The Ripple Effect : Area arts officials regard the opening of the center as something of a mixed blessing for Orange County arts groups

We all know it won’t be easy. It’s ironic that our greatest catalyst, the center, is also our greatest (fiscal) competitor.”

That observation by Erich Vollmer, executive director of the Orange County Philharmonic Society, is echoed by local arts officials who regard the opening of the Performing Arts Center as something of a mixed blessing for the county.

On one hand, the center’s coming is seen as downright messianic, a force to end Orange County arts factionalism, fulfill the county’s promise of a cultural boom and propel the local arts groups into the big time.

On the other, the center’s fiscal appetite is depicted as voracious--$70.7 million for the 3,000-seat main theater and millions more for annual programming, operating costs and the construction of a second theater--leaving other local groups as also-rans in fund raising.

Then there’s the matter of appearances.

Only a few years ago, some backers of performing groups in Orange County concluded that the center was being built as an “import house” for big-name attractions, while local groups would be kept out or limited to token appearances.

These critics claimed that center leadership reflected a bias carried over from years of living in the cultural shadow of Los Angeles: That if it’s based in Orange County, then it isn’t of Performing Arts Center caliber.

Relations reached their lowest ebb in early 1984, when the Orange County Pacific Symphony asked to be named the center’s resident orchestra and the center announced that it was not about to consider residency status for any group, local or otherwise.

The center’s argument was this: The local performing groups were too immature organizationally and financially, and unlikely to fill the 3,000-seat hall, which is nearly twice the size of the Santa Ana High School Auditorium, until now the county’s main concert hall.

Instead, the argument went, local performing groups should wait until the center’s community-oriented 1,000-seat second theater is built.

But last December, the center announced that the Pacific Symphony would play the main hall after all. Within weeks, four other signings were announced: Opera Pacific, Pacific Chorale, Master Chorale of Orange County plus, as expected, the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

Center officials say that these local signings have meant no change in policy. They contend that they have always considered Orange County organizations for the big hall, provided that such groups could pay their own way.

Some arts leaders suggest different motives behind the change of heart. These critics note that the wait for the second theater may be long: The designing and financing of the 1,000-seat facility, which is expected to cost about $10 million, have been put on hold until the main hall is opened and paid for.

Furthermore, the critics contend that the booking shift was made in part to strengthen the community image of the Performing Arts Center, which needs millions of dollars more from private donors for operating and completing the two-theater complex.

The move by the Philharmonic Society and the four performing organizations to the larger, more prestigious hall has resulted in bigger-than-ever fund-raising efforts.

Although the move has provided local groups with greater access to nationally known artists, as well as hundreds of new season subscribers, production and promotion costs also have soared. And doubts remain whether all the local groups have the ticket-selling clout to fill 3,000 seats.

Already, there have been cases of organizational disarray. In the past two years, some board-announced fund drives have been canceled abruptly, staff administrators have left after brief stays, and financial projections have had to be drastically cut.

“They’re under enormous stress. They have to put their (organizational) acts together overnight. There are ego and power trips involved, and inevitable clashes between the idealistic and pragmatic,” one longtime local arts activist notes.

“There’s also the sense of excitement, the knowing that they’re in at the beginning of something historic, a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

For this “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity, all five Orange County organizations are offering their most ambitious subscription seasons--and projecting record-high budgets.

“Artistically, we’ve already shown them we belong there,” says Keith Clark, the Pacific Symphony’s founding music director. “Now the ball’s back in our court. We have to show we can reach the same levels in organization and fiscal support.”

The Santa Ana-based Pacific Symphony itself is an example of swift growth. Its budget has nearly doubled, from last season’s $1.2 million to a projected $2.2 million. Its 15-concert series--featuring a dozen classical and pop soloists, from violinist Henryk Szeryng to singer Mel Torme--will be the organization’s most extensive subscription season ever. The Orange County Philharmonic Society’s plans are no less dramatic. Its budget is being boosted from $850,000 to a projected $1.2 million. The 12-concert series, boasting the society’s most eminent lineup yet, will include the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and Orchestre National de France, as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Although both chorales project comparatively moderate budgets--the Master Chorale of Orange County $420,000, the Pacific Chorale $300,000--the programs will be their most expansive. The Master Chorale’s four-concert series will include a first-time performance with the Joffrey Ballet, while the Pacific Chorale’s concerts with the Pacific Symphony are being increased to seven, including those in the chorale’s own three-concert series.

“This marvelous new complex allows us to expand and explore programs we could never have attempted in the smaller, older facilities,” says Maurice Allard, director of the Costa Mesa-based Master Chorale.

