Conejo Board Hires Architects to Design 2 High School Theaters : Construction: Selection of firms is approved for the long-awaited projects, which will each cost $2.3 million.

For a decade, drama teacher Joseph Donia has dreamed of staging productions at Thousand Oaks High School where the audience didn’t have to huddle under blankets in a tent or sit on fold-away bleachers.

“Right now, the first couple (of) rows get to see the whole play and the rest get to listen to it,” he said.

At Newbury Park High, student actors have performed in equally awkward spaces--an English classroom, a gym and, now, a former wood-shop studio.

But by the time today’s freshmen are ready for lead roles, the dream of performing in a real theater may be a reality.

On Thursday, the board of the Conejo Valley Unified School District took a major step toward building permanent performance halls at both schools. In a 3-2 vote, board members agreed to hire two architectural firms to design the projects, which will each cost $2.3 million. Contracts with the firms have not yet been negotiated.

“This is so good it’s incredible,” Thousand Oaks Principal Keith Wilson said. “We just have never had a place where we could do justice for our kids.”

Along with students interested in drama, the theaters will be used by those in speech classes, band, orchestra and choral groups, he said.

In choosing the two firms, the school board followed the recommendations of Supt. Jerry Gross and the two high school principals. Newport Beach-based Dougherty & Dougherty will build the Thousand Oaks High theater, while Wolff, Lang, Christopher of Rancho Cucamonga will design Newbury Park High’s hall.

Board members Dolores Didio and Dorothy Beaubien cast the opposing votes, saying they would prefer to have one firm design both projects. Beaubien said she did not object to either firm, but said having one designer would avoid competition and save money.

The district could have saved at least $50,000 by awarding both projects to the same firm, officials estimated.

“That money could be used to do something extra in the two theaters that we could not otherwise do,” Beaubien said.

But board member Richard Newman argued that the chance to build two theaters was a once-in-a-lifetime event for the district. The choice of architects, he said, should not be based on whether the district could save a small fraction of the project’s total cost.

“We’re not going to come back and do it again,” Newman said.

“I think if the people would like to do it under these circumstances, more power to them,” he said, referring to the recommendations of the two principals.

Beaubien also expressed concern that Dougherty & Dougherty has never built a theater.

But after visiting other projects built by the firm, Wilson said he was not worried, partly because a theater consultant will be hired to advise architects on such technical aspects as acoustics and audience views.

“For their first one, they need a monument, something where they can bring people and say ‘this is what we do,’ ” he said.

Both projects--which are expected to be completed by the spring of 1997--have been the subject of wrangling between the city and school district for more than a decade.

The Thousand Oaks High theater is being paid for by the city’s Redevelopment Agency, while the one at Newbury Park High will be funded by the school district. The City Council’s vote in the fall to extend the life of the Redevelopment Agency allowed the projects to go forward.

“The faculty here at Newbury Park has been waiting for 20 years for a theater,” said Kristi Colell, chairwoman of the school’s drama department.

For his part, Donia said he views the selection of the architects with cautious optimism. “We’ve been close a number of times, but this is the closest we’ve been,” he said. “Once I see a backhoe, then it’s real. I go with the old actor’s theory: When you can cash the check and it clears, then you know you’ve got the job.”