A Box Full of Surprises : Cedar Street Theatre opens ‘I Never Sang For My Father’ tonight in the Lancaster Performing Arts Center.

It was always wrong, manager Bruce Spain says, to think of the Lancaster Performing Arts Center simply as a 758-seat theater. Now, there’s nothing simple about the main auditorium and its capability of transforming from a place where “Hamlet” is staged one night to where Emmylou Harris appears the next.

But inside the center is a black box, waiting to be noticed.

It’s actually right next to the main stage itself, and even most regular patrons know nothing of its existence.

That is likely to change, as the center’s resident theater company, Cedar Street Theatre, opens Robert Anderson’s “I Never Sang For My Father” tonight in the center’s Black Box Theatre.

“You know,” says Barbara Coates, Cedar Street’s artistic director, “it’s not really black . It’s closer to mauve.”

That may be the only point of contention Coates has with this 40- by 60-foot room, which her company has already used for its September production of N. Richard Nash’s “The Rainmaker.” As a naturally intimate space for human-scale drama, it will be further tested with Anderson’s tension-filled, cathartic play about an old man and his son.

“This is not a simple, sweet, nice play,” Coates says, as if warning the loyal Antelope Valley audience that Cedar Street has developed over 16 years. The move to the center marks a period of adjustment for the company--and the center as it accommodates not only the visiting acts in the big hall, but the local artists in the Black Box.

(To be sure, Cedar Street won’t be sequestered in the Black Box. It will stage “Sweet Charity” (Jan. 27-30) and “Kiss Me, Kate” (May 19-22) in the main hall.)

“When you make a move like we have,” Coates says, “from our old place into this theater, you need a professional attitude. We’ve always been a community theater, but we’ve never been sloppy amateurs. Still, it’s always been a small, homey operation. Coming in here, dealing with all of the technical equipment and the staff, has caused some consternation for some members. We can’t just walk out into the audience in our costumes after the show. You just don’t do that here.”

“The old place” is the aging Los Angeles County Assembly Hall three blocks east of the center. (“We just called it ‘Cedar Street’ for years,” Coates says, “and then someone noticed one day that it’s on Cedar Avenue, but by then, the name had stuck.”) The Depression-era hall virtually creaks with time, its walls revealing decaying paint and plaster, the hardwood floor worn down by decades of meetings and shows. Coates’ husband and Cedar Street technical hand Bruce Coates says, understandably, “that old building has a personality.”

The Coateses and the center’s crew are still figuring out the personality of the Black Box. A portable system of risers permits a flexible seating and staging arrangement for any capacity, up to 125 seats. The stage can be thrust, arena or any shape desired. It can be raised or at floor level. The seating can be raked or not. “The play will tell us what the theater will look like,” director Coates says.

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The Black Box’s remarkable flexibility extends to the ceiling, which is actually a matrix of catwalks and grids allowing for any kind of lighting design. Though technically conceived as a performance space to augment the main theater, the Black Box until recently was used for meetings, receptions, even weddings. With Cedar Street as a permanent resident and a five-play season (the third Black Box show will be “Godspell,” March 25-April 2), the demands on the space dramatically changed.

Spain reports that the center spent $88,000 this year for curtains, lights and other equipment to bring the Black Box up to full production capability. The last piece in the puzzle is a soundproof door that would be located between the Black Box and the main hall’s backstage. He estimates that the door will cost $80,000. Spain says that this is an essential expenditure since “the sound spilling from the Black Box into the main hall, or in the other direction, makes it impossible to do shows in both places at once. And while we want to use the Black Box as much as possible, we can’t afford to keep the main hall dark for very long.”

Where and When What: “I Never Sang for My Father.” Location: Black Box Theatre at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, 4933 N. Fern Ave., Lancaster. Hours: 8 tonight, Saturday, Sunday, and Nov. 4-7. Also 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Nov. 7. Price: $11-$12. Call: (805) 723-5950.