Debut Really Rocks : Entertainment: The South Bay Civic Light Opera overcomes numerous obstacles--even an earthquake--to present its first musical production.

Auntie Mame’s advice to young Patrick in the musical “Mame” to thumb his nose at the world and pursue his dreams wasn’t lost on the founders of the South Bay Civic Light Opera.

Starting last fall with a run-down school auditorium and a desire to bring Broadway-style musicals to the South Bay, founders James Blackman and Irv Chapman have confronted numerous obstacles in their effort to create a well-publicized, professional theater company.

They faced local government officials reluctant to waive their first-year fees, a recession that has caused thousands of local layoffs, an auditorium in Redondo Beach in need of refurbishment and an actors’ troupe with a similar name--South Bay Light Opera Society--anxious about the two getting confused.

To top it all off, in the middle of their second performance Wednesday night--of the aforementioned “Mame”--an earthquake sent some audience members fleeing for the exits mid-scene.

The group’s second production, not surprisingly, will be “Man of La Mancha,” about the dogged search for an impossible dream.

“A lot of messages in the first year are about what the civic light opera is trying to accomplish,” said Blackman, 36, the enthusiastic managing director who has worked for civic light operas in Santa Barbara, Oxnard and Pasadena. “From the very start, we’ve been in the crisis-management mode.”

But crises aside, the show must go on--and it has.

Blackman’s ebullient nature, for instance, won over a reluctant City Council in Redondo Beach, which gave him use of the Aviation Auditorium. The 1,464-seat showroom has been spruced up, but there have been complaints from audience members about the lack of air conditioning.

Blackman settled the name dispute without a fight and will change the group’s name to the Civic Light Opera of the South Bay.

The earthquake didn’t shake things up too much either: The actors didn’t miss a line and the scene received the biggest applause of the night.

Ever-optimistic Blackman says even the tough economic times may turn into an asset to his shows.

“Bad economic times around here are, ‘We won’t buy the new car next year’ or ‘Maybe we’ll have to sell the condo in Boca Raton (Fla.),’ ” Blackman said. “Yes, I believe there are real cutbacks here, but the family’s trip to Hawaii for six grand may become a season subscription to the civic light opera for $500.”

The South Bay is the latest in a growing number of suburban areas to support light opera companies, which offer popular musicals aimed at broad audiences, said Karen Rushfield, president of a group of about 100 theaters and producers known as Theatre LA. Other area light operas perform in such cities as Long Beach, Santa Barbara, Whittier, Fullerton and San Gabriel, she said.

Ticket sales to the Redondo Beach show have been steady but not overwhelming, with about 3,300 subscribers already on board. Officials said it will take three years before the viability of the group can be assessed. The goal is to boost regular patrons closer to Santa Barbara’s 16,000 subscribers and Long Beach’s 20,000.

The creation of the South Bay theater group has been a homecoming for Blackman, who grew up in the South Bay and performed on stage at Aviation Auditorium in the 1970s when it was part of now-closed Aviation High School. Chapman, the artistic director, is also a local, having grown up in Gardena.

“I’m now clicking my heels,” Blackman said, “saying, ‘No place like home, no place like home.’ ”

Blackman recruited his former drama teacher, Larry Boyd, to serve on the theater group’s board of directors and sought to aggressively market his product as a convenient alternative to downtown Los Angeles shows.

“I don’t know why any arts-savvy people didn’t look from Westchester to Palos Verdes, from the Harbor Freeway west,” Blackman said. “We need to be as visible as Hawthorne Boulevard. Everyone has to know it’s there--just like the police department, hospital and schools.

“If the South Bay can support a shopping mall the size of Cleveland, why not a light opera? Believe it or not, not everyone in the South Bay is surfing. Even if they are, we have a lot of long blond hair in the audience and those young people are saying, ‘That was totally cool.’ ”

“Mame,” the group’s first production, stars Teri Ralston in the title role. It will be performed at 8 tonight, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets range from $20 to $30.50. Future shows include “Man of La Mancha” June 17-28, “Oliver!” Sept. 16-27 and “Anything Goes” Dec. 9-20. Contact (310) 372-4477 for information.