Demise of California Arts Council feared imminent.

The 27-year-old agency is best known for its grants to local organizations, and much of the funding is used to send artists and performers into public schools. In the fiscal year that ended Monday, the Arts Council spent almost its entire budget of $18.2 million on grants.

The proposed state budget would slash the budget to $750,000, "which we interpret as the cost to shutter the agency," said Arts Council spokesman Adam Gottlieb. An Assembly "trailer" bill to the budget proposal would abolish the Arts Council and its grants program completely. With the deadline passed, the budget remains in limbo.

Wonder how well this docu-drama stage play woiuld go over in Yuba-Sutter community theater?

At the Miss California State competition I ran down Randy Fayette, faithful Stage Dad of Kenni Fayette and master set builder of many a good show.

I wanted to know the latest word on where Grease would play, if anywhere?

A couple of weeks ago a crisis developed. Operators of the Marysville Auditorium announced the building would be closed for the summer so air-conditioning units could be installed. As a result, Grease had no place to play.

Staci Johnson and Pierrette Jensen started looking for a place to move the show. One by one, the alternate prospects fell through.

The Acting Company's own B Street Theater was already closed for renovations -- and there was reason to think that venue would have been too small to accommodate the large Grease production, anyway.

The various school facilities -- the Yuba Community College Theater, Yuba City High School auditorium, Andros Karperos Elementary School multipurpose room, Faith Christian all fell short of Grease's needs. Lousy sound, inadequate seating, unavailability, whatever.

Yuba College would have been the best choice, but it was would be shut down after the Miss California State show was finished because of the will health of the facility direct.

The kids in the cast kept rehearsing, though -- getting their lines down, tuning up their songs, sharpening their steps in the dances. When I finally found out about the looming problem I asked Pierrette about it.

Things were gloomy. Everyone was busy. Staci Johnson was on the phone all the time. Options were closing fast.

"We're thinking about Riverfront Park," Pierrette said. That's an open-air pavilion. "But we'd have to take the sets down every weekend."

Uh-oh. The City Council is thinking of closing the Riverfront Park due to budget cuts.

"What about the State Theater, or Tower Theater" -- two closed movie palaces.

"I've always wanted to try the State, but everyone says it can't be done."

"I'll look into it," I said.

Tower Theater was once a bijou of a theater, but some "entrepreneur" -- one of those harebrained schemers guys with $750,000 and the ear of a City Council that's a proven sucker for any real estate dollar.

They allowed him to tear out all the seats and turn the place into a Mexican dance hall that promptly failed.

Still, the stage was there and temporary seating could be put in, provided the owners could be persuaded to rent the place temporarily for a fair price.

Calls to Dan Garcia, the real estate salesman listing the Tower, revealed there were 12 owners.

"We may not have time to reach all of them," he said.

That was what I wanted to tell Randy Fayette, and get him to pass on to Staci Johnson or Pierrette Jensen.

"They've already decided. They're going to do it at the Peach Tree Country Club," Randy said, pulling me up short.

Forget Tower.

"What's it like inside Peach Tree?"

That was the $64,000 question.

Later, someone who's done a number of political events at the Peach Tree Country Club described the new venue.

"A big room upstairs. No stage'," she said.

But the show must go on -- and now it seems a lot will hinge on the inventiveness of Randy Fayette.