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.
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.
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…