1990 ORANGE COUNTY : Depth of Commitment to Be Measured : The Arts: Now that the Center and other attractions are built, will Orange County residents dig deeper to guarantee growth, or will government help become the only way out?

If the ‘80s made it safe for much-trumpeted “world class” performers to add Orange County to their tour schedules, thus saving local arts lovers the arduous trek to Los Angeles, the ‘90s will test the community’s commitment to making the county hospitable to home-grown talent.

And with more and more communities forming their own arts commissions to foster activities city by city, the byword for Orange County arts in the ‘90s may shift from “world class” to “neighborhood domain.”

As high-profile, already-established arts organizations look ahead to complete their growth and settle into maturity, high real-estate prices and declining government support of the arts make it even tougher for newer and potentially more adventurous efforts to get off the ground.

With the Orange County Performing Arts Center as the shining example, the ‘80s were a triumph of the county’s conservative, private-enterprise ethic: The $73.7-million facility was built without direct government funding. The ‘90s, though, promise to test how deep the donors’ pockets really are.

The Newport Harbor Art Museum is in the midst of a giant capital campaign, as is the Bowers Museum, while the Center hopes to someday proceed with long-delayed plans to add two smaller halls. Other efforts aim at padding endowment funds to ensure future operating funds; meanwhile, in some areas--particularly classical music--groups acknowledge rising competition for audiences.

As the high-profile projects woo audiences and donors, more modest efforts may be left out in the cold. Leaders of South Coast Repertory and the Grove Theatre Company predict the sprouting of new professional theater companies in the coming decade, but the birth can be difficult: just ask Santa Ana’s struggling Alternative Repertory Theatre or the recently defunct Illusion’s New View Theatre in Brea.

The risk is that the ‘90s could find Orange County top-heavy with big attractions: The Newport Harbor Art Museum opens its new $50-million home in a vacuum, with no serious local gallery scene; a new arena in Anaheim or Santa Ana provides a new indoor venue for the Bon Jovis of the world, while a dismal club scene forces local bands to travel elsewhere for a place to play; audiences pack the Center to see the Kirov, while local dance companies continue to founder.

A sports analogy applies: The test of a team’s vitality, and that of an arts community, rests in its depth, not just in its stars.

This situation figures to be exacerbated by the “cocooning” effect: county residents, daunted by ever-worsening traffic and the demands for many of a two-career household, will be increasingly inclined to stay home and will demand more if and when they do leave the house.

The ‘90s also will bring more cultural opportunities closer to home. The 750-seat Irvine Theatre is slated to open in October of next year, while a 1,500-seat theater for Mission Viejo is in the discussion stage.

Huntington Beach, meanwhile, has plans for a new cultural arts center, and the Laguna Art Museum is interested in adding a second shopping mall satellite site.

Costa Mesa plans to beef up its arts support, and the county has announced intentions to study its role in funding the arts. Even developers are getting in on the act: The Foothill Ranch Co. plans to incorporate public art into its planned $2-billion community in the Saddleback Valley.

Other promising signs:

If and when the Center adds a planned 800-seat drama house, SCR would likely be involved, setting the stage for expanding the scope of the acclaimed company. That, and a planned 2,200-seat concert hall, would help to broaden the Center’s conservative offerings.

County arts organizations say they will work harder to gain minority representation on their boards, a promise that comes as the county’s ethnic minority population is projected to rise.

Orange County’s only commercial television station, KDOC-TV (Channel 56), plans to broaden its local news broadcast from a half-hour three hours daily--one hour each in the morning, afternoon and evening. But for the bulk of its programming, the station will continue to rely on its bread and butter: a steady diet of reruns that currently includes everything from “Green Acres” to “Mod Squad.” Public station KOCE-TV (Channel 50), meanwhile, plans to continue offering public affairs specials on local topics ranging from transportation to a planned county jail.

The cities of Irvine, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach seem destined to make a culinary splash with their burgeoning restaurant scene.

Finally, the marginal state of arts education lingers as an issue more than 10 years after the passage of Proposition 13. That’s a matter of survival for local arts leaders looking to the future, who worry about whether youngsters are learning enough today to be the arts audience of tomorrow.

What follows is a discipline-by-discipline rundown of what the ‘90s hold in store for Orange County arts and entertainment.(See separate stories).

Education may hold the key to whether we feed our faces or our spirits.

Arts and Entertainment

Fullerton: Fox Fullerton, which Landmark Theatre Corp. is ravamping into a three-screen complex specializing in first-run foreign, art and specialty films, as well as some mainstream fare, due to open late 1990 or early ’91.

Irvine: New Irvine Theatre, to open October, 1990 at the UC Irvine campus.

Southland: Edwards Cinemas, Orange County’s largest theater chain, plans to add 100 screens in the Southland during 1990 alone, the vast majority going into south Orange County.

Huntington Beach: Huntington Beach Art Center, scheduled to open spring 1992.

Newport Beach: Expanding Newport Harbor Art Museum in Newport Beach, scheduled to open late in 1992.

What to Look For: Arts and Entertainment around Orange County in the ‘90s.

Dining:

If Orange County makes a national name for itself in any realm, it is likely to be in the fine art of dining. Several local restaurants are exhibiting a sense of refinement and sophistication of the highest level.

Movies:

There will be less variety of what to see, as the lofty prices of the land on which the theaters will be built threatens to keep all but the mainstream hits locked away.

Pop Music:

Pop music fans should see a modest but encouraging return to sanity in the price of concert tickets for major rock and pop attractions, as the fierce bidding wars between Irvine Meadows and the Pacific Amphitheatre settle into a “more sensible” pattern.

Art Education:

The course arts education takes in the ‘90s may spell the difference between whether Orange County eventually develops a distinct cultural face, or whether the indigenous arts scene lays fallow because of public indifference.

Up-and Comers:

Maudette M. Ball, administrative director of the Foothill Urban Arts Program. Ball will play a key role in bringing to fruition the ambitious mutilimillion-dollar, developer-financed arts program for the Foothill Ranch Co.’s $2-billion planned community in Saddleback Valley over the next decade.

Donald Bradburn, 49, artistic director of concerts at UC Irvine and artistic co-director of California Ballet Theatre. One of two founding directors of the fledging California Theatre Ballet, Bradburn plans to pass on the expertise and repertory he acquired working with Eugene Loring, who founded the UCI dance department in 1965.

Richard Hellesen,33, playwright. South Coast Repertory In Costa Mesa will mount the world premiere of Hellesen’s “Once in Arden” in April as part of its mainstage season, one of the rare times the Tony Award-winning company has produced an Orange County playwright. It will be the first major production for Hellesen, who lives in Fullerton and grew up in Orange.

Vinnie James, late 20s, rock singer and songwriter. As the ‘90s begin, Vinnie James, a black folk-rocker who lives in Westminster, will lend his own forthright singing and distinctive, socially conscious songwriting voice to the noble task of tearing down racial walls.

Nalda Osline,33, director, Huntington Beach Art Center (scheduled to open in spring 1992). Osline combines knowledge of the alternative arts scene and an understanding of the broad role of a community art center.

Agenda for the 1990s

Today

What the decade holds for the theater, art, music, dance and other means of expression and entertainment. F1

Thursday: A day in the high-tech-dominated life of an upscale Orange County family

10 years from now. N1