Carmel Magazine

All's Well That Ends Well C omedian Ray Romano once admitted, "I have this mistress: show business." As everyone who has trod the boards knows, she can be a harsh mistress. To wit: recent budget cuts have put Monterey Peninsula College's Drama Department in danger and forced Shakespeare Santa Cruz to draw the curtain on its 32-year run. But Carmel's Pacific Repertory Theatre (PacRep) is still going strong, thank you very much. And that's due in no small measure to the dedica- tion, passion and just plain old hard work of the non profit theater group's co-founder and Executive Director, Stephen Moorer. PacRep's origins harken back to the early 1980s, when Moorer and a group of like-minded thespians performed impromptu shows around the Peninsula. Moorer recalls, "We were kiddingly known as the 'Nomadic Theatre' because we didn't have a permanent home. We used schools, parks, the end of Fisherman's Wharf—any stage or empty street corner we could perform on, we did." The troupe's first production was "Scapino!" based on a Molière comedy. At one point, this talented young group put on a courtroom drama called "Nuts" in a Monterey County cour troom. Though they performed a wide range of material, "Shakespeare and the classics were—and still are—grounding points for us," Moorer says. Homelessness came to an end when the group acquired space at 320 Hoffman in New Monterey. "The building had been home to a Scientology center," Moorer says. "We found a lot of L. Ron Hubbard literature while renovating the space." With permanent digs came a fancy new name: GroveMont Theatre Arts Center. Around this time, Moorer and his group launched Monterey Bay TheatreFest, a popular annual celebration of the dramatic arts that enjoyed a 16-year run at Monterey's Custom House Plaza. Popular attrac- tions included the "Human Chess Game" and "Fairy Tale Theatre." A 300- seat tent was erected each year to facilitate more elaborate productions. The impresario truly hit his stride in these years, gathering the team that would carry his dream to the next act. "Dan Gotch and [ the late ] John Rousseau came on board," Moorer says, "and Julie Hughett joined us as business manager." By 1987, the quartet was known as the Four 130 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 4 Pacific Reper tor y Theatre Flour ishes in Tough Times B Y M I C H A E L C H AT F I E L D Photo: Courtesy of PacRep Theatre Last fall's crowd-pleasing "Midsummer Night's Dream," set with 1960s costumes and music, featured Gary Martinez as Bottom (right) in a non-traditional version of Shakespeare's romantic comedy, directed by Stephen Moorer. 130-133 Pac Rep_Layout 1/24/14 7:39 AM Page 1

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