ENTERTAINMENT NEWS : Filling a Void : A young actor and a college student, hoping to improve the Valley’s night life for teen-agers, have opened a dance club in Encino.
The two high school buddies spent adolescence cruising Ventura Boulevard and hanging out in parking lots.
“There was nothing to do, no one place safe and fun in the Valley where we could spend time,” Scott Nemes said. “We’d drive and drive for hours, and we used to see hundreds of other kids do the same things we were doing.”
Nemes, 19, an actor, and partner Sean Entin, 21, a USC business major, are aiming to change the night life for the present generation of San Fernando Valley teen-agers. Last Sunday, they opened SpiralWest, a new dance club in Encino that features a laser show, billiards, a nonalcoholic bar and Top 40 music. Every Sunday night, SpiralWest will take over Club Hola, which is a restaurant and dance club for the 21-and-over crowd.
Nemes said about 600 people showed up opening night, including his friend Fred Savage from ABC-TV’s “The Wonder Years.” The cover is $10, a dollar less if you get on their mailing list, and there is no age minimum.
The two friends attended Montclair Preparatory School in Van Nuys and now belong to the same fraternity--Alpha Epsilon Pi--at USC.
Entin, a senior, would like to produce films someday. Nemes, a sophomore at the USC Film School, played Grant Schumacker on “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and had a recurring role on “The Wonder Years.” He wants to direct films.
SpiralWest, 15910 Ventura Blvd., Encino, will be open 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays.
“GOD” SPEED--David Patrick Shearer, 16, also wants to direct, but his interest is the stage. He’s off to a good start.
He will direct, produce and act in “Godspell,” the Broadway hit to be performed by John Burroughs High School students and alumni in early September at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank. Shearer, a junior at the Burbank campus, began rehearsals in July for the show and finds juggling three diverse responsibilities more work than he imagined.
“The administrative duties have been the toughest,” he said.
Shearer has to raise about $3,500 to pay for the production’s expenses. He’s come up with about $500 by selling advertisements for the play’s program, but said he will be allowed to make most of the payments after the show is over.
He’s also not the first in his family to be associated with the play. His mother, Peg, directed two touring companies of “Godspell” in the 1970s in Kentucky.
SIGNAL ALERT--For years, devoted classical music fans in the Valley had trouble picking up the signal of KUSC-FM (91.5).
“We used to get a lot of complaints, particularly from people in the West Valley,” said Wallace Smith, the station’s president and general manager.
In late spring, KUSC moved its transmitter from Flint Peak in Burbank to Mt. Harvard, which is next to Mt. Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains. The Los Angeles area’s hilly terrain had interfered with the signal. KUSC can now be heard from northern San Diego County to Ventura and east to San Bernardino.
The transmitter move cost the station about $500,000, which came from various foundations, Smith said. The station has about 480,000 listeners in Southern California.
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