Curtain Call
Citing high overhead costs and inconsistent audience size, Unicorn Theatre co-founder Carey Crockett has announced he is abandoning The Hoffman Playhouse and taking his theatre company to new locales.

So, while The Hoffman may be defunct, The Unicorn Theatre Company will forge onward with plans to produce two plays this summer at Carmel''s Cherry Center, one of which, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde will open June 16th and run through July 9th.

The theatre seats from The Hoffman will be donated to Pacific Grove High School, but all the rest of what amounts to a fairly large inventory will be sold at a garage sale on April 15th. That evening there will also be a farewell show by improvisational group Um Gee Um out of Santa Cruz.

The Unicorn Theatre has been around for 17 years, and was co-founded by Crockett and Max Robert. From the first Crockett and Robert, who died in 1987, sought to present material that was "challenging to us personally." As Crockett put it, "This is not a quitting, this is a transition...You look at your work and if it''s not moving and shaping your life in some way it is time to rethink and realign with your goals. Theater is most satisfying for people when the moment transcends the space you are in."

Screen Savers

New Latin Pictures, a Sand City-based film distribution and production company specializing in Latino cinema has announced plans to distribute Luminarias,which screened recently at the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival.

Described as a "Latina-style" version of Waiting to Exhale, Luminarias, which was filmed in English, is based on the critically-acclaimed stage production which played at the Los Angeles Theater Center. The story focuses on the lives of four professional women who come together in an East L.A. restaurant to share secrets about their careers, loves and families.

The film will open on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and be released in Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Salinas and the Monterey Peninsula in mid-May.

Luminarias is just the latest deal by New Latin Pictures to tap into the neglected audience for Spanish language and Latino-themed films. Founded in 1993 by theater owner and CEO Lawrence E. Martin and film distributor and president Kit Parker, NLP is the only U.S. company that deals exclusively with Latino films, and has already produced the two hit films Nueba Yol and Nueba Yol 3. According to Martin, the Latino movie audience represents a potential $1 billion-plus market.

NLP currently has six other films in active development, and is seeking additional films for distribution.

Film Food

"Hold the chicken salad and bring me an order of wheat toast!"

Resort Theaters of America has announced the opening of the Bergman Cafe at its Osio Plaza Cinemas in downtown Monterey. Named after the legendary film director Ingmar Bergman, the "coffeehouse-style eatery" will provide a full-service coffee bar, pastries, freshly-made soups, salads and specialty sandwiches.

The big news for film fans, however, isn''t the opportunity to dine on something other than stale movie popcorn, but the chance to view a unique collection of rare black-and-white lithograph movie stills from Bergman''s oeuvre, as well as several late 1930s portraits of Ingrid Bergman in films such as Intermezzo, A Woman''s Face, and June Night. The lithographs are part of the private collection of Peter Fornstam, Swedish partner in Resort Theaters of America.

The Bergman Cafe is open daily from 10am-8pm.

-- Patrice Parks, Richard Pitnick