Former X-rated Garden Theatre set for a porn-free play

By Bonnie Pfister
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, June 11, 2007

The infamous Garden Theatre on the North Side will have its first post-porn performance this week.
Quantum Theatre, a group noted for its offbeat choice of venues, will produce a new play, “The Collected Works of Billy the Kid,” from Thursday through July 1 in the space at 12 W. North Ave. that until March was an X-rated movie theater.

The city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority acquired the 93-year-old theater, capping a decade-long legal battle with the Garden’s New York-based former owner. The URA purchased the building — long seen as a major barrier to redevelopment of the North Side — for $1.1 million.

Quantum Theatre is best known for staging its productions in distinctly nontraditional spaces, such as a midnight performance in Allegheny Cemetery or in an empty swimming pool in Braddock.

The play, based on a book by Booker Prize-winning writer Michael Ondaatje, specifically calls for an abandoned theater space, Quantum director Karla Boos said. The sudden availability of the Garden was a felicitous piece of timing, she said.

“The community is not really going to see a renovated theater,” Boos said. “But I hope that they’re going to feel, as we do, that there is a lot that should be preserved about the building.”

Quantum has built a massive platform of seating over the heavily stained vinyl folding seats. “It made sense from both a hygienic standpoint and an artistic standpoint,” Boos said, laughing.

Despite grimy carpets, a peeling black ceiling and red walls, URA director Jerry Dettore described the space as “surprisingly intact.”

“It’s an interesting old theater,” he said. “I hope it can play a role in the arts and theater scene on the North Side, which is pretty cool when you think about it. The art museums, the Children’s Theater, the New Hazlett. It could be part of that chain, the linkage between all those institutions.”

The URA received 11 proposals to redevelop the Garden Theatre and surrounding block and will discuss plans with community groups in the next month, Dettore said. His staff plans to present proposals for a URA board vote this fall.

Among those submitting bids was Aaron Stubna, owner of the Lincoln Barber Shop in Bellevue and an independent filmmaker. Stubna, 36, said he has partnered with theater contractor Bill Porco to plan a refurbished space seating about 300, to regularly show independent and foreign films, as well as concerts and locally made movies. He proposed a wine bar and art gallery.

Stubna said he expects the URA to “mix and match and patch people together” who have plans for the Garden’s future.

Another bidder is The Rubinoff Co., developer of the North Side’s Alcoa Business Services Center, Washington’s Landing and Summerset at Frick Park. Rubinoff Principal Craig Dunham said the company has tapped Eve Picker’s No Wall Productions as well as artistic managers from the New Hazlett and Pittsburgh Filmmakers for advice on a plan.

“We are working with a team …. to figure out how to first refurbish, reuse and rejuvenate it as an anchor for the block,” Dunham said. “Our whole proposal is figuring that out.”

Other development under way in the North Side includes a branch of the Carnegie Library on Federal Avenue; a branch near the Children’s Museum closed in April 2006 after being struck by lightning. Library spokeswoman Suzanne Thinnes said a fall groundbreaking is planned.

At its meeting Thursday, the URA board is to consider the final design and financing of Federal Hill, a 60-unit mixed income housing development nearby.

Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886.