![]() Baker himself had always had a close relationship with the community around the theater, and many of the puppeteers that he hired back in the day were neighborhood kids from Westlake or Echo Park, a trend the company hopes to continue in Highland Park. The enchanting 36-acre park boasts three venues and the popular Lawn where picnicking is an art. To this end, they’re trying to set the barriers to entry low, with free shows like the ones at the Oxy residency. Welcome To My Shop: Opera for the Young opens a world of music theater. “When this came up, we had a lot of very frank conversations about, ‘what does it mean that we’re moving here, that we’re taking up so much space?’” “To be honest, when we were looking at spots, most neighborhoods like Highland Park were totally out of our budget,” explained Bechtle. The love of masks came from being able to be more emotive on stage, a way to lose ego and become this other thing.”Īs a legacy arts organization squeezed out of its longtime home by development, the theater now finds itself a newcomer in a rapidly changing neighborhood, an irony not lost on them. “Puppets are like a full body extension of masks. Weber often uses grotesque or campy costumes and masks in her own surreal performances and films, and has a natural affinity for puppets. A closing ceremony was held last November 23, the same date that the theater opened 55 years earlier. ![]() ![]() “We closed just willing this into existence with nothing behind it other than a lot of work and knowing that we wanted to do it,” Bechtle said. With no guarantee that their longtime home would be viable even after the construction dust settled, Bechtle and Alex Evans, the executive director and head puppeteer, decided to jump without quite knowing where they would land. However, later proposals for the new property drastically reduced the theater’s size. A planned mixed-use development on the site originally included the theater, which was designated a Historic-Cultural Monument by the Los Angeles City Council in 2009. Faced with economic uncertainty, Baker sold the original building to a developer in 2013 for $1.3 million. ![]() But last fall, the company’s future was anything but guaranteed. The new space - originally a silent movie theater, known as the York Theatre, dating back to 1923 - seems like a natural fit for the country’s longest-running puppet theater. The movie theater has been closed for three years, since the start of the pandemic.Winona Bechtle and the theater’s new organ The store will reopen in repurposed space in the The Village Theater. The men's and women's apparel business is staying in Highland Park Village. 16, 2023, and is moving its home furnishings business to Knox Street. Exterior of the Ralph Lauren store at Highland Park Village. In its most recent quarter, the company posted a 1% decline in brick-and-mortar sales and a 9% increase online. Over the years, Ralph Lauren has had stores at NorthPark Center, but none now. Ralph Lauren has 14 other stores in Texas, and all but one at the Houston Galleria are Polo Ralph Lauren Factory stores. The new Ralph Lauren store is on the second level and accessible by stairs and the escalator that used to take moviegoers up to the theater. While the theater is turning into a store, all the historical exterior architecture that identified it as a theater space will remain, including the three-sided marquee, which will read “Ralph Lauren.”
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