COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT // 21
AUGUST 2021
ARTS & CULTURE
CVINDEPENDENT.COM/ARTS-AND-CULTURE
BACK IN BUSINESS P
After a year of relocation and construction, the Desert Rose Playhouse settles into its new home—and gears up for a busy year
By MATT KING
erformers and fans all agree: The absence of performing arts during the pandemic truly sucked. “I know a lot of my friends and other actors in town who went through a serious depression when this was taken away, because this is such a big part of so many people’s personalities and their lives and mental state,” said Robbie Wayne, the artistic director of the Desert Rose Playhouse. “When it’s just taken away without warning for so long, it wears on people—so that was part of my drive. I was focused on knowing that we could get back to business here soon, and I wanted to be ready for it as soon as we could. That’s what I thought the week before. We put out a video (asking every day.” Wayne’s drive—shared by managing director for help), and the community is what made it Matthew McLean, who is also Wayne’s fiancé— happen. In 10 days, we had enough to sign the lease and get started on the project. … We’ve led Desert Rose to not only move to a bigger, put a lot into it monetarily, but the project’s better location during the pandemic; it led much bigger than us, so it took the whole Desert Rose to become the first local theater community—and we couldn’t let them down. company to put on a full, live production since It was a matter of integrity when it came down the shutdowns. to it, because we had told everybody that this is On the heels of that first production—a successful two-week run of The Miss Firecracker what we’re doing, and we took their money and invested it into this building, and we couldn’t Contest—the theater opened The Great American Trailer Park Musical on Thursday, July just say, ‘Oh, well, sorry, it didn’t work out.’ That wasn’t an option.” 22, for a three-week run. That show will be After a year of hard work converting the followed The Rocky Horror Show, which will be shuttered nightclub into the new Desert performed Aug. 26 to Sept. 12. Rose Playhouse, Wayne and McLean set their “It’s surreal,” Wayne said. “It’s been exciting, sights on a June grand opening with The Miss exhausting, scary, funny—you name it. It’s Firecracker Contest. However, they came close been a whole spectrum of emotions with to a last-minute postponement when the June everything.” 23 opening date arrived. Christine Michele was part of The Miss Make that very close. Firecracker Contest cast, and is set to return as “We weren’t planning on being that late Columbia in The Rocky Horror Show. in the game; we were supposed to open on “Definitely the best feeling in the world for Wednesday, and on Tuesday, they came in me is to be back onstage,” Michele said. to do the final inspection,” Wayne said. “We After the pandemic hit—shutting down thought everything would go fine, but they Desert Rose’s March 2020 production of Beautiful Thing after just one weekend—Wayne uncovered an exit door that Zelda’s had sealed shut that opened inward, had no panic and McLean decided they had no choice but to leave the Rancho Mirage space Desert Rose had hardware, and was dead-bolted. They told us that we couldn’t open until this got fixed. called home since 2012. This thing was literally glued into place with “Our old space was just too small to be able a deadbolt on it. When I heard that, my heart to do anything,” Wayne said. “Even now (due sank, because we’ve been working on this place to pandemic precautions), we wouldn’t be since August of last year. This was the final able to go in there and have shows, because it thing we needed to get done, and they were had 8-foot ceilings, and it only sat about 75 telling us that we couldn’t open until we got a people. It was a very small, intimate space, door that was on backorder for four weeks. I which we loved at the time, but when we gave saw everything that we had been trying to do it up, it was because we were paying rent for a go down the tubes, all at once. building that we couldn’t use for months at a “I got on the internet—this was at 9 o’clock time. That’s after refunding all the tickets for in the morning (on Tuesday)—and I called the shows we’d canceled, and also not getting everybody in Southern California that could our money back for the show that we had possibly carry this door. Everyone said that produced, and any of the licensing fees that it was backordered for three to four weeks, we’d lost. so we were going to have to refund all of our “We were packing up to go into a storage tickets. It would have been the death of us, facility, and Matthew McLean saw this ‘for rent’ because we’re at the end of our finances now. sign suddenly pop up at Zelda’s—literally, like,
The view from the Desert Rose Playhouse control booth.
… I just kept going; I wouldn’t take no for an answer, and I found this guy in San Clemente. He had the door, but he didn’t have the frame that it fits into. I told him my situation, and he said, ‘Well, you’ve got a 2 1/2 hour drive. I’ll fabricate it for you while you’re on the road.’ So that Tuesday afternoon, I went and got it, and we had it installed Wednesday morning, and passed the fire inspection at 2 o’clock. It was literally that close.” Wayne and McLean were not only feeling pressure to make sure the building was ready; they also felt compelled to put on a good first show. “We didn’t even know how to set up the seats; we’ve never done a show there,” Wayne said. “All of the lighting, we had to take down and service it, and then reinstall it in a theater setting rather than a nightclub setting, and then add all the equipment that we had as well. Every day, we’re finding little tweaks and things where we say, ‘Oh, we didn’t think about this,’ or, ‘We didn’t think about that sideline,’ or, ‘We didn’t think about how this curtain’s going to fall and how this is going to open.’ We’re learning the space as we’re putting on a show. “I don’t know why—I guess because I’m crazy—but I put everything into building the actual theater, then directed and produced the show, and also am in the show. It’s like, ‘What was I thinking?’ But I’m glad I did it, because it’s been really rewarding. … It has been a lot of pressure and a lot of stress. It’s starting to subside a little bit now that we’ve got the doors open, but it has definitely been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.” The Miss Firecracker Contest was a fairly simple, straightforward show, with few special effects and not a lot of special lighting. Wayne said the theater would ramp things up with future productions.
“We’re going to pull out all the stops and show them everything we’ve got, in every light I can possibly show,” Wayne said. “I’m going to pull out the fog machine, the LED wall and our rain curtain. We just want to show everybody that this place can literally do anything. It’s got the makings and the technology of a Broadway theater.” Michele said she found performing in the new space to be incredibly exciting. “You can do so much in that theater, with so many shows,” Michele said. “It’s seriously one of the best theater venues we have out here, besides McCallum Theatre, obviously.” While Wayne has an ambitious slate of shows scheduled for 2021, he’s also got his eyes set on 2022, which will be a special year for the playhouse. “We’ve got The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Xanadu, Rocky Horror, Hedwig and the Angry Itch and Christmas With the Crawfords,” Wayne said. “Next year is our 10-year anniversary, so we’re doing a lot of reprise productions and bringing back some of the best stuff, like the first production I ever directed for Desert Rose Playhouse. Rocky Horror has been the one that really kind of started the buzz again. Everybody asked me about Rocky, and we’re really looking forward to it, because we’re going to pull out all the stops on that one. I think everybody is really going to be surprised and very happy with what we have in mind for that production.” The Desert Rose Playhouse will perform The Great American Trailer Park Musical through Sunday, Aug. 8, and The Rocky Horror Show, from Thursday, Aug. 26 through Sunday, Sept. 12, at 611 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 15, in Palm Springs. Tickets start at $34. For tickets or more information, call 760-202-3000, or visit desertroseplayhouse.org. CVIndependent.com