COVER STORY : Low Cost, High Times : Stuck in the Valley for the livelong summer with next to zero dough? Not to worry. : Here are some great things to do that won’t set you back more than 5 bucks.

You’re bored and broke. In your wallet are five singles and a driver’s license that marks you under 65. You sigh. Senior citizens get all the breaks.

All is not lost. Those of us paying into Social Security rather than drawing it just have to do research.

Forget the standby freebies: a walk in the park, a hike in the canyons, a drive along Pacific Coast Highway. All nice ideas, but not exactly a night on the town. You could partake in the San Fernando Valley tradition of shopping-as-pastime and buy a hot pretzel. You could hang out at Universal CityWalk and blow your $5 on parking.

But there are better ways to spend your hard-earned fiver. Even in these days of $50 concert tickets and $7.50 movies, you can find professional entertainment for $5. Or less. You just have to know where to look.

LIVE THEATER, LOW PRICES

The average price for a ticket to a Broadway show was almost $45 last year. Even in Los Angeles’ smallest theaters, seeing a play routinely costs $10 to $20.

For $5, you’re lucky to get a ticket to a high school production of “Guys and Dolls.” But this summer, the Valley Theater League is selling single passes to any production at any of its 18 member theaters for $5. Buying in bulk can get you 10 passes for $35. Reservations are required, and the passes are good through Sept. 17.

Also keep an eye out for two-for-one dinner passes for area restaurants, available at some of the theaters.

“What we’re trying to do is get people who only go to movies to come to the theater. Hopefully they’ll like it and come another time,” explained Edmund Gaynes, first vice president of the league. “This is not little small-town theater. These are the actors that you see on television, on Broadway, the same actors as you would see at the Ahmanson on another night. They’re just smaller theaters. They just have fewer seats.”

To order passes, call the Valley Theater League, (818) 757-3018.

There is, believe it or not, an even better bargain in Valley theater. Roy Brocksmith has been producing new plays-- for free --at the California Cottage Theater, also known as his home, since 1987. Dramas, comedies and musicals are all game, and the coffee and cookies are free. The current production is “Letters From Queens.” Upcoming is “Mama and Jack Carew” by Hal Corley, a writer for the ABC soap “All My Children”; a play by poet Lucia Getsi, and “The Most Dangerous Man in America,” a play about Ben Franklin.

The schedule is a little erratic, but generally there are four performances in the middle of the month, and the shows run “until we get tired of them,” Brocksmith said. Since he can only fit 36 people into his home, admission is by invitation only, and reservations are required. To request an invitation, call (818) 990-5773.

Other theaters offer discounted preview performances, usually the weekend before a show opens. At The Road Theater in North Hollywood, the second Sunday of each show’s run is a pay-what-you-can night. Or on Monday evenings at 8, the company does free readings of new material at its space in the Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd. Call (818) 761-8838. Readings by the Interact Theater Company are also open to the public at 7:30 p.m. Mondays. They meet at the Theater Exchange, 11855 Hart St., North Hollywood, (818) 773-7862.

BOWL-ING FOR DOLLARS AND OTHER OUTDOOR MUSIC

OK, it’s not in the Valley, but it’s close. The Los Angeles Philharmonic rehearsals at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings are free and open to the public. If you’ve got the day off, it’s a great place for a brunch al fresco. And it is infinitely easier to find a parking space.

If you don’t have the day off, come back at night. Any Tuesday or Thursday evening, you can go to the Hollywood Bowl for $1. Granted, you’re sitting in section V, W or X (meaning that during intermission you can flag jets toward Burbank Airport). But hey, a $1 concert is a $1 concert.

Just to make sure you don’t go over the spending limit, park at one of the three BowlExpress Shuttle lots: 10801 Ventura Blvd., near Lankershim Boulevard; 3700 Barham Blvd., near Forest Lawn Drive; and 1620 N. McCadden Place, at Selma Avenue. Parking is free and BowlExpress Shuttles cost only $2.50 round-trip, while Park & Ride buses from the Valley are $2.50 each way.

Dig up another 50 cents, and for $5.50 you can attend almost any Friday or Saturday concert, or the Wednesday Virtuoso Series concerts. Cheap seats are $3, plus $2.50 for the BowlExpress Shuttle. Call (213) 850-2000 for ticket and parking information.

