the chance to come see us one last time at The Theatre in Old Town before the year is out."