Ground Broken for Arts Complex in Canoga Park

Aiming for the type of audience seeking solace in Shakespeare rather than smut, business and civic leaders joined Friday morning to break ground on a $2.9-million arts complex on the former site of the X-rated Pussycat Theater.

When it opens its doors later this year, the 500-seat Madrid Theatre will be one of the largest live theaters in the San Fernando Valley, officials said.

The new venue, in the 21600 block of Sherman Way, will host drama, dance, musicals and symphonies. The theater will also accommodate lectures, meetings and occasional films. Altogether, city officials estimate the facility will be used for at least 130 performances a a year.

“There’s been a real lack of arts and cultural facilities throughout the Valley,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who joined Mayor Richard Riordan, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks).

“Now people won’t have to drive so far out of their way to experience good theater,” she said.

Besides cultural benefits, Chick and others also see a good business opportunity. She explained that the presence of a new bookstore and large antique shop already signal the theater is having a positive impact on downtown Canoga Park.

“I can close my eyes and see within the next few years a bustling street full of pedestrians on weekdays and weekends,” she said.

The Madrid Theatre site has a rich and controversial history. It first opened its doors as a cinema in the 1920s before it was turned into an X-rated theater decades later.

In 1994, after the building was badly damaged by the earthquake, Chick worked to secure funding to rebuild the theater and fund community improvements. The project is being funded using a portion of a $30-million earthquake recovery grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, as well as matching funds from the city’s Redevelopment Agency.

“Calling it a community theater tends to make it sound small,” said Allan Miller, a Sherman Oaks actor who himself ran community theater in Van Nuys during the 1980s.

In fact, he said, “performing arts are meant to be in a complex like this, to move the culture toward excellence.”

The theater will be used by groups such as the Woodland Hills Community Theater and the San Fernando Valley Symphony.