Articulations

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Long Lease Change OK'ed

This was the week that Arts Center Stage got a new lease on life -- or at least a new lease on Palmer Auditorium. The nonprofit working to transform Palmer into the Long Center for the Performing Arts wanted council to approve a change in its lease on the auditorium that would let it pay for the renovation with $80 million in tax-free bonds, backed by banks. Under the initial plan, Arts Center Stage would cover the cost of the $89 million renovation with private funds raised through a capital campaign. (It currently has two-thirds of the total in hand or secured through pledges.) With the new plan, the organization still has to raise that amount, but it's able to place the money in an interest-bearing endowment that will generate income to cover the cost of operating Long Center. That money also serves as the guarantee for the bonds. So how are the bonds paid off? With income from Long Center revenue and annual campaign donations. So, are the hard-earned bucks of Jane and John Q. Taxpayer endangered by the new plan? Nope, the banks shoulder all the risk on this one. And with the plan generating income for the facility's operation, it's even less likely that the city will get stuck paying the Long Center's light bills. That, combined with the assurance of Assistant City Manager Roger Chan that the city would get to review Arts Center Stage's finances before the bonds are issued in the spring of 2002, may have helped secure the unanimous approval from council. Construction on the center is slated to begin next spring, with a projected opening date in September 2004.

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Last Call for Bad Dog?

For most of its brief life, the Bad Dog Comedy Theater has been spanked worse than a bad dog should: construction delays that pushed its opening into the dog days of summer; departure of its primary investor last fall; having to file for Chapter 11 in January. The club at 110 E. Riverside has hung in there and reportedly has an angel about to swoop in to help it out, but in an e-mail appeal to club patrons this week, owner Marc Pruter warns that the Bad Dog won't be around to be rescued if this week doesn't go well. It desperately needs cash to keep its doors past Monday. As comic Kevin Meaney would say, "That's not right!" So what can you do to help? Pruter suggests coming to see Meaney this Thursday through Saturday, buying advance tix for next week's Jason Stuart show, or just swinging by Sunday to watch the NBA playoffs and drink the bar dry. For more info, call 804-2364.

Speaking of the Bad Dog, a new comedy troupe is holding forth there every Wednesday: the all-gal Catfight, co-directed by Marc Pruter and Esther's Follies alum Tamara Beland, who left the Sixth Street satirical revue in April to focus on her cabaret career and other performing projects, about which we'll surely hear more soon. Showtime is 8pm. Tickets are $5.

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Sign of the 'Times'

This is the week that the Rude Mechanicals open their stage version of Lipstick Traces in New York, and the Austin collective just got its second plug of the year in The New York Times. Was it better than the March item in the "On Stage and Off" column? Well, only if you consider a big honkin' feature in Sunday's Arts and Leisure section better. Titled "An Unruly Ode to Punk as History's Nay Vote," the 2,300-word piece recounts the play's creation and the reaction of author Greil Marcus, and boasts a fetching photo of director Shawn Sides. Does the writer of the feature "get" the show? Yeah, but we suspect that's because he's a local: editor of XL Ent, Jeff Salamon. Nicely done, sir.