Grand Opening Raises Grand Hopes for Arts

Some grand openings are just grander than others; with institutions, as with nature, there is a hierarchy.

At the low end of the ribbon-cutting chain is the fast-food outlet or the auto parts store, both of which celebrate the beginning of commercial life with helium-filled balloons and a clown past its prime.

Higher up on the chain are openings of restaurants, mini-malls and car lots, where the balloons are bigger, brighter and have subtler type. There are also special discounts, 25-cent rides, raffles and freebies, including food. And the clowns are usually fresh out of clown school.

Then comes the great-grand-daddy of retail events: the mall opening, where you get all the things mentioned above, and the local radio station comes out to boot.

But for grandeur and civic pride, there is nothing like the inauguration of a major institution. And some institutions are so significant to a community that all the pomp and ceremony can’t fit into a single opening night. Such is case with the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, where a full season of programming gets under way Friday night, with the Santa Susana Repertory production of “Man of La Mancha.”

The musical will signal the official opening of the Forum Theatre, the smaller of the two venues that makes up the Civic Arts Plaza. The grand opening of the plaza’s larger Civic Auditorium will be Oct. 22, and will include gala festivities, the nationally renowned Bernadette Peters and the locally recognized Conejo Symphony Orchestra.

This provides the Civic Arts Plaza with two opportunities to make the county’s residents aware of a new regional force on the arts horizon.

“The idea of a concert house that serves this area intrigues me and carries with it the hope that somehow it will reflect this area,” said Len Reed, who wrote this week’s Centerpiece story on the Civic Arts Plaza.

“Big-ticket entertainment is getting to be the same everywhere: Tony Bennett is Tony Bennett in Cleveland or Thousand Oaks,” said Reed. “And that’s the real truth about our performing arts center--the main hall can’t pay for itself without crowd-pleasers who are national in name and appealing to a mass audience.”

Reed said once the arts plaza achieves financial stability, he hopes the facility’s programmers will reach beyond the tried and true.

“My greatest hope is that a year or so from now, the Civic Arts Plaza might reach for some edge, some special energy, some alternative programs that give it a soul and heart as distinctive as its stunning and original building. That means alternative rock for the kids, performance art and jazz and contemporary off-Broadway plays for everyone else. Yes, they’ll be risky. But then that’s how you keep the word art in the name Civic Arts Plaza,” said Reed.

“Otherwise we’ve simply gone to huge expense to dress the Vegas showroom in suburban tweeds. That would be a pity.”