Alex Theatre

Regarding the redevelopment issue and the Alex Theatre, this historic landmark located right here in downtown Glendale is a large part of my life. Ever since I was a child, my parents brought us here. During my dad's tenure on the Glendale City Council and as mayor, I remember his passion and his commitment to this amazing theater. Outside all of these memories, it is where my brothers and I chose to celebrate his life and his legacy. This theater will always be the place where we said “Thank you, Dad.” The Alex Theatre is a place of memories, old and new. It needs to stay here for a very long time.

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley area, I had the opportunity to see and hear the Glendale Symphony under the baton of the late, great Carmen Dragon. Later in life, I had an opportunity to work with Maestro Dragon, as well as his son, Darryl and his wife, Toni Tennille, for a number of years. As a result, Glendale has a special place in my life. Consequently, when the opportunity to continue this orchestral tradition and build a world-class pops orchestra in Glendale came my way, I considered it a career highlight, and a grand opportunity to keep Glendale on the map as an arts industry leader.

As a 30-year resident, business owner and supporter of Glendale Arts and the Alex Theatre, I must express my disappointment and disbelief at the lack of support for the Alex Theatre. I am bewildered at the lack of interest toward the world-class performers that are being brought there. At no time was this more clearly evidenced than last Saturday night, when the theater was filled, if not by seated patrons, with the energy and enthusiasm of Matt Catingub, a first-rate showman, directing the top-notch talents of the Glendale Pops Jazz Orchestra with special guest Miles Mosley, a transcendental artist that was like seeing a modern-day cross between Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton playing a bass.

The Glendale City Council officially approved designating the Alex Theatre as a civic building on Tuesday night, adding a protective layer to the historic building, should it fall under the ownership of the state and be sold off. Now the theater can only be used for certain purposes, such as a performance arts venue. Under its previous zoning, it could be used as a church or bowling alley. City officials don't want that, but they had no power to prevent it without changing the theater's zoning.

An organization better start moving if its staff expects to raise $75,000 by the end of the month. But that's what Interim CEO Elissa Glickman of the Glendale Arts and the Alex is determined to do. Without redevelopment funds, the future of the ownership of the Alex Theatre is in question. Glendale Arts supporters want the Alex to be transferred to the city of Glendale. Glendale Arts' “I Heart Glendale Arts” fundraising campaign began with a soft launch in mid-March. That means it has a mere six weeks to meet its lofty goal.

State fire codes may throw a wrench into plans to use the outdoor forecourt at the Alex Theatre to host events and generate more revenue. Theater officials want to remodel the courtyard with glass doors where wrought-iron gates now stand, potted cypress trees paralleling the Doric columns and new paving as part of a plan to use the space to host events in addition to programs within the theater. But project planners ran into a host of obstacles, including word from building and fire inspectors that the courtyard always must be available as an exit corridor.

The 40 members of Glendale's youth chorus in grades five through 10 held their second-to-last rehearsal Thursday before their Holiday POP concert at the Alex Theatre on Dec. 7. During auditions, each student performed one of the following songs: “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” or “Silent Night.” Rosemont music instructor Rod Yonkers oversees the group as choral director along...

Event activity and attendance at the Alex Theatre jumped by about 14% this fiscal year, officials reported Tuesday - a sign that the historic venue is coming back to life after a two-year slump. Glendale's Redevelopment Agency subsidizes the theater with a $415,000 annual management fee, but that agreement is set to expire in 2015. In August, City Council members cautioned the theater that it would soon have to be self-sufficient. Since 2007, the Redevelopment Agency has spent $1 million on 16 projects at the theater, including sound upgrades, façade improvements and seat refurbishments, according to a city report.

The curtain on the Alex Theater's long-awaited backstage expansion will rise this November, theater officials announced Tuesday. The $5.2-million project, which will add 6,400 square feet to the theater, is scheduled to break ground on July 1, said Elissa Glickman, chief executive of Glendale Arts, the nonprofit organization formed in 2008 to manage the theater. The Alex will be closed until a grand re-opening in November, but the work won't be completely finished until March 2014, she added.

The operators of the Alex Theatre are replacing their event-based fundraising of years past with an online effort in hopes of generating $75,000 to cover costs. Extra money earned by the campaign could also be used to help Glendale Arts, the nonprofit that runs the historic venue, buy the theater from the city - if state officials determine that it must be sold off as part of the wind-down of Glendale's Redevelopment Agency. “We can't go this route alone,” said Interim Chief Executive Elissa Glickman in an interview Monday.

