Get out there and have fun

The director of the fledgling Mammoth Lakes Theatre Company asked the Town Council for immediate financial help at the council's regular meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 5.

Shira Dubrovner, who founded the company in the space formerly occupied by the Plaza Theatre (cinema), ssuggested the town divert development impact fees her way, the faster the better.

"This Arts Center is a perfect stepping stone for the bigger performing arts center that you have been planning for years which has yet to reach a tangibleexecution stage. I encourage you to look at what Ihave produced just in the last 6 mos, and imagine what can happen with a little assistance and a couple of years from now. A larger venue is a bankruptcy waiting to happen if you don't cultivate the community beforehand. I am offering a service and together we can thrive but I need your assistance now, not next year.

"As the town you are responsible for the economic success of the community therefore I am insisting thatthe town not only encourage negotiations withdevelopers, but put on your thinking caps and provide programs that will give a benefit to any developer that assists the renovations and operations of the Mammoth Lakes Arts Center.

"Where is the money that the DIF's have collected and why is not going to the only Arts Center that is going to be here in the foreseeable future. If the DIF's cannot create a performing arts center than why isn't the money either returned or reallocated?"

The council did not react to Dubrovner's remarks.

The theater company in the last seven months has produced three events, including the recently-completed, three-week run of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" and is planning an October staging of "Dracula."

However, Dubrovner said the company has not had the resources to begin needed renovations.

She has brought in established actors from Southern California for the productions.

"I cannot continue to ask these performers who make $25,000 a week to work for a nominal fee if they don't have dressing rooms to get ready in that are legal and up to code. I feel I have proven to the town and the community that not only can I do this but it can be a success and add to the economy of the
community."