New Theater School Dean Takes a Bow Stage Center : Ruben Sierra debuts at the Valencia campus intent on building a state-of-the-art theater and attracting a resident company

The yearlong national search for a dean of the School of Theatre had begun to frustrate students at the California Institute of the Arts. Each candidate was required to engage in a dialogue with the department’s students, who reported to the faculty.

John A.C. Kennedy, in his second year of the CalArts MFA acting program, felt embarrassed because at this point only about 10 students bothered to show up to talk to the potential deans. Previous meetings had disintegrated into student gripe sessions, Kennedy said.

But Ruben Sierra was the exception. He understood the students, identified with their side of the CalArts educational process.

“I got a real good feeling about him right away,” Kennedy said of the meeting. “He listened a lot. He asked us more questions than we were asking him.”

“With a lot of other candidates,” Kennedy said, “you felt like this was a step in their career. Like, ‘I’m gonna come take over this school and make a real name for myself, then I’ll finally be able to do this and do that.’ Ruben seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing and what we wanted to be doing.”

The ability to listen, to maintain grace under pressure, and to learn from others, plus humility and sincerity--these are some of the factors that eventually made Sierra the new dean of the CalArts School of Theatre.

Just a few weeks after officially becoming the dean on Jan. 16, Sierra sits in his CalArts office and gestures at a thick ream of computer printout papers. “This year’s budget,” he says, “given to me just this morning so I can figure out next year’s budget. I’ve had a calendar where every minute of the day something is happening.”

Sierra’s 1990-91 budget, beginning in July, will be more than $1 million. He’ll be responsible for more than 200 students and approximately 30 faculty.

Tense? He laughs, lifts a “stress reducer” off a bookcase--Mickey Mouse binoculars bought at Disneyland three years ago on his 40th birthday--and peers through it. On his wall looms an enormous poster advertising his solo show “I Am Celso” adapted with Jorge Huerta from Mexican Leo Romero’s poetry, which he performed at Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre.

“It’s going to take me a little while to settle in,” he says with a shrug. Then: “Like the character I play in ‘I Am Celso,’ ‘I’m between 10 and 100 years old, but who’s counting?’ ”

Like the drama students, CalArts President Steven Lavine was impressed with Sierra. After announcing the job opening a year ago, after looking at hundreds of applications, and after bringing seven candidates to the Valencia campus, it was a relief to meet Sierra. His predecessor, Libby Appel, had occupied the department chair for eight years, but her directing career required more free time.

Other factors contributing to Lavine’s decision included Ruben’s background as artistic director of the Seattle Group Theatre. “Ruben started his own theater in Seattle,” Lavine said. “He combines the artistic and the entrepreneurial in a way that’s ideal for someone who’s a dean, who must be both artistic director and managing director of a theater school.”

“They came after me,” Sierra said. “The first contact was about a year ago. I asked the president, ‘Why would you want me?’ He asked me, ‘Why would you want us?’ Basically, I said that if I decided to come here, it would be because of an opportunity to make changes, not just follow the status quo. You don’t want to go into a situation where you can only continue what’s been going on.”

During the interviews, Sierra sought assurances that he would have opportunities to expand the theater department’s range. The campus has no proscenium theater, for example, a frequent complaint of the students. Sierra hopes to raise the necessary funding for a state-of-the-art theater. Another goal is to establish a professional resident company that mixes graduate students with professionals, as does the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Conn.

“It’s a way of reaching out and saying, ‘We’re here, we know you’re there, let’s be part of each other,’ ” he said. “Just to the south there’s this tremendous community, and I think we can attract playwrights who want to work on new pieces and want to develop things--professionals who can also work with students. During the summer there’s nothing going on here. You have a theater that’s empty. You don’t have to start from scratch.”

When you mention the cost of such an endeavor, Sierra points to his past achievements.

