SECOND OPINIONS : Talent Fills Valley Stages, but Audiences Are Sparse : Residents have run out of excuses for not supporting local theater. Tickets are affordable, there is adequate parking, and children can enjoy it too.

In a city famous for creating special effects that can make a man fly, and makeup that can age Sally Field, and all the other trappings of the film community that are ours, how is it that eight people on a bare stage with scripts in hand can still mesmerize me for two solid hours?

That happened a few weeks ago at a staged reading I attended at one of our San Fernando Valley theaters. I laughed and cried and laughed again while character actors I recognized from many of my favorite television series brought life to a play I once performed in summer stock. In my prime seat (second row, center) I was so close to the stage that I couldn’t take a restroom break until intermission without joining in on the act.

Yet in the midst of this good time, I was saddened by the fact that this tiny theater was not full. I was lonely as I experienced something that none of my other neighbors were experiencing--the magic of the theater.

It’s all around us in the Valley. It lives in old buildings that used to be restaurants and warehouses and storefronts. In the NoHo arts district, the magic of the theater has even survived earthquake damage and Metro Rail construction and airport flight path noise. It involves college students and career moms and Tony award winners who are tired of television. What it doesn’t involve is audiences.

It won’t survive that.

How many times have I been invited by an actor or director friend to attend a new production, only to find myself surrounded by friends and family of the other actors? It hurts.

How many times have I been offered two-for-one tickets or given a complimentary seat just to “fill out the house” so it will look good for the one or two casting directors (of 50 invited) who might show up that night?

We act as if our Valley theaters are the bastard children of Broadway when, in fact, they have become a new birthing ground for it.

Several local companies are experimenting with new works, or are presenting revivals of classics that are as fresh today as when they were written. These efforts deserve to be seen by the community. Many of these theaters have located or transplanted themselves to North Hollywood to support renovation, and now it is the residents’ turn to support those theaters. So where are you?

Everyone seems to have an excuse.

* It’s too expensive: With movie tickets at $7.50, what damage can a theater seat at $10 really do? Besides, the staged reading I attended was free and open to the public.

* I wouldn’t know where to park at night: The theater itself was right in the heart of a neighborhood. People could have walked--and there are have Sunday matinees.

* I can’t get a baby sitter: What better activity for children than sitting in a darkened theater and listening, using the imagination, watching people step onto the stage relying only on themselves and their fellow actors to keep the magic going? No second takes, no instant replays. It’s a wonderful lesson in self-reliance.

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Personally, I think our empty theaters are due more to our low Valley esteem. There was a time when critics thought there was no theater “over the hill.”

A quick look at the recent Drama-Logue and Ovation awards shows that critics are slowly coming around to the idea of the quality of Valley ensembles, such as The Interact Company and Actor’s Alley.

Do the rest of us really think the only good theater is downtown, with the $65 seats and $6 parking fees? Or have our film community habits spoiled us?

Must we have famous names and extravagant sets to entertain us? Have we forgotten, “the play’s the thing?”