Pasadena Playhouse Will Close Feb. 7

Stephen Eich, the executive director hired last June to run the theater, said 37 employees learned at a staff meeting Thursday that they would be out of work. The playhouse is essentially out of cash to continue running, he said, and faces more than $500,000 in immediate bills, plus more than $1.5 million owed on bank loans and other debts that have dogged the nonprofit company since the mid-1990s.

Founded in 1917, the Playhouse was designated in 1937 as the state theater of California.

Eich said that tapping into about $6 million donated for a capital campaign to refurbish the playhouse was not an option. “It just would not be any way for us to solve the problems of the place. Those monies are restricted for the building."

Instead, he said, he and longtime artistic director Sheldon Epps and the playhouse's board will try to come up with a plan to set the company on its feet, rather than try to keep it going on the hand-to-mouth basis that became impossible as a down economy took a toll on donations.

A first step, Eich said, will be hiring a lawyer to advise on such matters as a possible bankruptcy. Eich said he isn't sure if the playhouse's 8,000 subscribers will be reimbursed.

“We have subscribers wanting to see the rest of the season. We're devastated by that," he said.

Asked the playhouse's chances of surviving a shutdown, Eich said, “There is an unequivocal desire for the playhouse to survive. It seems to me that for that to occur, our position in the community needs to be redefined as it relates to the city and the funding community. Work needs to be done."

Eich said the playhouse had pinned its hopes on finding a donor who would give $5 million to have the 684-seat main stage named in his or her honor, but that never materialized.