Wave Staff and Wire Reports
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — The 24th Street Theatre has completed a $3 million purchase of its longtime home, along with properties next door and across the street that the company plans to develop for expanded arts and community programming.
The acquisition includes the converted 1928 carriage house the theater company has occupied for 29 years. The purchases secure a permanent home for the company as it approaches its 30th anniversary.
Plans for the additional properties include an outdoor garden and a black box venue to be called the 24th Street Black Box Theatre in honor of actor and longtime supporter Jack Black, the theater said.
The company will launch a capital campaign Oct. 18 at a gala hosted by Black to raise an additional $2 million for renovations of the two new properties.
“This means 24th Street Theatre will be here for the next 30 years, bringing the same high-quality arts education, world-class public performances, Spanish-language theater, after-school programs, and community engagement,” Executive Director Jay McAdams said. “At a time when theaters everywhere are closing at a record pace, we are proud to be doubling down on live, face-to-face performance and the growing need people will have for the kind of in-person human interaction that only theater provides as technology advances.”
Other capital campaign donors include David Newman, the Artistic Scholarship Fund for Inner City Youth, the Perenchio Foundation and the Friars Foundation, according to the theater.
City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said the theater has helped young people in South Los Angeles “see themselves as artists, storytellers, and leaders” for nearly three decades.
“Owning their space gives 24th Street Theatre the stability to deepen the strong relationship it has already built with the community and create even more opportunities for generations to come,” Harris-Dawson said.
For 24th Street Theatre, the expansion represents more than additional performance space. It builds on a model of theater that has evolved in direct response to the needs of its surrounding community.
The theater’s giant green doors are literally kept open to the street every day, welcoming neighborhood residents, local children, students and visiting parents from nearby USC, people experiencing homelessness, and others who stop in for coffee, conversation or access to educational, cultural and social-service resources.
Founded in 1997 as a more traditional theater company, 24th Street Theatre gradually expanded its mission as the needs of the neighborhood became increasingly apparent. Today, the company uses the power of high-caliber art not only to entertain, but to engage, educate and create meaningful connections across one of Los Angeles’ most diverse communities.
24th Street Theatre serves more than 10,000 people annually, including approximately 6,000 children and youth and 4,000 adults, the majority of whom are low-income. Its programming encompasses professional main stage productions, Spanish-language theater, arts education, after-school programs and community engagement initiatives.
The 24th Street artistic identity is defined by a resolute commitment to the integrity of the work and a heightened, minimalist aesthetic — an approach reflected across both its education programs and main stage productions for families.