“In Seattle, we started a theater company with no money,” he said. “We just had an idea of doing theater that no one else is doing, something that’s important and we’re excited about. Eventually you find people out there who feel as you do, who want to help.”

While earning his MFA in Directing/Criticism at the University of Washington, Sierra and other students founded the Seattle Group Theatre in 1978. “There were about 10 of us who put the company together. It’s a multicultural theater company. It reaches out across the lines and was successful in breaking down a lot of barriers, particularly for ethnic actors, designers and directors. What was really exciting about it is we all worked together.”

Sierra is a tough pragmatist when it comes to basic economic issues, another factor in his hiring. “Budgets are a money game,” he said. “Upstairs, they’re going to try and get what they can for their dollar. I’m going to try to get as much as I can. You ask for more and must justify those requests if you want to do something new and creative. The point is to say, ‘Let’s quit BS-ing each other and get down to the nitty-gritty.’ “”

Once Sierra “gets a good smooth ship going” as an administrator, he hopes to occasionally resume creative work in the professional theater. Besides acting, Sierra also has play writing and directing credits. His children’s play, “The Millionaire y el Pobrecito,” a musical adaptation of “The Prince and the Pauper,” was produced by the L.A. Public Theatre in 1983. Although his wife and he have moved into a home in Valencia, Sierra plans to maintain contacts with the Seattle theater community. He remains on the Group Theatre board and, “hopefully,” will find CalArts graduates work with the company.

Sierra’s soft-spoken, casual, low-key style contrasts with his sudden bursts of enthusiasm upon remembering his interview with the students. “They were excited about learning,” he said. “I was affiliated with the University of Washington for 17 1/2 years. Our group theater always had programs that go to the high schools, elementary schools, the colleges. And we had internships.”

Sierra’s own education might explain his rapport with students. His parents were both involved in theater in Texas. “That’s how they met,” he said, “during a Christmas pageant. My mother played the Virgin Mary and my father the devil, and the rest is history. Theater’s in my family genes.”

Growing up in a San Antonio, Tex., barrio, he endured a public school system rife with racism. “Elementary school was really not a fun time for me,” he said. “School was about 70 to 75% Chicano. We were mistreated. We had teachers telling us things like ‘Mexicans are stupid and naturally lazy, you’ll be lucky if you ever amount to much.’ ”

One childhood story in particular illustrates Sierra’s point. In the fifth grade, a teacher encouraged him to enter an essay contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Sierra chose Abraham Lincoln as his topic because he freed the slaves.

Sierra had graduated to the sixth grade by the time the winner was announced: 10-year-old Ruben Sierra.

“The DAR ladies came to school and picked me up in a Cadillac. I’d never been in a Cadillac before. We went to this big place, they read my essay and gave me this certificate and a medal.”

Then Sierra was brought back to school.

“But my sixth-grade teacher was not happy that I won this award,” Sierra continued, the memory still bitter. “She thought some Anglo kid should have won it. She mentioned that. So she had me get up to read this essay for my class. I came to the word ‘potentialities’ and I got stuck. I knew what it meant but I was nervous. So I asked her to read it for me. And she just laid into me.”

Sierra’s dramatic skills suddenly emerge as he imitates his sixth-grade teacher: “You didn’t write this! You couldn’t have written this! It’s too good!”

After a long pause, Sierra added: “It shut me down for a while. It really did.”

Such experiences make Sierra keenly alert to the needs of students--and to their “potentialities.”

“To me, the most exciting learning is where you’re sharing,” he said. “Every experience is new and unique. Not any one play that I direct is going to be the same as the previous one. If I try to take a formula in with me, it doesn’t work. The theater is different, the players are different, the play itself is different. Take a risk, take a chance, say, ‘Well I know you’ve been doing it this way forever, let’s experiment. If it doesn’t work, we’ll find what does--together.’ ”

CalArts President Lavine agreed with the student body: “I believe Ruben in a very short order will emerge as a significant figure in the world of theater in Los Angeles. He’s a great catch.”