Performing Arts Center at Moorpark College Begins to Take Shape : Theater: The $9.8-million building is set to open in June. Some question whether the region can support another cultural facility.

Four years after Sid Adler and Jim Wyman first hatched a plan for a soaring performing arts center at Moorpark College, the state-of-the-art complex is finally taking shape.

Set to open in June, the $9.8-million structure will put all four departments of humanities under the same roof for the first time.

“It’s a long journey from the first meetings,” said Adler, Moorpark College’s dean of humanities, dodging his way between construction workers into unfinished theaters and classrooms.

“After making do for a quarter-century, the performing arts center now has a real home,” Adler said.

But, while college planners spent years securing money for a performing arts center of their own, two other publicly funded art complex projects have sprouted nearby.

Last fall’s opening of the $64-million Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks and the ongoing $2.6-million renovation of the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center have raised questions about how much taxpayer-supported culture is needed.

Supporters say the Moorpark College theater is different than the others, however, because it is an educational facility--not a competing civic auditorium. And they say their need for a better theater is undeniable.

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The new beige brick building will house a 400-seat theater with an orchestra pit and expansive work room behind the stage. It also features a dance studio, speech classrooms, offices and the so-called black box--a smaller, more intimate theater for improvisational drama.

“At one time we were Project 108 (on the state waiting list),” said Wyman, chairman of the performing arts department. “But it just kept moving up the line.”

Students, faculty and administrators are eagerly anticipating the June opening, which officials said will spur enrollment, place Moorpark on the cultural map and attract performers from across Southern California.

The first performance at the new center is expected to be directed by Moorpark College music professor James Stemen, whose Los Robles Master Chorale is scheduled for June 10 and 11 concerts. The gala grand opening will be held at the beginning of the fall semester.

“I’m just holding my breath,” Stemen said.

Moorpark College student Steve Johnson sat in an intermediate acting class recently in a small theater called the Forum, where students have studied and performed in cramped quarters for many years.

“I’m very excited about the opening,” he said, settling into the class taught by longtime theater professor Les Wieder.

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“The way I look at it is there are a lot of schools I could go to that cost a lot more money,” Johnson said. “But this way I can continue taking classes here . . . and still have excellent facilities to learn in.”

Interrupting his lecture to make the same point, Wieder agreed.

“It’s like moving from a one-bedroom house to a mansion,” he said. “Students will get better training and there will be more opportunities for them to perform.”

But others see the project as unnecessary. Just minutes away is the grand Civic Arts Plaza, critics note. And by June, Simi Valley will have a cultural center of its own.

“There is the question of overkill now as to whether there is audience enough for these facilities,” said Steve Frank, a conservative Simi Valley-based political consultant.

“People who want art will pay for it,” Frank said. “People who don’t want art should not be forced to pay for it. This seems like politicians building memorials to themselves.”

But Moorpark College officials say their complex offers a unique blend of culture and education.

“We’re not in the business of trying to make money on that building, and it will (be less expensive) for local community productions that now are using other facilities,” said Ray Di Guilio, the college vice president who has overseen the project.

“The bottom line is we think there’s room in that (arts) market,” he said. “It’s much more comprehensive than the intent of the other two (centers).”

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Professors say the arts complex is much more than a 400-seat theater that will stage three or four productions a year. To them, it is an integral part of the arts education they can offer.

“We have so many plays, music and dance concerts that we couldn’t begin to perform at those (other) facilities,” Stemen said. The music professor has had his classes perform in local churches and other venues due to a lack of space.

“For some people, expressing themselves in the arts is as important as being able to add and subtract,” Stemen said. “Maybe this world could use a little more art--those things that reflect on life and speak to the heart and soul.”