Meet Rebecca Drysdale | Owner, founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rebecca Drysdale and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rebecca, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It was an accident! I wanted a place to teach when I moved to LA that I didn’t have to rent hourly. I threw some lights upstairs thinking that if people wanted to do shows here and there, it could supplement my rent. Many of the indy shows that were scattered around the city at the time moved in, and within a week I had a theater on my hands! That space was not built to be a theater, or anything really, so we had to move to a real space after two years of people very reasonably complaining. In order to make a larger space work, I needed to spaces to rent out. So then before I knew it I had a giant space on Hollywood Blvd with two theaters running. It was all a happy accident, but it is not a “business” per se. I don’t make anything, and no one who helps out at the Clubhouse makes anything. People rent the space from me, I rent it from the landlords. We make or lose a few hundred bucks every month. It is not officially a non-profit, but “non” is the right word for the money we make. It is just a space for the community to use as they decide to.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The Clubhouse is something I do on the side that makes me feel like I am contributing something to the improv world and community, but it is not my job. I am a television writer and producer which is how I make my actual living. It is a tough and unpredictable path but I have also been extremely lucky. I have gotten to do a lot of different kinds of work for a lot of different kinds of projects. I am always surprised however about which jobs end up being the most memorable and the most important to me. They are never the ones you think. I have been handed my dream jobs on a silver platter multiple times, and most of those end in heartbreak due to the “who” and not the “what” of the project. Now I am much more focused on who I am working for and with than what the project is. At this point in my career I am more interested in my actual experience day to day on a job, than what that job looks like on paper. I want to work with good people who want to make good things and treat each other well. If that means I do smaller and less fancy things I am happy to do that. I’ve worked with enough a**holes for one lifetime.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well I am a New Yorker at heart, so I would be much better at that in New York. In LA, I am still trying to figure that out for myself. My favorite thing used to be Funky Soul, a weekly funk and soul party in Echo Park but that sadly went away after the pandemic. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of Line Dancing at Stud Country which is so much fun and great exercise and a really lovely community. But for the most part my favorite things in LA tend to be outside of LA. Idyllwild for the snow, and Joshua Tree for the sky, a good trip to the San Diego Zoo. I like California a lot more than LA, but that really comes down to people too. Now that I am an old lady as far as the improv community goes, I am trying to find community in other places, meet people I enjoy which I find much harder in LA than in New York, and find the things I really enjoy doing here that do not involve me sitting in traffic for two hours!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
From our first space until today, the Clubhouse has been built and organized by the people who use it. We have volunteers who come to paint, build, help with scheduling, tech, organizing and everything else. I will give a special should out to my dear friend Geoff who recently passed. He built the stages and flats and accessibility ramp and for many years was our one man maintenance team. The theater would not exist without him and we miss him dearly.

Instagram: beckdrys

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.drysdale.5