Local philanthropist donates $2.3 million to PacRep, ensuring phase two of construction is a go.

Bertie Bialek Elliott made headlines in February when she donated $106 million to Montage Health, the nonprofit that operates Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, to build a mental health treatment center for youth in Monterey.

The philanthropist—whose wealth comes in part from being an early investor in her brother, Warren Buffett’s, company—is making waves in Monterey County’s nonprofit world again, with an Oct. 10 announcement that she gave $2.3 million to Pacific Repertory Theatre in Carmel.

"It's amazing," PacRep Executive Director Stephen Moorer says. "There were literally tears in the office when I made the announcement."

The donation is the bulk of what PacRep needs for the second (and final) phase of a major remodel. The total cost for the final phase is $2.7 million, and Elliott's gift, combined with funds raised so far, leaves the nonprofit theater with just $200,000 left to raise. 

Elliott also donated $500,000 to kick off the phase-one capital campaign, which focused on renovating the 99-seat Circle Theatre. That $2 million effort, launched in 2008 and completed in 2011, also addressed urgent health and safety basics like a seismic retrofit, electrical upgrades and new fire sprinklers.

This second-phase campaign is meant to focus on the larger, 300-seat Golden Bough Theatre, and will be a major remodel. There will be new "thrust" seating with rise to improve audience views, boosting the back row 16 feet above where it is currently; an expanded lobby; renovated restrooms; better temperature and ventilation controls; and box seats, among other improvements. 

Moorer says phase one of the construction focused mostly on the stage and backstage areas; phase two will focus on the audience experience, and make the theater-going experience more comfortable—better sight lines to the stage, better lighting, better sound, a nicer lobby, nicer bathrooms, better temperature controls—things that minimize distraction and discomfort, helping audience members really focus on the art. 

"Instead of HVAC, we just have H," Moorer says. "We will have the other three letters. Audiences don't need to be fanning themselves." 

He met with Elliott, a regular PacRep theater-goer and supporter, to tell her about the fundraising push. "We agreed it was going to be a tough road, and take several years, short of some transformational gift," he says. He didn't know that that single transformational gift would come from her, but it did—and now they can proceed with permitting and planning, which Moorer expects will take a full year, and plan on construction from February-July of 2020. (They may do a show or two in the smaller Circle Theatre during that time.)

The fundraising push is a requirement of running a theater like this, Moorer adds; the shows themselves barely break even in the end. 

"It takes a Beauty and the Beast to pay for a Julius Caesar," he says. "On a straight drama, we will lose $20,000, easy. On a big musical, we might make $20,000 to $30,000."

The upgrades to the facility, he adds, will help the nonprofit theater not just improve theater-going, but support emerging artists. "Part of our mission is to provide facilities where artists can nurture and grow. It's really true that when you have a dressing room that's decent—that has a dresser and a light and a mirror—when a teenager turns to you and gives you a thumbs up, you're like, 'OK this is cool, it means something to them.'"