Plans for Valley Theater Linked to Area’s Revival

Mindful of the high price that other communities have paid for their performing arts centers, Los Angeles city officials are proceeding cautiously with plans for a 500-seat theater in a fading neighborhood here.

As envisioned, the Madrid Theatre would be a relatively modest $2.6-million venue, its construction paid for with federal funds. Instead of costly productions by national touring companies, it would offer mostly amateur performances by the West Valley Symphony, the Woodland Hills Community Theatre and other local groups.

Officials see the Madrid--sentimentally named after a 1920s movie house that stood on the same site--as an economic boost for a stretch of Sherman Way where dowdy storefronts are interspersed with muffler shops and hardware stores.

Where the X-rated Park Pussycat Theatre, at the same site, once rankled residents and merchants alike, the cultural center could anchor a renewed sort of Main Street with cafes and bookstores.

Still, the proposal comes at a tough time for the arts, just days after county officials gave notice that they intend to close the Natural History Museum satellite in Burbank. The Madrid would operate at an estimated annual deficit of $100,000, according to the city’s projections, and seasoned arts administrators warn that the cost of culture could run even higher.

The 348-seat Antelope Valley Community Arts Center took 10 years to build and, even at a cost of $3 million, lacks the permanent dressing rooms considered essential to a serious theater. In Glendale, city officials expected the renovated Alex Theatre to break even in 1994 but ended up spending $600,000 to keep the 1,500-seat venue from going dark.

If the Madrid is ever built, arts administrators say, it will need prudent management, if not some luck, to stay afloat.

“I’m glad they are doing this. It’s just a little bit challenging,” said Michael Blachly, director of the UCLA Center for the Arts. “If they see it as something they really want to be a gem, if they are willing to put money in it, that will help.”

Sandwiched between a hair salon and a custom framing shop, the Madrid would pale in comparison to the $64-million Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks and the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, a multistage complex that opened last year after $10.5 million in construction costs.

But with 500 seats, the theater would be one of the largest arts facilities in the history of the Valley. Currently, local arts groups subsist on a diet of 99-seat venues, galleries and school auditoriums.

With this in mind, the city is seeking approval to fund the Madrid from a $30-million grant that the U.S. Economic Development Agency has made available for earthquake recovery throughout the city. Federal officials have indicated their willingness to support the project, said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, a theater proponent.

According to Chick’s proposal, construction on a vacant lot near Sherman Way and Owensmouth Avenue would begin in 1997 at a cost of about $1.3 million. An architect has already been hired to begin the austere modern design. The remainder of the grant money would cover land costs and improvements to adjacent alleys and parking lots.

Once built, the theater would be operated by the city’s Cultural Affairs Department, which oversees community arts centers throughout the city as well as the four-stage Los Angeles Theatre Center. The Madrid would have an annual budget of about $225,000.

For this price, officials envision a simple but presentable theater that could accommodate drama one night and dance the next. While the Thousand Oaks center features the likes of Ray Charles and “Cats”--professional entertainment whose cost must be offset by ticket sales--the Madrid will act as a rental space for groups such as the Woodland Hills Community Theatre, which has inhabited a smaller hall for the last seven years.

“We do four shows a year, and we have quite a large audience that would switch over there in a minute,” said Jon Berry, the theater’s artistic director.

The city would charge such groups as much as $500 a day. It could also receive a portion of ticket sales, as well as concessions and parking fees.

These revenues could total as much as $125,000 a year, according to a preliminary feasibility study, said Karen Constine, Chick’s chief of staff. The study found a sufficient number of performance groups to keep the stage occupied for 130 to 140 nights during the theater’s inaugural year--and a potential audience to fill the house on a consistent basis.

“I’m tired of hearing that if we want to see a play or hear a concert, we have to drive downtown,” Chick said. “We’re a large area with a lot of people, and we have almost nothing in terms of legitimate theater.”

