SAN CLEMENTE : Community Theater to Ask Expansion

A San Clemente community theater will ask the Planning Commission tonight for permission to expand by 1,300 square feet. The expansion will allow the Cabrillo Playhouse to build sets inside the theater and provide more dressing room space.

“At the present, we really have no place for the actors to dress,” said Ray Benedicktus, vice president of the San Clemente Community Theatre group that runs the playhouse. “Our set design is done outside in the dirt, and sometimes we have to get out there in the rain and work. It’s really bad.”

Because the plans don’t propose to increase the 59-seat capacity of the theater, no additional parking spaces will be required, San Clemente Associate Planner Jim Pechous said.

“There’s not really much intensity with this use,” Pechous added. “I don’t think it will be very controversial.”

Listed as a historically significant site by the city, the Cabrillo Playhouse was converted in 1966 from a 1920s Spanish Colonial-style home to a theater. “Our expansion will be just about the size of the original building,” Benedicktus said.