Temblor Leads to Look at O.C. Arts Centers : Safety: Officials of some arts organizations say their contingency plans are holding up, but others say their policies may be evaluated.

The San Francisco Ballet, which made its local debut Tuesday night at Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa less than three hours after the Bay Area’s 6.9 temblor, anticipates no change in casting or programming for the remainder of its engagement, company officials said Wednesday.

“Of course the company has been concerned,” said Helgi Tomasson, artistic director of the 65-member troupe, in a prepared statement. “But throughout last evening and this morning, we have been able to make contact with friends and family and we are reassured. Like the city itself, we will go on--and we will dance.”

The troupe’s local seven-performance run ends Sunday afternoon.

According to general manager Joyce Moffatt, the company’s downtown San Francisco headquarters--which house its school, administrative--suffered no structural damage in the quake. The facility was built six years ago to “exacting earthquake specifications,” said Moffatt, who traveled here with the company.

Fifteen young dance-school students spent Tuesday night at the facility, company officials said. A neighborhood hotel fed them dinner, and the students left for home this morning.

The San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, where the company performs its resident seasons, is a city facility, company officials said, and it has been closed until city engineers can determine whether or how much damage it sustained.

The company is “grateful to audience members and the community for the outpouring of concern and support,” the statement says, and it requests that Orange County residents who want to help direct their inquiries to the American Red Cross.

As for the safety of buildings in the Orange County arts community, Performing Arts Center President Thomas R. Kendrick said in a prepared statement that the Center “is new and was specifically designed to incorporate the latest research and technology for earthquake resistance.” A 5.0 quake centered off Malibu struck last Jan. 18 in the midst of an opera performance, but the Center reported no damage.

Officials of other county arts venues reported various degrees of preparedness for a quake of the magnitude that struck San Francisco, which was many times stronger than quakes felt in Orange County earlier this year.

In the aftermath of those two temblors--a 4.6 shaker centered in Newport in April and the quake off Malibu--some arts facilities stepped up their plans for responding to earthquakes or other natural disasters, while others were less specific about their natural-disaster procedures.

Officials at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, situated near the Newport-Inglewood fault, have taken several steps since the April shaker, although, museum spokeswoman Maxine Gaiber said, not a single artwork was lost to that “sharp jolt.”

The museum was built in 1977 and satisfied the current earthquake-safety standards, Gaiber said.

A 1989 grant of about $5,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts was recently used to improve storage facilities where the museum keeps most of its 1,800-piece collection of sculpture, paintings, photographs and other works, Gaiber said. Most of the grant went for work to anchor all containers and cabinets to the walls, to buy protective netting to drape over racks where sculpture is stored, and to line shelving units with soft materials, she said.

The museum staff also makes periodic reviews of its emergency procedures, she said, and associate director Jane Piasecki is active in the community Newport Beach Emergency Disaster Program, which is concerned with all types of disasters.

She added that artworks on display at the museum are always secured by bolts or cables to protect them--not just in the event of an earthquakes, but from the public.

“We are confident we’ve done all we can do” to be prepared for a major quake, Gaiber said.

The 71-year-old Laguna Art Museum, which has suffered no quake damage so far, was brought up to current building codes for earthquake safety when it underwent a $2.2-million renovation in the mid ‘80s, spokeswoman Nancy Coop said.

The museum also recently installed a new storage system designed to protect its 3,000-piece collection from general wear and tear, she said. There is an emergency plan for staff and visitors, Coop said, but she added: “I’m not familiar with it.”

As for the artworks on display in galleries, Coop said that if the structure is protected by earthquake building codes, all works inside should be. But “if there was a sculpture on a pedestal, for example,” she said, “that could be in jeopardy. The entire pedestal could topple.”

Spokesmen for each of the county’s three largest theater troupes said Wednesday that their buildings comply with earthquake-safety construction codes.

“If a quake happens during a performance, our house and stage managers also have a detailed evacuation plan,” said Cristofer Gross of South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

The SCR building, which opened in 1978, includes the 507-seat Mainstage auditorium and the 161-seat Second Stage. Gross said the plant has a backup power generator, that the maintenance department has a plan to shut off water should pipes burst, and that there is no gas outlet in the building.

The Newport quake in April happened during a special matinee performance (of Shaw’s “You Never Can Tell”), he said, and the safety systems were not needed then. There was no damage to the building, Gross said, although the housings of several overhead lights were shaken loose during the performance. Safety chains prevented the lights’ falling into the audience, Gross said. The lead actor, Tom Harrison, told the audience not to panic, and the show resumed a few minutes later.

Laguna Playhouse business manager Jody Davidson said that the 418-seat Moulton Theatre, which opened in Laguna Beach in 1968, meets all building-code requirements and that its battery-operated emergency lights are inspected every two weeks. She said that there has never been a quake during a performance but that should there be such an event, the staff would direct the audience to evacuate the building through well-marked exits.

The Moulton sustained no damage from the Newport quake, Davidson said, but the 5.9 Whittier quake in October, 1987, shook some plaster loose.

“If I didn’t believe this building was safe, I wouldn’t be working here,” she said. “You’re talking to someone who is so terrified of earthquakes that I drive around with three days’ (worth) of earthquake-emergency supplies in her car.”

The Grove Shakespeare Festival, which operates two city-owned theaters in Garden Grove, has “an evacuation plan provided by the city but nothing specifically formulated beyond that,” artistic director Thomas F. Bradac said.

The 512-seat outdoor amphitheater and the 178-seat indoor Gem Theatre both meet code regulations, Bradac said. The Gem, originally built in the late ‘20s, survived the 6.3 Long Beach earthquake of 1933 with no damage, he said. The Gem underwent a major renovation in 1979. The amphitheater was built in 1981.

As far as how an earthquake might be handled at the county’s major rock and pop concert facilities go, “I was thinking about that last night as I was watching the news,” said Matt Curto, director of operations for the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. “We have an emergency generator which would pop on and help with lighting.”

Curto said that the house lights--there are 27 1,000-watt lights--would come on with emergency power. “In conjunction with Staff Pro,” the security company contracted for the amphitheater, “and their expertise, I’m confident they would get the people out in an orderly manner.” Curto said that his main concern would be whether the stage scaffolding would stand up. He said he would have to consult with Joe Berry, the amphitheater stage manager, on matters relating to the supports and to any precautions specifically for earthquakes.

Times staff writers Mike Boehm, Jan Herman, Randy Lewis and Chris Pasles contributed to this article.