And the Cultural Affairs Department has already volunteered to cover the projected deficit with city arts funds.

“To provide all that service for $100,000 is well worth it,” said Al Nodal, the department’s general manager.

But the deficit could be much larger, as Glendale city officials learned the hard way.

In 1994, the city bought the Alex, a 1925 Art Deco theater, for $837,000 and spent another $6.5 million on renovations, all with hopes of rejuvenating downtown night life. An outside management company was hired to book performances and quickly announced a schedule of splashy musicals and other major entertainment events.

Expected profits never materialized and management made good on only a portion of the dates, reneging on 11,000 season tickets and leaving the theater in disarray.

Such history is not lost on Valley arts leaders who look upon the proposed Madrid Theatre with varying degrees of hope and skepticism.

“It’s very exciting, but it will be a daunting undertaking,” said Edmund Gaynes, an official with the Valley Theatre League, which encompasses 32 theaters and production companies. “I fear that it could go downhill fast if it is too ambitious at the beginning.”

Bruce Spain, director of the Lancaster arts center, suggests that no corners be cut on construction. He says the cost of the facility is more effectively reduced through streamlined staffing and conservative programming.

At the same time, though, the new theater must build a reputation for quality art, especially when it comes to theatrical productions. Therein lies the challenge, Gaynes said.

“Put on one or two bad shows, and you can kiss the whole thing goodby,” he said.

In a small print shop behind the proposed site of the Madrid, Charles Cellura says he will do whatever he can to make the theater a success. Like other merchants in the area, he has offered to let the city use his parking spaces at night.

“If people do walk along the street, it will help our shops,” said Cellura, chairman of the Canoga Park Merchants Assn. “Most of those places . . . would definitely stay open later if the theater is there.”

In Lancaster, the Downtown Bistro and Cafe schedules extra waiters and stays open late on nights when the nearby arts center has a performance. Cellura hopes the Madrid can work similar magic on his neighborhood, which he says has seen better days.

In 1926, a Spanish-style movie house opened along this stretch. It was also called the Madrid Theatre. The Glad ‘n Nell Sweet Shoppe next door sold refreshments to patrons who came to see vaudeville acts and feature-length films such as “Across the Pacific” starring Monte Blue.

By the 1990s, however, the Madrid had long since become the Pussycat. Canoga Park’s popular “antique row,” a string of vintage shops, watched sales decline.

Efforts to revive the neighborhood began shortly after the Northridge earthquake, which damaged the Pussycat beyond repair. The structure was razed and the campaign for an arts facility began.

“It’s not like building a factory that creates 200 jobs,” Chick said. “But a theater would bring a whole new clientele to that central business district.”

A clientele that would be, Cellura hopes, “very nice in comparison to the type of people the Pussycat brought in.”

But the increased business at shops near the Lancaster arts center has come at a price. The city willingly paid $400,000 last year to keep the center alive. Spain said that support is critical to maintaining the arts.

“The city looks at this performing arts center as a service to the taxpayer, just like the local swimming pool, the streets and the parks,” Spain said.

As the Madrid’s potential landlord, Nodal sees only a bright future.

“It will be the jewel of the district,” he boasts. “A theater can really help a community that is ripe.”

During its inaugural year, Nodal would schedule at least 10 nights for performances by citywide and traveling groups. He predicts that the Valley’s small professional theaters, most of them clustered in North Hollywood, could eventually use the Madrid to take their productions up a notch in staging and audience size.

But the theater would operate on a tight budget. Palmdale’s smaller center, for instance, has a $300,000 budget for the new fiscal year. Arts officials suggest a cautious approach that concentrates on small-scale productions for several years, at least until the Madrid has developed a reputation within the community.

Chick agrees.

“We know we have to be very careful with the bookings and the management, but we think that it’s economically viable,” the councilwoman said. “I don’t want to support something that is going to get everybody excited, then falls on its face.”