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Theater angels deliver a happy twist, and monumental new task, to Camino Real Playhouse

January 16, 2025

If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, writer Paulo Coelho once said, life will reward you with a new hello.

Nice, right? But Leslie Eisner didn’t really want to be brave. And she didn’t really want to say goodbye. And she wasn’t really jonesing for a new hello.

Leslie Eisner, right, the President and Artistic Director of the Camino Real Playhouse, chats with Over the River and Through the Woods cast members Barb Turino and Russ Wichman during a dress rehearsal on Thursday, February 23, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer) — Leslie Eisner, right, of the Camino Real Playhouse, chats with cast members Barb Turino and Russ Wichman in 2023. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

But, alas, the president and artistic director of the Camino Real Playhouse had no choice. After decades of almost-free rent in a city-owned building near the San Juan Capistrano Mission, the city was forced to sell. A developer proposing a new arts center bought it. Then plans changed, and a veritable wrecking ball hung over the beloved community theater’s head for years as it struggled to find a new home.

Think of that as Act 1 if you like. Act 2 is filled with nearly insurmountable obstacles: The quest to buy a building in town and move everything there (Eisner worked with multiple real estate agents, knocked on doors of buildings that weren’t for sale), considered moving the company to a nearby city (rankling theater types there) and was forced to take a different tack.

The long-running Camino Real Playhouse will put on just a few more shows, including Over the River and Through the Woods, which will run from February 24 through March 12, before losing its city-owned lease to make way for a parking lot and retail. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer) — The current Camino Real Playhouse, which must be vacated (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

Then, in Act 3, the clouds part and the angel chorus sings. On Friday, Jan. 9, Eisner got the keys to Camino Real’s new home at 31896 Plaza Dr., in a shopping plaza setting akin to the Chance Theater’s home in Anaheim.

It’s a long-term lease (10 years, plus an option for five more), just minutes from its old home and the historic district, near the BrewHouse Tap Room & Bottle Shop.

The space is a wide open 7,700 square feet right now, and will be carved into a main stage with 99 seats — larger than the main stage it has now — as well as a smaller black box, she said.

Leslie Eisner, artistic director and president at Camino Real Playhouse is pictured in their new location in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. The Camino Real Playhouse was forced to find a new location when the city owned property it occupied was sold to a local developer. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) — Eisner in the new location in San Juan Capistrano on Jan. 10 (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A state-of-the-art lobby bar is being donated — “It will be beautiful when you walk in,” she said — and there will be a separate restroom for the actors, which the theater doesn’t have now (nothing like running into a cast member in the loo to shatter the theatrical illusion).

The signage will be visible from the freeway — a great perk to reach more eyeballs — and, perhaps most monumentally, there’s free unlimited parking.

“I took a deep breath for about a second,” Eisner said, relishing the accomplishment. “And then it hit me.”

The Playhouse has to move some 35 years’ worth of stuff — sets, costumes, props, etc.; draw up renovation plans; get city permits; hire a contractor; build things out. “It’s a lot,” she said.

Maypole dancers, along with the Camino Real Playhouse cast of Robin Hood, in 2017. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Architects and contractors are being lined up for the work, and even at cost, it’s going to be an expensive project. It will embark on a $1 million fundraising campaign to pay for it all. The organization is starting on firm financial footing: The South Orange County Community Theatre, as it’s officially called for IRS purposes, had net assets of more than $587,000, according to its latest filing.

Arts organizations in Orange County — and throughout California — have been squeezed by sky-high rents. Many have been left homeless and, eventually, defunct. It’s hard to keep an audience when you don’t have a home base, so this appears to be a soft landing for Camino Real Playhouse.

“I think it will be a good location for them moving forward,” said Richard Stein, president and CEO of Arts Orange County. “The shopping plaza in which they will be located is next door to a craft brewery, within walking distance of a variety of dining options, has ample free parking available, and faces the freeway. While it’s not the original plan envisioned several years ago, it will solve their immediate need to vacate the current property and remain in operation.”

When will Camino Real move into its new digs? It has two more shows scheduled for its current home: the comedy “Dearly Departed” from Jan. 17 to Feb. 2, and the charming “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” from Feb. 14 to March 3. It has contracted with a theater in Aliso Viejo to do a three-week show in July, and Eisner hopes that all the work might be done on the new space by the end of this year.

“This playhouse has been around for 36 years, and some people thought that a strong wind could knock us over,” she said. “Well, we survived COVID, and we survived this. I really feel like we have the wind at our back right now.”

Hello, new hello!

Theater angels deliver a happy twist, and monumental new task, to Camino Real Playhouse Orange County Register

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Theater angels deliver a happy twist, and monumental new task, to Camino Real Playhouse

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