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this is the set for Bertolt brecht, a man's a man now playing at the Encore Theater. Very simple, uncomplicated. And when the curtain comes down on the last act of tonight's play, it will be the final curtain for san Francisco's Actor's workshop. The demise is caused

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by a problem which affects almost all cultural organizations, which depend on the community that they serve. I talked with managing director of the workshop, ken, kitsch during its existence. The actor's workshop has weathered many crises. What was the final straw? Why is the workshop closing down

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now? Final straw was the same as all the other straws. It was just that the final one, it was trouble with finding the kind of financial backing and excess of attendance at the place that a regional leader has to have in order to survive. We have

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not been successful at that at least 20°. Even in past years, we like an aging magician. You reach into the hat and pull out a rabbit 100 times. This was the 101st time. And there was no rabbit that was with the Chamber of Commerce or appeal

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to the Chamber of Commerce for funds for the appeal of the Chamber of Commerce. Was this last, in a long series of appeals, we appealed to many people in the community, individually and publicly to corporations on an individual basis. Uh the chamber was a sort of

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last bold attempt to try to excite the public interest and support that was necessary. Do you think the demise of the workshop will now leave a vacuum in san Francisco's cultural activities? I certainly think it will. I think that it's a major cultural disaster for SAn

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Francisco, not only just because my very personal and close involvement with the workshop, but to think that this one city can't put together and keep together a theater that comparable to say, one in Seattle Washington or Minneapolis Minnesota or Oklahoma city, Oklahoma seems to me a

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little fantastic. The television taping of a dramatic performance for SAn Francisco's KQED television will keep the actor's workshop alive for at least two more weeks after this weekend and then after 14 years of crisis, the defection of directors, Herbert, blau jules, Irving and more recently, john

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Hancock to higher paying jobs on the East Coast. After 14 years of professional and tasteful performances, SAn Francisco's actor's workshop will make its silent exit. This is Jim Swanson reporting