Most stunning of all is the organizational leap being made by the Irvine-based Opera Pacific, only three years ago a $15,000-a-year operation putting on small shows in school halls.

Now led by David DiChiera, founder of the Detroit-based Michigan Opera Theatre, and backed by a projected budget of $3 million, Opera Pacific seeks nothing less than national recognition.

At a cost of $2 million, Opera Pacific is offering three productions at the Performing Arts Center with nationally known singers. Besides presenting a touring version of “Porgy and Bess,” Opera Pacific also will stage “West Side Story” and “La Boheme” (the Puccini opera is being directed by Gian Carlo Menotti).

“Orange County has immense potential,” says Opera Pacific general director DiChiera. “It has all the factors that make for one of the most thriving (arts) markets in the country. It’s the reason why the Performing Arts Center is being built here. “

Indeed, the local groups are already counting on larger-than-ever income from ticket sales at the center. The Philharmonic Society, Pacific Symphony and Opera Pacific estimate that box office receipts will account for at least half of their 1986-87 income.

As a presenter of big-name orchestras since 1962, the Philharmonic Society claims the biggest ticket-selling advantage. Last season, the Costa Mesa organization reported having 3,000 subscribers, the highest of any of the local groups now booked at the center.

And all five groups cite their expanded marketing staffs and more aggressive campaigns for audiences as reasons for predicting even more-dramatic increases in subscribers. The three largest organizations, especially, voice confidence that they can attain sold-out or near-capacity turnouts.

Furthermore, all five groups are counting on what they call a one-time box-office bonanza: a Performing Arts Center premiere season that will lure unprecedented numbers of first-time concert- and opera-goers.

“We expect audiences to follow the pattern of similar centers. We figure that the first season overall will be a huge draw--the curious will be there, and those attracted by the opening-season drama,” says John Alexander, director of the Santa Ana-based Pacific Chorale.

Yet, even this windfall may have a two-sided effect.

Alexander projects it this way: “A great many won’t be coming back after the first year or so. This makes it all the more vital to build our regular-audience base with more creative marketing, more educational programs.”

In other words, these groups must also rely on community fund drives to keep financially stable.

Even if the best of box-office projections come true, a major portion of production and other costs still have to be paid by corporate and other private underwriters.

That is the case even though the current competition for private patrons is the fiercest yet in Orange County.

In the past two years, construction drives have been mounted to expand the Laguna Art Museum and the Laguna Moulton Playhouse, in addition to the operations campaigns conducted annually by most arts institutions, including the South Coast Repertory Theatre and the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

Now, South Coast Repertory--which raised $3.5 million in 1978 to build its two-playhouse complex in Costa Mesa and another $3 million in 1984 for an operating endowment--has launched an even larger drive for additional endowment monies and for constructing a technical wing.

Also, the Newport Harbor Art Museum is considering building a larger home in Newport Center; one proposed design could cost as much as $30 million. Even Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum, despite its city subsidies, is eyeing a big drive for private donors to help underwrite programs and build up an endowment.

Such campaigns, of course, pale beside the Performing Arts Center’s efforts. The center needs funds not only to pay its annual programming and operating costs but also to eventually break ground for the 1,000-seat second theater.

And all the prominent arts campaigns in the county overlap, including one that public television station KOCE has mounted to finance the nationwide broadcasting of center performances.

As the Philharmonic Society’s Vollmer puts it: “We’re all in the position of asking for the same dollars from the same patrons. For the rest of us, it’s too often a case of being told, ‘Sorry, we’ve already given to the center.’ ”

Still, Vollmer and leaders of the other arts groups foresee greater elbow room when it comes to fund raising after 1986. They argue that the center’s campaign to build the main hall is over and that the center will eventually receive some operating income from its endowment fund. Besides, they say, the other local groups must rely on their own ingenuity.

“It (the center’s fiscal need) is something that won’t be going away. We have to learn to live with it and use it as an incentive to develop newer sources,” says Thomas Moon, a former center president and one-time Master Chorale business manager.

There is talk among local supporters for united-front efforts in promotion and fund raising (though a possible com- bined fund drive, suggested a year ago by the center’s board, was coolly received).

Whatever the fiscal and marketing picture in future seasons, the center’s 1986-87 opening season has already brought a calming of relations between the center and the local organizations.

Mary Lyons, chairwoman of the Pacific Chorale board of directors, explains:

“These kinds of things, particularly for a new complex like this one, is an evolutionary process--a learning one--for everyone. The point to remember is that we’re working together now; we’re all a part of a historic collaboration.”