Spirital Atelier

A brief summary: Anne Marie Welsh describes the salvation and renovation of the Balboa Theatre, a dual vaudeville/Spanish cinema house with a history of involvement with the San Diego community.

(Click the picture to view the article)

Response: It amazes me to see that how when we talk about the flexibility and versatility of theatre as an art, it’s so easy to forget that the building that holds theatre often is as flexible, if not more so. The fact that this was a movie theatre and vaudeville house is not surprising – that this was also a bordello, a circus, a ice show house, an orchestra house, and even a WWII hotel shocked me. The place additionally was designed with the ability to keep sound alive over great distances, though not initially to be built for theatrical use. Because of this, coupled with its orchestra pit size, touring companies are well-suited for the space.

I suppose the more pressing issue, however, was twofold – why did it take twenty-two years to be considered significant enough to keep, and what changed Centre City Development Corp.’s five years ago? It resonates with our studies in Theatre Management, so that drew me into the article more that if I was not in the course. The building has participated significantly in the history of San Diego, specifically connecting to its Latino population. It has seated between 1600 and 1300, making it a sizeable space. It has changed its core of operations to suit the times, but by 1985 the building was deemed run-down. The planned demolition was stalled by activists until 2002, when Dave Allsbrook, CCDC’s VP of public works, took steps to modernize a building that, according to him, was “nicer” than theatres in most other cities. After five years and $26.5 million dollars, he has the reopening of what Welsh and others describe as a San Diego landmark.

The reason this speaks to me is summed up by Paul Westlake, the architect behind the renovation: “It’s like something you’d find in Seville or other areas of Moorish Spain. The building thus feels anchored to San Diego’s climate and history – and that creates its sense of meaning for the city.” DC has had Arena Stage as a long-standing building that manifests an intimate connection to the city; New York has Broadway as a district that continues to define a great deal of the cultural standards of not only the city itself, but the modern world; San Diego, though probably not as prolific a theatre region, still has a past that lives largely because there is still a phyiscal area that links the past, present, and now futre.