The Show Will Go On At Lompoc Theatre Thanks To Historic $6 Million Gift
LOMPOC, Calif. (KEYT) - The show will go on at the 100-year-old Lompoc Theatre thanks to a philanthropic gift of $6 million.
This is the largest singular, private donation the theater has ever received.
Santa Barbara’s very own Cheryl Goldberg, a technology executive and arts philanthropist continues to carry out her late husband’s legacy, and this is her latest benefaction.
After a recent personal tour of the Lompoc Theatre, which first opened in 1927 and has rested dormant for over 20 years, Goldberg is helping the theatre move closer to curtains up.
“Her first time in Lompoc was coming to tour this theater,” says Mark Herrier, Lompoc Theatre Project’s executive director. “And she was so compelled that she said she had to be a part of it.”
Her philanthropic donation in the amount of $6 million kicks the theater’s restoration project into high gear.
“I can't tell you what it means to all of us to have that kind of attention and resources made available,” says Joan Hartmann, District 3 Supervisor for the County of Santa Barbara.
In 2027 the theater’s centennial season will begin in what they call the black box configuration.
“We will be opening the theater to performances on that very stage in the spring of 2027, when we complete our phase two,” says Herrier.
This black box or “cabaret” design will be an 80 seat venue enclosed within the stage, that can facilitate anything from music bands to stand up comics, or even seminars or classes, while the restoration continues on the auditorium.
“We have assembled a team that is as good as any in the country and might say any in the world,” Herrier says.
Then in 2028, the goal is to complete the entire 450-seat auditorium where large-scale productions can perform with state-of-the-art equipment.
“For Lompoc, it's our most diverse community in the county, and so it provides a place to showcase these different cultures and feel connected to each other,” says Hartmann.
Directors of the theater and community leaders are bursting with excitement and gratitude to Cheryl Goldberg.
“There is nothing that transforms a central downtown core in the country more than restoring its original hometown historic theater,” says Herrier.
Project leaders say $5 million of the donation will go to construction, and the remaining one million will establish a performing arts fund, which will secure programming at the theater for about eight years.
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