Backwards in High Heels, produced by Shashin Desai for International City Theatre, plays Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 2 pm; until March 21. Tickets: $35-$45. Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach; 562.436.4610 or internationalcitytheatre.org.

caryn and Shashin Desai

International City Theatre in Long Beach celebrates its Silver Jubilee on the heels of its two worst years on record. “This is not the business model we want,” says Founder/Artistic Director Shashin Desai. “We were in the black for 21 of our first 24 years. The year after 9-11 was bad as it was everywhere. But 2008 and 2009 hurt us, too. Our reserves kept us alive into this year.”

That’s a familiar drum beat. “Our challenge now,” Desai says, “is that we are known for new works. Theatre audiences aren’t usually drawn to new works when they don’t have extra money to spend. They’re afraid to take the chance on something unproven.” This year’s new works include Backwards in High Heels, the Ginger Rogers story by Lynnette Barkley and Christopher McGovern, playing until March 21and, later this season, a play based on the life of Greta Garbo.

A lot has been said about ICT. It has received numerous honors, including the prestigious Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theater, given by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle in 2001. Other accolades have followed, giving Desai a sense of wonder.

His voice lightens as he looks back on the past quarter-century. “I had taught theatre at Long Beach City College for about 10 years and realized my more talented students had nowhere to hone their skills after two years with me. So in 1985,” he says with a laugh, “I had a mid-life crisis.”

Desai wanted space, and he wanted it now. He met with representatives of Actors’ Equity about opening a theatre on the junior college campus. He went to college trustees. The board agreed that Desai could teach during the day and direct plays (at no additional salary) at night.

A Quiet End - First ICT production in 1986

He took his friend Jules Aaron to a reading in Los Angeles. The play, A Quiet End by Robin Swados, “made me cry,” Desai recalls. No one was doing plays about AIDS then. “We just thought it was a gay disease and I had no idea what the implications would be of opening it. But we did. It was our first play. Jules directed [and would go on to direct many, many more for ICT].” Desai describes it as “six men trapped in a corner of the world they couldn’t get out of. So, we opened. That show, along with two others that year, sealed our reputation.”

Desai counts two significant turning points over the past 25 years. “The first season,” he says, “inspired me. It consisted of a world premiere, a US premiere and a West Coast premiere. I told Jules to direct all three. I would sell the seats.” Aaron took on all three projects. He has gone on to collect, so far, 18 Drama-Logue Awards, three BackStage Awards and three Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle nominations for directing, ultimately winning for his production of Equus. (Aaron currently is directing Broads! The Musical at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood.)

The second milestone occurred in the late 1990s. “I was invited to take over the downtown Center Theatre. We had grown comfortable on the Long Beach City College campus. We had a nice reputation. We were paying our actors.” But, he says, space was an issue. “I wanted to move out of a 99-seat house into a larger theatre so we could do more. What we were offered had 750 seats but we didn’t dare use all of them.” Desai went back to Actors’ Equity and bargained. “Look,” he recalls saying, “Work with me. We’ll fill only 150 seats for a while [and pay rates based on that number]. And then every couple years, we’ll increase. At first, Equity checked on us but after a while, they knew they could trust us.”

ICT currently uses 289 of the available seats and Desai hopes to open up 500 seats in the next few years. ICT, like so many theatres, first has to rebound from the recession. “Our earned income now, the money we make directly from ticket sales is about 47 percent of our overall budget. My goal is to get that up to 60 percent in the next year,” Desai says. How? First, he’s instituted a coupon book for subscribers. Desai combed five-star restaurants and other businesses in and around the South Bay. “Give me 50-percent off everything, I told them, and I’ll send business your way.” Subscribers, he says, love the book which they receive at no cost beyond their subscription. “It turns a trip to the theatre into an entire evening’s event when people can dine before a show.” Despite this, his subscriber base didn’t increase last year and it’s too soon to determine this year’s impact. He’s now offering those who see the first show of a season a chance to purchase an annual subscription and deduct that evening’s ticket price from the cost.

