STAGE NOTES : Details of Santa Ana Theater Are at Least 6 Months Away

HOLD YOUR HORSES: Theatergoers in Orange County would be wise not to get excited just yet about the possible theater envisaged as part of a $400-million, 18-acre Main Street Concourse proposed for Santa Ana earlier this week by a Japanese developer.

Precisely what kind of theater would be built to go with the two planned office towers (one of which, at 32 stories, would be the county’s tallest), the 350-room hotel and the hundreds of condominiums?

“We don’t know yet,” said Steven W. Spillman, a vice president for development at Birtcher, the Laguna Niguel developer advising Shimizu America Corp., the Japanese developer hired to build the project for the Orient Corp., a Japanese consumer finance company that owns the land.

“You have to understand that we’re right at the beginning and we haven’t thought a lot of these things through,” Spillman continued. “But we are looking at a community space that would encourage people to use an auditorium for dance performances. And we are talking about multipurpose rooms for other activities.”

Spillman said it would take at least six months for more specific ideas regarding the auditorium to coalesce, but that the “thinking right now is that it should be able to accommodate small- to medium-size theater groups” as well.

Whatever is finally decided, he added, “it would probably be several years before we start construction on this project.”

The Main Street Concourse site is across North Main Street from the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall north of downtown.

GOING UP: Patrons of the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa will face a de facto price increase tonight with the opening of Verdi’s “La Traviata.” The parking fee at the facilities serving the Center, as well as neighboring South Coast Repertory, has gone up to $4, an increase of $1.

Los Angeles-based Century Parking Inc., which operates the garages, boosted the price on Jan. 1. SCR patrons confronted the increase for the first time eight days ago at a preview performance of Howard Korder’s “Search and Destroy.”

There has been no price resistance from theatergoers “so far,” Century’s parking director John Yglesis said Friday.

Reaction also was muted from officials at both SCR and the Center, neither of which receives income from the parking facilities or has any control over the parking fee.

“We’re sure there are contributing economic factors that necessitate this increase,” said Paula Tomei, SCR’s general manager. “At the same time, we’re upset by anything that adds to the cost of attending the arts.”

Center President Thomas F. Kendrick also said the boost was regrettable but understandable because of “inflationary pressures.” He pointed out that the new fee is “in line” with similar facilities at other arts institutions such as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

The Century-operated parking facilities serving the Center and SCR have a total capacity of 2,626 cars. The $3 fee had been in effect for two years, Yglesis said. Both SCR and the Center were notified of the increase last May.