Ending Season on a Higher Note : Theater: In 1993-94, the Irvine Barclay’s attendance rates jump to 86%--its highest so far--thanks in part to improved programming.

As bumbershoot-toting fans paraded on stage Thursday to the music of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the Irvine Barclay Theatre ended its third full season with its highest attendance rates ever, theater officials announced Friday.

Paid attendance for 32 IBT-presented events during the 1993-94 season averaged 86% of capacity, up 9 points from the previous year, when IBT presented 14 events, theater President Douglas C. Rankin said. (The venue also is rented out for events it does not present.)

In the Irvine Barclay’s abbreviated season in 1991-92, the theater sponsored nine events and audience capacity averaged 78%.

Rankin attributed the attendance increase to “improved quality of programming.” He cited sold-out shows by such varied artists as monologuist Spalding Gray, a “Guitar Summit” bill with Leo Kottke, Paco Pena and Pepe Romero, the LINES Contemporary Ballet of San Francisco and Thursday’s season closer with the Preservation Hall band. Rankin also pointed to a stronger marketing campaign and audiences’ greater familiarity with the 756-seat facility. For instance, he said, a survey taken at last month’s Taste of Orange County food festival in Irvine showed that roughly 40% of those polled had visited the theater.

“That’s a large increase over” results from a similar poll at the previous year’s festival, he said, “when we spent most of our time pinpointing our location” on a map.

IBT has expanded its season annually since opening in late 1990, and plans call for a continuation of that trend, Rankin said.

“We will continue (the increase) in the next several years to the extent that we are able to (financially) support expansion,” he said.