Desai’s second tactic for raising the theatre’s earned income percentage was to move away from printed collateral material to a much more active online presence. “We also made this season more accessible,” Desai notes. “Three of our five shows this year are premieres, leaving two better known productions.”

But for a company that prides itself on new works, have you effectively sacrificed your mission? “No,” he says. “We see about 125 scripts each year. We’ll remain innovative but be well-rounded. It’s very scary losing money two years in a row so we added a musical, for example. We’re very comfortable with it.”

He also eliminated two outside director positions. “We can fill those in-house.” ‘We’ includes Desai and his wife, caryn, who does not capitalize her name. “She was a student of mine at Long Beach City College, very bright. She went on to get her MFA from Irvine. We kept in touch and I asked her to join the staff in the beginning.” The couple married 13 years ago.

caryn desai directed Backwards in High Heels. “It has been, by far, the hardest show to cast,” she says. “It’s a small cast and we need actors who can sing, dance and tap dance, which is a lost art. That’s a hard combination to find!” It took six weeks to find the right actors including Matt Bauer as Fred Astaire, Anna Aimee White as Ginger and Heather Lee as her mother Lela Rogers.

Christopher Carothers, Matt Bauer, Anna Aimee White, Robin De Lano, and Jeff Payton

“Ginger did everything Fred did,” caryn desai explains, “except backwards and in high heels. She was very focused, from an early age. She knew what she wanted to do. The girl was headstrong and ahead of her time, fighting for equal pay.” RKO, desai says, billed Rogers as the third actor in a movie and paid her accordingly, even though her name topped the marquee. “Ginger had done 20 films by the time she did her first with Fred. She also had, I believe, five husbands and that didn’t help her financial status.” Alimony? “I don’t think so but they sure had a good time being married to her.”

Matt Bauer says he’s danced since the age of six. “My grandmother would say I danced like Fred Astaire. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. One of the problems I’m having is that he and I are very similar in our demeanors; it’s harder to create a distinct character.” Anna White relates to Ginger in that both left home at an early age. “Rogers started on the Orpheum Circuit at 15 and I moved from Nebraska to attend a performing arts high school when I was 15. And I’ve learned that I love dancing in heels - I suppose it’s just a girl thing!” Bauer interjects. “I was looking at her feet yesterday when we were dancing for 40 hours and I can’t imagine what it’s like to tap and dance in high heels. You find that’s why Ginger wanted to move on - she got tired.”

Shashin Desai says the City of Long Beach poured about $500,000 into the theatre in recent years but does not provide operating capital. “So, because we had two years of not operating in the black,” he says, “we began a campaign last year to raise a half-million dollars for our reserve account.” It needs to be replenished. “The National Endowment for the Arts got us off to a strong start with a $50,000 contribution. We also got a $100,000 challenge grant from an individual. So we’re getting there. We raised $250,000 last year.”

Desai says he is scouring the South Bay for contributors and looking for some foundation and corporate support. “I know my audience isn’t driving down from Sherman Oaks,” he says. “If I think that, I’m dreaming. So I have to keep the focus local. In the case of Pasadena Playhouse, it all comes down to the business side of theatre: income versus expenses. If you cannot afford a big staff and expensive sets, then you do without. Otherwise, you continue to run at a deficit. That happened at the Playhouse; I do not want that to happen at ICT.” (See Steve Julian’s blog for more on Pasadena Playhouse).

As International City Theatre celebrates its 25th season, it does so as Long Beach’s resident theatre company. “That,” Desai boasts, “allows us priority. We can book five years in advance and no other organization in the city can claim our dates. They’re ours.”

So are the challenges of making it into a 26th season.

Story image of the Desais by Thomas McConville. Feature image of Heather Lee and Anna Aimee White and production photos by Shashin Desai. Article by Steve Julian.