ENTERTAINMENT : Oasis for Culture : After 10 years of talk, the Antelope Valley Community Arts Center opens to performers.

The idea of opening a performing arts center in this high desert city was born a decade ago with a plan to renovate an old school auditorium.

But for years the Palmdale City Council flip-flopped between renovating the Maryott Auditorium and building a new theater, changing their decision about half a dozen times.

And the city kept altering the size and scope of the project, with the net effect of delaying the opening of a theater--any theater--and frustrating its supporters.

Finally, a decade after the talk began, Palmdale has a theater--the 54-year-old school auditorium transformed with $3 million into the Antelope Valley Community Arts Center. The theater opens tonight with a three-weekend run of Desert Opera Theatre’s production of “The King and I.”

“I’m extremely excited about a 10-year project that is finally coming to completion,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford.

Excited is a word being used a lot these days by those who have pushed the city to build a theater. “It’s amazing to see how excited the whole city is,” said Dorothy Lewellin, a local arts advocate who has supported the theater project since its infancy. “I think it’s a big thing for the community because Palmdale hasn’t had a theater, per se, ever.”

Until now, what has served as the city’s theater is the city-owned Palmdale Cultural Center’s second floor, an area best described as a banquet hall with a stage. As if poor acoustics and less-than-ideal equipment were not enough, audiences had to sit on folding chairs.

Now the two locally based theater troupes--Palmdale Repertory Theatre Group and Desert Opera Theatre--will perform in a facility already being called the perfect playhouse by the center manager.

Palmdale Repertory and Desert Opera will be in residence at the arts center, and through agreements with the city will be allowed to use it a combined 26 weeks per year at no charge.

“To have a place that’s really built to perform in is really wonderful,” said Patsy McGuirk, president of the 45-member Palmdale Repertory.

Although the theater has its shortcomings, she said, “I’m just delighted we have some place we can call home that looks like a theater, feels like a theater and acts like one.”

McGuirk added: “The audience will be more comfortable. They’ll be able to see because they’re on a raised floor. There’s an actual lighting and sound booth that can hold more than two people.”

And it is not just the number of people who can fit in the booths, it is what they contain. Dea McAllister, the city’s cultural arts and theater manager, said the $3-million renovation of the Maryott included installation of state-of-the-art sound and lighting equipment.

The top-to-bottom make-over also gave the arts center a new ticket office, a green room, an orchestra pit large enough to accommodate 18 to 20 musicians and a workshop for set building.

Although most of the money for the renovation came from the city’s coffers, the Antelope Valley Cultural Foundation, a nonprofit group formed in 1984 to raise money for a theater, gave $500,000 to Palmdale.

The foundation also spent another $200,000 to upgrade sound and lighting equipment, purchase three pianos and cover the costs of other improvements beyond what the city had planned, said David Milligan, the foundation’s executive director.

Now that Palmdale finally has its theater, the foundation will embark on a second round of fund raising, beginning with a $75-a-person black-tie gala at the arts center at 6 p.m. Saturday. Food, drink and a performance of “The King and I” are included in the price of the tickets.

The money raised will be used to build permanent dressing rooms to replace the ones now in trailers, and also for the addition of office and working space, Milligan said. A third phase of fund raising will allow for expansion of the center’s lobby area and the addition of a conference room.

Milligan said as much as $800,000 will be needed for the planned improvements to the renovated building, long a fixture in the community.

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The Maryott building, at 10th Street East, is at the site of an elementary school built in 1917 on part of a square block of land for which the Palmdale School District paid $10.

The original brick schoolhouse on the site was condemned after an earthquake in 1933. A wood-framed stucco school was then built on the original foundation, and in 1940 the auditorium was added. In the evening, the auditorium served as Palmdale’s movie house.

In 1950, the school was damaged in a fire that destroyed the auditorium. Insurance paid for the auditorium to be rebuilt, at a cost of $52,347, but it was a simpler building than the one destroyed.

The school was closed in 1980 and was sold to the city, which demolished all but the auditorium and a couple of classrooms. All that patrons will see of the former elementary school theater, McAllister said, is the “bull nose” on the front of the stage, stairs on each side of the stage and the proscenium arch.

McAllister, who has more than a decade of experience as an actress, producer and director, says she hopes to see the 348-seat arts center--with its rich cherry-stained woodwork, deep green curtain and mauve, cream and gray walls--become a focus of cultural activities in the region.

“What we would like to see happen here is this would be a home for all local artists, whether it’s painting, sculpture, photography (or) youth orchestra,” she said. “We want anyone whose interested in the arts, who has talent, we want them to be able to share that (by) teaching, working, volunteering, taking a class.”

It is that community-oriented vision for the arts center that has McAllister and the manager of the $10.5-million Lancaster Performing Arts Center saying their facilities will not compete with one another. With its 750 seats, Lancaster’s 3-year-old theater is primarily a presenter’s house, a venue for larger professional productions. But it’s also a showcase for community theater.

“They do community things there, we’ll present (professional productions) here,” McAllister said. “We’ll just do it on different levels.”

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In a year, McAllister said, the arts center hopes to begin using a nearby building for crafts, dance and music. She said the city will hire professionals to teach their art and offer various cultural arts programs.

“This is a place for everyone to have an equal opportunity,” she said. Classes will include operating sound and lighting boards, ticketing and theater management.

There will be the opportunity for local artists to exhibit their works in the arts center’s gallery area. McAllister even hopes to spruce up the restrooms, with work by students.

Performances by both local and out-of-town groups will be offered at the center, McAllister said. After “The King and I,” Palmdale Repertory’s “Nunsense” opens Sept. 30 for a two-weekend run. Then Desert Opera Theatre returns with “On the Town” for a three-weekend run beginning Nov. 4.

From Thanksgiving weekend until the end of the year, McAllister said, the theater plans to offer holiday programs by community and professional groups, although these have not been scheduled.

Beginning in 1995, the city plans to use the theater for four to 10 professional shows a year. It will also be available for seminars, meetings and the like.

For now, however, McAllister is giving relatively little thought to programming and instead is concentrating on getting into the building. Although it was scheduled for completion months ago, Palmdale only got the keys to its long-awaited community arts center three days ago.

McAllister, who was hired by the city in November, 1993, as a part-time employee, said: “It’s been nine months for me. I’m ready to deliver.”

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “The King and I.”

Location: Antelope Valley Community Arts Center, 38334 10th St. East, Palmdale.

Hours: 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Sept. 25.

Price: $12 general; $10 seniors, military and students; $8 for children 10 and younger.

Tours: Grand opening festivities begin at 5:15 tonight with a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by theater tours until 7 p.m. Tours resume 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon Sunday.

Call: (805) 267-5611.

Also: Black-tie gala at the center at 6 p.m. Saturday. Tickets $75, including food, drink and a performance of “The King and I.” Call (805) 947-9442.