Segerstrom Wins Another Year as Center Chairman

Henry R. Segerstrom, a moving force behind the Orange County Performing Arts Center, was reelected to a 1-year term as Center chairman Thursday and, at the same board meeting, recommended that Newport Beach developer William Lyon succeed him a year from now.

Changes approved in the Center’s bylaws Thursday limit future chairmen to three successive 1-year terms and board members to three successive 3-year terms. After a 1-year hiatus, board members and chairmen may run again.

The new bylaws provide for the incumbent chairman in his last term to designate a successor, a recommendation that must then be approved by the Center board’s executive and nominating committees before submission to the full, 55-member board for approval. Lyon would be subject to final board election in April, 1990, according to Thomas R. Kendrick, Center president.

“I chose Bill Lyon because he’s a community leader,” Segerstrom said Friday. “I’ve worked with him for several years.”

The mechanism for succession, Segerstrom said, is “designed to insure a smooth, ongoing continuity of leadership.”

But Segerstrom said he was intent upon looking at the year ahead, and not beyond.

“My focus is on the upcoming year and the term for which I was elected,” he said. “I have another year as chairman to prove my worth and I’m going to try my darndest.”

Attendance at the Center continued well above the national average last year, bolstered largely by increased interest in ballet, Kendrick said during the Center’s annual meeting which preceded the elections Thursday night.

However, Kendrick cautioned in his speech, “projected support fell $1 million short of our target last year,” reinforcing his belief that “we . . . are vulnerable to any economic downturn or substantial programming loss,” and that “bluntly, we are now unduly--unrealistically--reliant on box office revenue.”

Still, Kendrick’s remarks were largely upbeat, telling Center members that “it’s a distinct pleasure to be able to tell you that 1988 operating results exceeded all expectations.”

Referring to a recent marketing survey recommending that the Center build up to three additional theaters, Kendrick said, “Clearly, there is now justification to consider expansion of Center facilities in the decade ahead.”

Attendance for all performances at the Center, including those presented by regional organizations, dipped slightly to 78% last year, he said, but that figure is still at least 10 points above the national figure. He attributed this decline to program expansion and patrons who are becoming “more selective.”

Nonetheless, attendance for the greatly expanded number of performances presented directly by the Center rose from 83% to 85%, Kendrick said.

In the past year, he said, almost 650,000 people attended performances at the Center. Since the Center opened in September, 1986, he said, more than 1.5 million people, including 175,000 schoolchildren, have attended about 700 performances.

Kendrick reported a net profit on a recent new production of “Babes in Toyland” and continued virtual sellouts of such Broadway shows as “Me and My Girl” and “Can-Can.” A return engagement of “Cats,” he said, set a house record.

“But most of all,” he said, “last year’s success can be traced directly to our ballet series. We staked--and established--a claim as the No. 1 presenter of touring ballet on the West Coast. And the community responded beyond my . . . hopes.” Ballet performances increased by 75%, to 44 performances, with an average paid attendance of 85.4%, which he said was 15 points above the national average. Ballet was the only Center subscription series that increased over 1987, he said, nearly breaking even. An $800,000 subsidy for ballet had been projected.

Box office revenue for performances presented by the Center covered 83% of operating costs in 1988, compared to 74% in 1987, Kendrick said. The 1988 figure is about 20 points above the national norm for comparable facilities, he said.

“That figure must--and will--inevitably come down as attendance moves to normal levels,” Kendrick said. “That money must be replaced by more support or the quality of programming--the key to our success--will fall, sharply.”