That’s Show Business : Simi Arts Center Hunts for a Magic Mix

Three months into its first season, the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center is struggling the way all young theaters do, searching for both an audience and financial stability.

The box office is selling an average of 52% of the theater’s available seats, the general manager says.

The theater’s monthly operations budget is running slightly in the red--by nearly $1,700 in November and $2,400 in December, records show.

And the rest of the first-season schedule--while booked through June--remains flexible at best.

General Manager David Ralphe admits that he is still hunting for that magic mix of music, theater, dance and art that will draw enough ticket-holders from this middle-sized bedroom community--just a short drive from the attractions of Los Angeles--to keep the theater afloat.

“I think we’ve learned a lot in the first--what is it now--three months? We’re just a baby,” Ralphe said. “People are more and more beginning to understand what the nature of a cultural arts center is, and what it can bring to a community.”

But city and theater officials agree that the center’s survival will undoubtedly hinge on what the community can bring to the box office in the way of paying ticket-holders, and on how smoothly the center is run.

The Cultural Arts Center had a rough start: The city spent $3.6 million in block grants and general fund money to renovate the 70-year-old former Methodist church--only to run into trouble with the contractors.

The city fired the first general contractor because of alleged poor management and hired another, stalling the opening date for several months.

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Five volunteers have been working steadily on raising an endowment fund to generate money to cover daily operations. But they have raised less than $700,000 of the $2-million fund that they need.

And because the volunteers believe that they spend too much time running the hall and too little time raising funds, they recently asked to turn over the theater’s day-to-day operations to a subcommittee of city officials. The City Council is to vote on the matter Monday.

Commission Chairman Jay Bloom said of the theater’s $1,700- to $2,400-a-month budget shortfalls: “The commission was aware that there was going to be a budget deficit, but we were not informed that it was that much. We believe the [sub]committee and the City Council are better equipped to correct the situation.”

City Manager Mike Sedell said he has asked a bookkeeping consultant to hammer the theater’s accounting practices into line with current city practices.

“The city believes that it’s important that we have a bookkeeping system that can provide full and adequate public disclosure to the City Council and to the community for the fiscal integrity of the [theater],” he said.

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The changing of the guard--from volunteer panel to city-run committee--should put the fledgling theater on the more businesslike footing that it needs, Mayor Greg Stratton said.

“The delay in the opening and the uncertainty seem to have thrown some monkey wrenches into the planning” of the first season, Stratton said. “It put a damper on the fund-raising time; it put a real cloud over the operational side, and that’s really had the biggest impact.”

Stratton said he would like to see the center begin producing more shows by “big-name” performers who can command higher ticket prices. While the risk is higher in presenting pricier entertainers, the payoff could be bigger too, he said.

But Ralphe said he also wants to build a core audience of regular patrons who will visit the theater several times a year for a variety of shows.

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Ralphe said he plans a new mass-mailing of theater schedules in the next few weeks. And this fall, the theater will begin offering season ticket subscriptions for jazz and classical music concert series.

“Our first-year goal was to get to 60% [ticket sales] and even that goal is very ambitious, but I think we have a chance,” he said. “We have to climb out of the trench. I think we are well-begun. We are building an audience in the community one by one. We’re getting new people in all the time. We’re finding who likes what.”

Commission member Dudley Wynkoop said he is encouraged by the public’s early response. The theater sent out questionnaires to 10,000 residents, 1,400 of whom took time out to complete and return them to the theater.

And nearly 350 of those volunteered to serve as ushers, office staff and stage crew.

The poll results showed that Simi theater-goers’ musical tastes tend toward classical, jazz, pop and show tunes, while they prefer watching plays and musicals over film series or dance recitals.

But local theater director Kevin Traxler said the theater’s limitations may be hindering it from attracting more profitable shows.

Because there is no fly space above the stage to store hanging backdrops--nor very much offstage space in the wings--only shows with simple, compact sets can be performed there, he said.

“It’s going to limit its attractiveness to the people they’re trying to move in there,” said Traxler, whose Soap Box Players troupe performed “A Christmas Carol” there in December.

“David’s out there trying to get people to come in and use his facility, and he’s probably doing a great job with what he’s got. But the fact of the matter is, the limitations of the structure itself are going to limit the productions that can go in the space.”