Pasadena Playhouse Bankrupt

Pasadena Playhouse became the second theater company to file for bankruptcy in California after Opera Pacific in November 2008. In bankruptcy papers filed in US Bankruptcy Court, the non-profit theater company listed its assets as worth $102,000 in cash and savings while its debts amounted to $2.3 million, most of which are subscriptions from some 1,000 to 5,000 subscribers who made advanced payments on plays that are yet to be produced. A detailed list of creditors was not available.

The theater’s other assets come up to about $7 million but $5.9 million out of this amount comprises of pledges for specific purposes. A major part of the pledges is for adding an annex to the existing seating that would accommodate another 300 to 400 seats to the existing 684-seat main stage and 86-seat Carrie Hamilton Theater. As such these funds are not available for the general running of the theater.

Pasadena Playhouse also has $385,000 in accounts receivable, $145,000 in items such as prepaid insurance and just over $1 million in fixed assets comprising of theater equipment, office equipment and improvements to its two leased stages.

Among its liabilities are $422,000 in accounts payable, $1.1 million in subscriptions to its six-show 2010 season (only one show has been performed so far before the theater shut down), two bank loans amounting to $572,000 and another loan of $49,000 from the city of Pasadena.

Pasadena Playhouse has not had a show since February 7. It took them quite a long time to decide and prepare the documents required for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. They have since appointed a bankruptcy attorney firm and hope to set in order their reorganization plans to bring the theater back into production. Stephen Eich, the Executive Director of Pasadena Playhouse, had no comments about what might happen next and simply stated the company’s reliance on their attorneys.

In March, KOST-FM filed a lawsuit against the playhouse in Los Angeles Superior Court, for $31,300 including interest and attorney fees for breaching a 2009 contract to air 30-second commercials for productions and do on-air ticket giveaways.

In 2008, the theater grossed $3.1 million in ticket sales and obtained a further $1.4 million in ‘production enhancement’, which was money that outside commercial producers pay to theater companies to help them put on plays that the producers could send to Broadway. Besides these, the theater managed to raise donations amounting to $1.5 million. There was another $3 million that came in the form of gifts designated for increasing the theater’s seating capacity.

On the other hand, the theater’s expenses for that year came up to about $7.4 million excluding bookkeeping losses like depreciation of fixed assets. That brought about a loss of about $1.3 million.