Brian Sivesind is proud of his take on Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which he recently directed at local theater The Empty Space.

He was talking it up enthusiastically last Wednesday in between sips of a Starbuck’s double tall latte.

There was only one problem: Hardly anybody came to the play.

That’s frequently been the case ever since Sivesind, a 30-year-old former high school drama and English teacher, opened The Empty Space in January.

From the beginning, he had no illusions.

He realized that the kind of edgy plays he wanted to showcase – works with titles like “Hot and Throbbing” and “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” -would be a tough sell to Bakersfield’s conservative theater-going public.

He knew that the donations-only format was a huge risk.

He told himself that if he spent $50,000 and it was still open, it would be a success.

“I wanted plays that people were passionate about,” he said. “I didn’t want to cater to an audience.”

To keep the doors open, however, Sivesind had to do just that.

He changed the title of a 1903 play from “La Ronde” to “The Sex Cycle,” added some nudity and put it on at 11 p.m.

In his own words, he “sold out” artistically.

The theater was packed.

“I call it ‘The Sex Cycle,’ and I put nudity in it and everybody comes. But (I put on) ‘Waiting for Godot,’ which is a classic and which was one of the best productions this town has seen, and nobody comes,” he said.

The same note of resignation was evident when Sivesind compared The Empty Space to local theaters that have succeeded by catering to a more mainstream audience.

To him, it’s a case of passion versus commercialism.

“If I’m making art that I’m passionate about, and it sells, more power to me,” he said. “But if I’m making art to sell it, that’s the distinction, that’s what I’m talking about.”

But despite his view of commercial successes, Sivesind says he doesn’t hold a grudge.

“I’ll speak for most artists: I feel underappreciated,” he said. “I feel underappreciated, but at the same time, I can’t be bitter. We are who we are.”

Sivesind, no longer a financial contributor but still involved artistically, is hopeful that a newly created board of directors and artistic director Jeff Lupine will be able to keep The Empty Space alive.

“He believes in balance a little more than I do,” Sivesind said, “and I think that’s OK, you know. Hopefully he’ll be able to make it a little more financially valuable.”

For now, The Empty Space depends on sympathetic patrons, its tax-exempt status and a lot of enthusiastic volunteers.

Sivesind sees its fate as a verdict on the viability of live theater in Bakersfield.

“If The Empty Space fails,” he said, “if it closes down, everyone will now say, ‘This won’t work.'”