COVER STORY : Show Time : Having secured national acclaim, CalArts goes after hometown audiences.

Last spring, when the CalArts theater school staged Tennessee Williams’ comedy “The Rose Tattoo,” a startling number of people came from neighboring communities to see the play.

“There was one night,” Michael Jung, a theater student, recalled, “when it seemed like the entire audience was from Valencia.”

It was a small victory for this hilltop campus, which has earned a national reputation while remaining less noticed at home. Over the past few years, administrators and faculty have tried to attract more outside attention, and attendance, to the steady roster of plays, concerts and exhibits featured at their institute.

These events include performances by noted visiting artists and faculty such as jazz bassist Charlie Haden. There is also the work of students. Artists Ed Ruscha and Kate Ericson attended CalArts. So did director Tim Burton of “Batman” fame and actors Laraine Newman and Katey Sagal.

So, as a new term begins, CalArts administrators harbor optimism that the institute can establish itself as a cultural center for residents of the Santa Clarita and, perhaps, San Fernando valleys. The trick is to convince these people to think of CalArts instead of assuming that they must drive to downtown Los Angeles or the Westside to satisfy their hunger for the arts.

But the institute faces a struggle. As Santa Clarita Mayor Jan Heidt said: “I think that there is a certain group of people who go up there, but I don’t think it has attained a broad appeal throughout the community.”

CalArts must overcome a history of aloofness, Heidt explained. It must also practice a little salesmanship. “The Rose Tattoo” notwithstanding, much of the work presented on campus is avant-garde. People accustomed to Broadway plays and big-budget Hollywood films must be coaxed into trying this brand of art.

“The more that audiences come up here, the more they’re going to learn that it’s fun,” mused David Rosenboom, dean of the music school. “But we’re not at that point yet.”

The gap between CalArts and surrounding communities dates back to the institute’s founding 23 years ago. The modern-looking campus--filled with artists, no less--arrived as something of a shock to what was a predominantly rural Santa Clarita Valley.

“This was an extremely conservative community,” recalled Thomas L. Lee, chairman of the Newhall Land & Farming Co., which built the master-planned community of Valencia and owns an additional 37,000 acres in the valley. “Most people saw the school as something that was off doing its own thing.”

Indeed, the institute kept to itself in those early years. Faculty saw an advantage to creating an enclave, a haven where students could feel comfortable enough to experiment. As a result, CalArts did not establish itself as a resource for cultural entertainment either in the community or throughout Los Angeles.

“Now, none of us feel that makes sense,” said Steven Lavine, who became president of the institute in 1988. “We want the energies and the problems of the world to intrude on campus. We want that to influence the art we make.”

There is also a sense of mission, according to Rosenboom, who joined the institute two years after Lavine.

“We’re kind of evangelists about the contemporary arts here,” the dean said. “I firmly believe that one of the most important things we can impart on our students is to help bring audiences along.”

That won’t be easy. The work presented at CalArts can be both raw and wild. Ed Harris, an alumnus who went on to star in such films as “The Right Stuff” and “Under Fire,” recalls performing Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with African dancers and music.

“It was fairly embarrassing but, what the hell, we had nothing to lose,” Harris said in a 1990 interview with The Times. “We were there to give anything a try.”

Lavine is quick to point out that not all of the art produced by his faculty and students is of this nature. The music department schedules classical concerts. The theater department stages Shakespeare in traditional fashion. Still, the president conceded, “we’re probably more avant-garde than the Santa Clarita Valley.”

And the faculty is not about to pander to popular tastes. “We’re not concerned with doing ‘The Odd Couple,’ something that will bring a lot of people in,” said Kurt Hardison, who oversees the set-construction workshop. “We’re concerned with doing the shows that will help train our students. Sometimes those shows aren’t so well-received.”

Students, for their part, insist that even the wildest performances offer production values that are more professional than outsiders might expect.

“The one thing we have going for us is that there are so many talented people in each area,” said Jung, who will direct a version of Dennis McIntyre’s “Modigliani,” which opens Thursday. “It’s not just actors and directors. We have an army of designers and technicians. It’s more than you would find in most storefront theaters in Los Angeles.”

Bennett Jones, a film student, added: “And it’s cheap.”

Students obviously want their art seen by as many people as possible. Jones recalled shopping in Valencia and receiving a compliment from someone who had enjoyed his work. Rodolfo Marquez, an art school student, had an exhibit reviewed in a local newspaper.

“It felt good to know that someone was interested,” Marquez said.

And while faculty still want students to experiment, there are drawbacks to playing only before peers. “It’s not the same as having an audience from outside the school come and pay admission,” Haden explained. “Then, it’s like being on tour. It’s like playing a concert. Cristyne Lawson, dean of the dance school, said simply: “The students have to learn to dance in front of people.”

So CalArts, which has little or no money to advertise, has embarked on various public relations efforts. Through its 3-year-old Community Arts Partnership, it has worked on joint projects with such Los Angeles arts groups as the Watts Towers Arts Center and Plaza de la Raza. Closer to home, the institute schedules annual open houses with special performances to encourage nearby residents to visit.

“CalArts has some wonderful talents,” said Richard Smykle, president of the Santa Clarita Arts Council. “More people should take advantage of that.”

The arts council has begun listing institute performances in its monthly newsletter and on a telephone information line. Smykle hopes for a day when Santa Clarita can afford to pay for public artworks and CalArts students will receive city grants to paint murals and erect sculptures in town. As one of those students, Jones yearns for such close ties.

“I grew up in Boston,” he said. “There, the schools are part of the city.”

The time for CalArts to forge such a connection might be right. A San Fernando Valley group that wants to build a cultural center in the Sepulveda Basin is perhaps years from reaching that goal. Meanwhile, the Santa Clarita Valley has evolved from its rural beginnings and is home to a populace that grows increasingly eager for arts events.

“It’s a well-educated community and the people who live here are looking for a more cosmopolitan experience,” Lee said. “Most new communities go for decades without having any cultural institution come their way. We’re blessed.”

Irene Connors hopes to build a stronger town-and-gown relationship. The theater professor stands in a rehearsal room while, all around her, students practice sword fighting for a November run of William Butler Yeats’ “The Herne’s Egg.”

“We just need to get people up here,” Connors said. “There’s a kind of explosion when you walk in. People are dancing. People are painting. It’s the whole experience.”

Then she adds: “And you can find a place to park.”