ENTERTAINMENT NEWS : The Fallbrook 7 Plus 3 : The West Hills cinema’s expansion has begun, with room for 600 more moviegoers by July. Nearby, two theaters plan a total of 34 more screens by fall.

Coming to a neighborhood near you! In 70mm projection with digital sound! With action like you’ve never seen before! Breathtaking! Heart-stopping! West Valley Screen Wars! General Cinema Theatres has fired a volley in this escalating battle by beginning expansion of its Fallbrook 7 General Cinema from seven to 10 screens. Spokesman Bob Artz says the new addition will be ready for moviegoers by July.

“The three new auditoriums will add about 600 seats to the 2,200 seats the complex now has,” Artz says. “They’re designed with side aisles for better access for patrons.”

General Cinema’s expansion is the first, but a rapid increase is expected in the number of first-run-movie screens in the Woodland Hills / West Hills area. Pacific Theatres’ planned 18-screen megaplex and an AMC 16-screen venue, both slated to open in the fall, are within one mile of the Fallbrook 7 and each other. Additionally, plans for new multiplexes in nearby Calabasas and Agoura are in the works.

The Fallbrook 7 cinema, which opened in 1988, is expanding into space that was previously occupied by a barbecue restaurant and an ice cream shop. The original complex offers wall-to-wall screens, Dolby stereo, Lucasfilm THX Sound, 70mm film projection and a fully computerized box office with advance ticket capability. Artz says the addition will also feature state-of-the-art projection and sound equipment, plus more snack bars and restrooms.

Fallbrook 7 General Cinema, Fallbrook Mall, 6731 Fallbrook Ave., West Hills. (818) 347-6091.

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THEY COME, THEY SAW, THEY CONQUER: Guido Lamell declares that musician David Weiss is one of the world’s two great musical saw soloists. Lamell, the musical director and conductor of the Topanga Philharmonic Orchestra, says that he himself is the other. So, one can hardly imagine his excitement over the two performing together at the orchestra’s concert May 20 at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.

Their saws will take the parts of human voices in the “La Ci Darem La Mano” duet from Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni,” with Weiss’ saw performing Zerlina and Lamell’s undertaking the title role. Lamell insists the integrity of the composer’s work will be maintained, claiming that the saw is one of the “unsung” heroes of music.

“No other instrument comes as close to duplicating the human voice timbre,” Lamell says.

All saws aside, the major portion of this benefit concert for the Topanga Co-Op Preschool will be a shortened version of Humperdinck’s opera “Hansel and Gretel.”

“It’s such a beautiful work that anything you do out of that opera is beautiful,” Lamell says. “Even so, we’ve selected the highlights.”

This performance will feature soprano Elyse Cook as the Witch, soprano Dale Franzen as Gretel and mezzo-soprano Rickie Gole as Hansel.

The concert will also feature Rossini’s overture to “La Scala di Seta” (The Silken Ladder).

“I’ve always been a major proponent of Rossini’s overtures,” Lamell says. “I think his works are the epitome of bright, fun orchestra music.”

The concert, which is designed to appeal to the whole family, will conclude with John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

The Topanga Philharmonic Orchestra will perform a benefit concert at 2 p.m. May 20 at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. Advance tickets are $12.50 general, $5 seniors and children 6 to 12, children 5 and younger are free. At the gate, $15 general, $7.50 seniors and children 6 to 12. Proceeds will benefit the Topanga Co-Op Preschool. Call (310) 289-5485.

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PLAY THING: “Deafestival ‘95,” sponsored by the deaf studies department of Cal State Northridge, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and the Deaf Communications Foundation, will celebrate deaf theater and its artists Thursday and May 20.

The festival, now in its sixth year, will begin with “Gallery of Theatre” and “Faces of Fame,” photo exhibits chronicling the history of deaf theater, on view from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the CSUN University Student Union, says Ken Rappe, a CSUN deaf studies department staff member.

Following that event, from 8 to 10 p.m. in the same place will be “The Past Is Prologue . . . A Historical Retrospective of Deaf Theater,” a discussion with a panel of deaf theater artists Phyllis Frelich, Don Bangs and Bernard Bragg, Rappe says.

The festival will continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 20 at the Department of Water and Power Auditorium on Hope Street in Downtown Los Angeles with “Now on Stage,” a showcase of new deaf theater pieces with commentaries from deaf playwrights, directors and theater critics.

Frelich won a best actress Tony Award in 1980 for her performance as Sarah Norman in Mark Medoff’s “Children of a Lesser God.” The role, which garnered a best actress Oscar for Marlee Matlin in the film version of the drama, is said to be loosely based on Frelich’s life with hearing husband Robert Steinberg. Frelich also starred in the Emmy-winning drama “Love Is Never Silent” in 1985.

Bernard Bragg, co-founder of the National Theater of the Deaf and a onetime student of Marcel Marceau, is one of the most accomplished deaf actors in the country and last February starred in the Deaf West Theatre Company’s production of Anthony Shaffer’s mystery “Sleuth.”

CSUN and Boston University are the only two universities in the country that offer a bachelor of arts degree in deaf studies. CSUN has the third largest deaf student population in the United States, Rappe says.

“Deafestival ‘95” will be held Thursday at the CSUN University Student Union, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, and May 20 at the DWP Auditorium, 111 N. Hope St., Downtown. Call (818) 885-4973.