Leadership / 05.29.24
After 100 Years, The Balboa Theatre in San Diego Still Packs a Punch
Teddy Durgin
Abigail Buell
The leading image is courtesy of the Balboa Theatre.
The Balboa Theatre in San Diego recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. The venue was designed by architect William Wheeler and constructed by the Wurster Construction Company, opening in March 1924 as a vaudeville and cinema theatre originally. Now operated by San Diego Theatres and listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, the Balboa is one of the city’s premier performing arts venues, hosting everything from concerts to touring companies of Broadway productions.
Abigail Buell, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development at San Diego Theatres, calls it the “crown jewel of theatres in San Diego. It is historic, it is breathtakingly beautiful, and it’s a home for so many artists both within San Diego and nationally and internationally. It’s a place where life moments happen. Team that with a milestone celebration — where we spent a lot of time doing upgrades to the exterior, bringing in new carpet, looking at how our programming can be even more impactful to the community — and this is just a special time.”
JaeTi Randall-Valdes
Buell is especially pleased to tout the recent launch of the Balboa Theatre Grant Fund. “It’s basically our community impact fund where we are raising money and annually awarding local nonprofits with funds to help them have access to the building pricewise, but more so providing them with services,” she says. “We all know where arts organizations are in today’s world. The nice thing is we are a stable business, and we can provide some of these arts groups that don’t have a strong business background with marketing services, accounting services, ticketing services and so forth.”
JaeTi Randall-Valdes also gets a special buzz working at and for the Balboa. A San Diego native, the now-Assistant Director of Ticketing Services for San Diego Theatres remembers quite often as a child being driven past the space in its dormant days. The building indeed sat unused for more than 20 years and underwent a $26.5 million restoration before reopening in 2008.
Randall-Valdes says, “I always wondered why such a cool building was closed all the time. I started working for this organization in April 2001 and was fortunate enough to be part of the grand reopening of the Balboa in 2008 and now the 100th celebration. For me, keeping the arts alive and accessible is why I do this. I am passionate about my buildings and my city. What better way to give back than working to create quality experiences for my fellow San Diegans?”
Buell struck a similar chord when discussing what her favorite part of working at the Balboa is: “Creating new opportunities! In my role, I’m always looking at the bigger vision, the future, what we’re doing next. Where the Balboa sits, we’re in an area of great renovation and development. So, I am looking at the role the Balboa will play in that. It will be a big one! It will likely be the entrance to a brand-new theatre arts district and a place where people will truly be able to live, work and play.”
Of course, a venue that has been around for a century does have its own set of operational challenges. Randall-Valdes notes that among the biggest issues staff face are “a lack of lobby space, no loading dock — straight from the street onto the stage — and narrow rows in the balcony. Many shows sell out despite these challenges. But if we have back-to-back performances on the same day, turning the house over between events can be a challenge.”
This hasn’t stopped the venue from playing host to some truly noteworthy shows and programs, particularly in recent times. Buell notes, “The San Diego Spotlight comes to mind where we had 12 local groups all perform in one evening for the 100th. Everything from the Voices of Our City Homeless Choir to the San Diego Opera. There was a high school students jazz band. And, subsequently, our gala performance was with Hershey Felder, who basically did a sing-along. It was a moment where you had 1,300 people in the audience all singing together for 90 minutes. People were brought to tears. It’s magic moments like that!”
Randall-Valdes notes that the Balboa has also hosted such notable artists as Lily Tomlin, Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, Sutton Foster, Josh Groban and B.B. King over the years and was the first stop on the initial national tour of “Spring Awakening.”
Looking ahead, how will our two interviewees and their colleagues continue celebrating the Balboa's 100th anniversary? Both touted the fact that they and the venue’s attendees will be raising a glass of special beer to toast the historic venue. Randall-Valdes says, “We have established a relationship and collaboration on a local beer — Resident Brewing’s ‘Century Cerveza,’ a Mexican lager featuring the Balboa Theatre on the can! San Diego is a major craft beer hub, so this was truly special. The beer will be sold in both of our venues [The San Diego Civic Theatre being the other] for the rest of 2024.”
Buell calls the creation of Century Cerveza “one of the most creative things that has come out of [the 100th anniversary] effort. I, one other person on our staff, and the Brewery sat down and created what it would look like. We talked about the taste, the type of beer, and now we’re indeed selling it. People love it. It’s a really good beer for a really great theatre!”
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Tags: Leadership , Anniversaries