The Hollywood Bowl doesn’t have a monopoly on outdoor concerts. The Valley calendar is packed with cheap and free performances through September. Every Sunday at 4 p.m., Warner Park, 5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd., fills up for its free concert series. Acts range from R & B to Gershwin. Most interesting: reggae band Urban Dread on Aug. 27. Parking is $2. Call (818) 704-1358.

Burbank’s Starlight Bowl series has six $1 concerts scheduled, including an Aug. 6 show by Latin jazz artist Poncho Sanchez. Shows start at 6:30 p.m. at the Starlight Bowl, 1249 Lockheed View Drive. Call (818) 953-9572. Or, if you need to brush up on your fox trot, try Glendale on Wednesday nights through Aug. 16. The Verdugo Swing Society provides free dance tunes starting at 6:30 p.m. at Verdugo Park, 1621 Canada Blvd. Call (818) 548-3798.

The pompadour of free summer entertainment, however, may be in Santa Clarita. El Vez, the Mexican Elvis impersonator, performs a free concert at Newhall Park on July 30. He’s backed by the Elvettes, complete with beehive hairdos, and the Memphis Mariachis. You can’t buy this kind of entertainment. The show’s at 24933 Newhall Ave., at 5:30 p.m. Santa Clarita also offers concerts at Valencia Meadows, Santa Clarita and Canyon Country parks every Sunday in July and August. Call (805) 286-4078.

BLOCKBUSTER, EAT YOUR HEART OUT

In the Valley, you can catch a flick at the Peppertree 3 Cinemas for less than the cost of a matinee. After you buy a $2 membership card, movies are $1.50 from Monday to Thursday and $2 from Friday to Sunday. Special engagements cost a whopping three bucks. It’s got six screens and shows up to 10 different movies a week.

If the Santa Clarita Valley is less of a commute, try the Plaza Theater in Newhall, where tickets are always $1.50. Or buy 10 passes for $10. The Plaza rotates six movies on its three screens.

At that price, you can even afford popcorn.

If you can’t wait eight weeks, cruise over to one of the three drive-ins remaining in the area. Tickets are only $5 per person at the Pacific Winnetka Drive-In, Simi Drive-In and Pacific Van Nuys Drive-In--and that’s for a double feature. As always, the show starts at dusk.

Peppertree 3 Cinemas: 10155 Reseda Blvd., Northridge. (818) 993-0211.

Plaza Theater: 23710 Lyons Ave., Newhall. (805) 259-8433.

Pacific Winnetka Drive-In: 20201 Prairie St., Chatsworth. (818) 349-6808.

Pacific Van Nuys Drive-In: 15040 Roscoe Blvd., Van Nuys. (818) 786-3300.

Simi Drive-In: Tierra Rejada Road, Simi Valley. (805) 526-6824.

IT’S FREE TO LOOK

Certainly there are times that it’s worth the drive and the $7 or so to go to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art or the Museum of Contemporary Art. But Valley dwellers with an art craving can get some local satisfaction. The disadvantage to gallery-hopping in the Valley is that the hops aren’t within walking distance; there’s no stretch of road where galleries have clustered. But a dozen or so galleries dot the landscape between Glendale and Agoura Hills.

The artwork may cost thousands, but it doesn’t cost anything to look. Gallery owners and managers say you shouldn’t feel bad about not having any intention to buy. “People who wander in are the lifeblood of the gallery,” said Marilyn Turney, director of the Martin Lawrence Galleries in Sherman Oaks Fashion Square.

Shows at the Martin Lawrence tend to have about 30 pieces on view, which can make a nice pre- or post-dinner stop. Some galleries rival banks for strange hours, so call before heading out. Check newspapers for listings of new shows.

At Martin Lawrence, you can stop by until 9 any weeknight. But the best deal is to go at 6:30 p.m. on the night a show opens, when there is usually a free reception.

“We supply the entertainment: incredible art. We feed them wonderfully, and give them alcohol,” Turney said. “It’s an opportunity for people to see world-renowned artists. . . .They’ll see a retrospective of that artist’s work that goes back years, work that few people get to see.”

Also worth checking out: Mythos Gallery, 1009 W. Olive Ave., in Burbank, (818) 843-3686; Orlando Gallery, 14553 Ventura Blvd., in Sherman Oaks, (818) 789-6012; and the Brand Library Art Galleries, 1601 W. Mountain St., in Glendale, (818) 548-2051.