City of Anaheim, 1988-89
Pearson Park Theatre renovation
(with S Leonard Auerbach & Associates)


The City of Anaheim, through its Recreation Department, operated an old ('20s), outdoor amphitheatre of 2,200 seats in Pearson Park in the centre of the City. Funding was too small to be effective, attendance was low (only Rick Nelson had sold the place out within anyone's memory), the physical facility was deteriorating and the neighbours were getting crankier with increasing age. S Leonard Auerbach & Associates was invited to take a look at the facility and make recommendations in terms of renovating it and making its programming more effective. My job was the programming side and the ubiquitous seat count question.

While there was no hockey in Anaheim in 1988, baseball was there, and so was Disneyland. There was little else in terms of performance, most of the local theatres being in cities adjacent to Anaheim. Given the commanding presence the Disney Park in Anaheim, and the surfeit of performance venues in the LA basin (even the Hollywood Bowl was only 40 minutes away via the freeway), it was clear that a standard outdoor "pop" program wouldn't make an impact. It was also clear that the theatre had too much capacity for the market. What was discovered was that the demographics of Anaheim, and the Pearson Park neighbourhood in particular, were forecast to change dramatically over the next twenty years. What had been a white, middle-class area was expected to become multicultural (Hispanic and Asian) middle-class. We recommended that the City renovate the theatre, reduce its seating capacity and give City staff a mandate to program it for the community, with an increasing emphasis on multicultural entertainment. I gave them a model of such a program, including a financial operating proforma and some ideas on how to close the funding gap.

Chris Jarvi, Director, Parks, Recreation, Community Services, for the City of Anaheim at the time of the study, sent the following note to Terry Lowe of the Recreation Department, the City staffer responsible for working with the consulting team.

"This is an outstanding piece of work. This is one of the few times I've ever gotten exactly what I wanted from a consultant. All the relevant topics are covered in a sensitive and thoughtful manner. A great deal of depth is shown in the analysis and the recommendations are "common sense" given our existing conditions. The consultant really understands our problems. My compliments."