$1 Million for Union Center
The Union Center for the Arts officially began construction on Tuesday, January 14th. The big news, however, which was even mentioned in the LA Times, was the $1 million dollar donation one of the occupants of the theater recently received. The East West Players, which is one of the country’s oldest Asian-American theater groups, received a pledge for $1 million from a Malaysian business man, Vinod Sekhar. The East-West Players are currently trying to raise $1.5 million to pay for the renovations, capital costs, equipment, and an endowment for the theater.
It was arranged for Mr. Sekhar to have dinner with George Takei, who is best known for his role as Mr. Sulu in the original Star Trek series. Mr. Sekhar, a huge Star Trek fan, was very excited to meet Mr Takei, and decided to donate $1 million dollars instead of the original $500,000 as originally planned.
As a result, once the renovations are complete, the front courtyard of the building will be named after Mr. Sekhar’s 13 month-old daughter, Petra. Other major donors will have areas of the theater named after them as well. The theater itself will be named after the playwright David Henry Hwang, the lobby will be named after George and Sakaye Aratani, and two columns in front of the building will be named after Arco and AT&T.
The other two occupants of the Union Center for the Arts, once completed, are Visual Communications the oldest Asian-American media arts organization in the country; and LA Artcore, a non-profit art exhibitor and publisher of Visions, an arts quarterly.
The rehabilitation of the Union Center for the Arts is expected to be complete late fall of 1997.
[ Little Tokyo News * Volume 2 Issue 1 ]