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The Pewter Plough Playhouse, Cambria's all-volunteer live community theatre, now in its 34th season, is being challenged for its very existence. County officials and the Cambria Fire Department are requiring the Playhouse to install fire sprinklers, extending the current permit to do so only through July 31. The Playhouse was forced to close on February 28, following the first play of the year, and must install sprinklers to reopen and continue presenting plays, the funds for which, approximately $32K, must be raised.
Many required building improvements have been completed over the past three years, except for fire sprinklers. These upgrades include a new Emergency Exit and staircase, new stage electrical systems, new fire-resistant siding and others (costing approximately $25K). The PPP had been required to reduce its seating from 61 to 45, until sprinklers are installed.
The Playhouse was built and founded by Jim and Olga Buckley in 1976 and JB, as he is known, has devoted his life to the PPP, maintaining the building as owner, paying for productions at his own expense and is still the Artistic Director! However, he has suffered serious financial losses in recent years and is without funds for a sprinkler system. Consequently, the Pewter Plough Players, the PPP's resident nonprofit theatre corporation and operator of the Playhouse, under a long term lease, is undertaking a broad-based fund raising campaign, including a variety of events and special appeals, to raise the necessary funds.
The Pewter Plough is a showplace of local talent and an important cultural asset, one of the region's longest running performing art centers. It is known as the Jewel Box of Community Theatres for its charming and distinctive atmosphere ... "the most unique theatre on the Central Coast", said Dave Congalton, KVEC Radio Host. Five to six comedies, dramas, plus musicals, are presented each year, which are enjoyed by many hundreds of residents and visitors alike; while also affording the excellent opportunity for many local actors and others involved in the multitude of theatre tasks to participate in quality productions. The Playhouse also supports the annual Scholarship Program at Coast Union High School and has completed its first playwriting contest open to SLO County playwrights, which led to the production of the winning play in 2009. Over the years, many of the PPP's shows have been particularly well-remembered, a few of which include "Painting Churches", "I'm Not Rappaport", "On Golden Pond", "Shirley Valentine","'S Wonderful!" (the Gershwin musical), "Steel Magnolias", "Wally's Cafe", "Driving Miss Daisy" and the recent "The Mousetrap".
The entire Pewter Plough family hopes that all their patrons and playgoing friends will get "behind the Plough" and help support this urgent fund raising drive. The Playhouse is located at 824 Main Street, at Sheffield St, in Cambria's West Village.
