Linke Troupe Opens Carpenter Center in Long Beach Sunday

The new Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach opens Sunday at 8 p.m. with a performance by the Susanne Linke Dance Company of Frankfurt, Germany. The troupe will offer the first West Coast performance of Linke’s piece RUHR-ORT. Tickets are $15.

The center, at 6200 Atherton St., will be used for a wide variety of arts events. Five concerts ranging from jazz to comedy to country music are scheduled in the main, 1,162-seat hall: the Nat Adderley jazz quintet on Feb. 12, comedian Paul Rodriguez on March 12, the San Francisco Girls Chorus on March 27, the Joe Goode Performance Group on April 16 and country/Tejano singer Tish Hinojosa on May 5. For information on all programs, call (310) 985-7000.

The theater can be scaled down to 765 seats for smaller events; the center also houses the Martha B. Knoebel Theater, a 250-seat hall designed exclusively for dance.

The center has been financed with $27 million in state bonds but will operate without additional government subsidy. Richard Carpenter has donated $1 million toward its endowment. Carpenter and his late sister, Karen, majored in music at Cal State Long Beach before going on to fame as a pop singing duo.