Though surrounded by the shops, residences and restaurants that make up the Americana at Brand, the park in the middle is a public one, and is at risk of being sold by the state as Glendale's redevelopment agency winds down. To protect the popular green space, the City Council unanimously voted this week to take advantage of a state rule that allows former redevelopment properties - like the park and the Alex Theatre - that are for “government use” to be transferred to the city's books.

The curtain on the Alex Theater's long-awaited backstage expansion will rise this November, theater officials announced Tuesday. The $5.2-million project, which will add 6,400 square feet to the theater, is scheduled to break ground on July 1, said Elissa Glickman, chief executive of Glendale Arts, the nonprofit organization formed in 2008 to manage the theater. The Alex will be closed until a grand re-opening in November, but the work won't be completely finished until March 2014, she added.

With the clock ticking on a tight construction schedule, Glendale officials this week agreed to spend $750,000 to bring to reality a $4.4-million plan to expand the Alex Theatre, work that was in jeopardy due to a budget shortfall that can be blamed directly on California's lengthy financial quagmire. The plans for the improvements to the historic performing arts venue have long been in the works. There is an ebb and flow to the theater world, and the Alex sees less activity in the summer and early fall.

Glendale plans to spend $750,000 of its own money to cover a budget shortfall for a $4.4 million plan to expand the Alex Theatre, even as the future of the historic venue remains uncertain. The theater, which has long been dependent on Glendale's Redevelopment Agency, has faced several obstacles since state officials terminated the property tax program aimed at developing blighted areas last year to fill a multi-billion-dollar budget gap. Not only has it put the venue at risk of being sold, but now the cumbersome process of unraveling local redevelopment agencies across the state has added a wrinkle to an expansion project years in the making, prompting Glendale to put up some of its own funds to get construction going.

A staggering amount of modern American comedy has passed across the stages of The Second City, the acclaimed improv group headquartered in Chicago. Its alumni stretches from Oscar-winner Alan Arkin to Stephen Colbert and generations of “Saturday Night Live” cast members - John Belushi, Mike Myers and Tina Fey among them. When a Second City touring ensemble of young performers arrives Tuesday at Glendale's Alex Theatre, it will bring with it a half century of comedy history. “The Second City: Laughing Matters” will recreate some of the best sketches from that legacy, performing pieces originally written and performed by the likes of Colbert, Fey and others.

As Glendale prepares to design its 100th float for the annual Tournament of Roses Parade, it could, for the first time, feature pyrotechnics or water features. But advanced design elements come at higher cost, and after years of scrimping on float costs due to tight city budgets, the City Council approved spending $155,000 on what Community Services & Parks Director Jess Duran called a “historic monument.” “It would be great to win another award and it would be very fitting to win an award on our 100th year,” Duran said at a City Hall meeting this week.

Next week's return of Celebrate Dance to the Alex Theatre in Glendale will bring several themes to the stage - healing through dance, the importance of family and maintaining individuality - while gathering eight gifted dance companies from across the Greater Los Angeles area. Among the five companies making their Celebrate Dance debuts March 9 will be Nickerson-Rossi Dance, performing the Los Angeles premiere of “Enkindled.” The piece was born out of company artistic director Michael Nickerson-Rossi's desire to tell the story of how dance influenced and helped him, and his introduction into the community of dance.

Beginning its 66th year, the Glendale Center Theatre premiered its latest musical: “Crazy for You.” It's full of familiar tunes with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Sunday's matinee (Feb. 9) was the show's debut. Third-generation owner-producer Tim Dietlein greeted his audience. He introduced his children perched on the very top row, Travis and Jaymes Dietlein. Wife Brenda Dietlein sat this one out. In a nutshell, the story is about a musical within a musical that saves the day as money raised allows the continuation of the theater.

Billy Wilder was a lover of words, and a writer above all else. He said many times in interviews that his move into the director's chair was simply to protect his scripts. Wilder cared deeply about the language, rhythm and timing he spent months crafting with his Hollywood writing partners. Actress Marian Collier remembers watching him on the set of 1959's “Some Like It Hot” as he silently mouthed every syllable of dialogue with the actors. “Good writing, good acting, good directing,” Collier says now, more than 50 years later.

As Glendale officials prepare to send in their fourth round of funding requests as part of the wind-down of local redevelopment, this time they're asking for $700,000 to reimburse the city for some of roughly $66 million in loans the city has made since Glendale first started its redevelopment activities decades ago. City officials requested money to refund the loans when they last asked for their allowance from the California Department of Finance,...