A Change of Scenery in Canoga Park as New Madrid Theatre Prepares for Debut

When the ribbon is cut Thursday on Canoga Park’s new Madrid Theatre, the west San Fernando Valley will have something it has never had before--a genuine community performing arts center. And music director James Domine will have something he has always wanted--a place where his San Fernando Valley Symphony can rehearse, perform and grow.

“It was my idea even before the earthquake,” says Domine. As a music instructor at Pierce College, Domine had to compete to use Pierce’s 400-seat theater with other music faculty and members of the drama and speech departments.

“I won’t say we fight over it, but we do.”

Domine had his eye on two off-campus sites that might work for a performing arts center, the Reseda Theatre and the Pussycat Theatre, an aging Canoga Park movie house that showed adult films.

From the start, the latter seemed the likelier, but when Domine contacted the Pussycat’s owner, he discovered that the tenant was having trouble paying the rent, an apparent victim of the rise of video pornography, which was killing the X-rated movie business as more and more consumers viewed tapes at home.

Then the 1994 Northridge earthquake struck, and the Pussycat was damaged beyond repair. Where others saw only a red tag, Domine saw opportunity. He remembers proposing to build a new community theater on the site at a post-quake meeting in the office of City Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose district includes the West Valley.

“Laura lit up right away,” Domine said. “She knew that this was a winning proposition.”

There were setbacks along the way, including construction delays caused by liquefaction of the soil at the site. “That made the foundation a little more complex,” said architect Art Yanez of the Tarzana firm of Fisher Merriman Sehgal Yanez. But less than four years later, a modern, two-story, 499-seat theater has replaced the Pussycat at 21622 Sherman Way.

The new Madrid, which will be used for concerts, plays and other cultural activities, takes its name from the silent movie house that was originally built on the site in 1928.

The original Madrid was one of the first buildings in Canoga Park, Domine said. The new Madrid includes a mosaic by Ojai artist Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend with a central medallion showing the original brick building.

Although Domine is proud of having proposed the facility, he gives Chick the credit for making it happen. It was she (along with the mayor’s office of economic development) who obtained a $3.5-million federal grant to build the theater and revitalize the six-block business district surrounding it. (The money was part of a $30-million grant to Los Angeles by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.)

Of that $3.5 million, about $2.95 million was invested in the theater. The rest of the grant provides for new sidewalks, trees, lighting and handsome new signage, and parking and street improvements.

Chick, who was not available for comment, released a statement about the new facility. “The Madrid Theatre is all about affordable and accessible art to the residents of L.A.,” she said. “I can’t wait.”

Built of concrete block, the new theater is sheathed with antique-gray metal panels. One of the unusual features of the building, according to architect Yanez, is the large number of seats it boasts, given it occupies a relatively small, 50-foot by 140-foot lot.

As an observer of the political process that made the Madrid a reality, Domine thinks the project had a couple things going for it. Despite the presence of a respectable Antique Row, the Canoga Park business district was relatively shabby, he notes. And the Pussycat itself was considered a blight by much of the largely Latino community.

As a result, there was little or no NIMBY-ism (or “Not in My Backyard”) on the part of local residents.

“Nobody was going to argue with the upgrade,” said Domine, who serves on the board of the Friends of the Madrid Theatre.

The other major plus was that, while the surrounding neighborhood is not especially affluent, nearby areas are. A study concluded that a new theater could draw up to 50,000 people annually.

Designed to serve mostly community groups, the new facility is no threat to larger cultural venues elsewhere, according to Domine.

Instead, the new theater is just large enough to be economically viable. As Domine, a veteran of cultural funding wars, explains, if you have fewer than 499 seats, you can’t bring in enough money to get matching grants, the lifeblood of today’s cultural institutions.

As a musician, Domine confesses that his main concern was the new theater’s acoustics.

“I wanted good sound without amplification,” he said. “You can always make a sound louder, but you can’t make a bad sound good.”

He admits that the results are probably better for music than for theater.

“What’s good for music isn’t really good for spoken word,” he said. “It’s a little more echo-y than you want for spoken word.” One disappointment, he says, is that the thrust stage is made of plywood, not the hardwood he had hoped for.

“Wood resonates. Plywood doesn’t. Plywood can buzz.”

The new Madrid will be operated by the City Cultural Affairs Department. According to Lee Sweet, business and development manager of its Performing Arts Division, the theater will be primarily a rental facility, available to music, theater, dance and other cultural groups.

The first regular performance scheduled for the new Madrid is a concert Dec. 12 by the Angeles Chorale’s Children’s Chorus. Other musical groups have been booked throughout December and January.

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Madrid Facts

WHAT: Madrid Theatre, the first community performing arts center in the West Valley

WHERE: 21622 Sherman Way, Canoga Park

CAPACITY: 499 seats, can be converted to a 247-seat space with orchestra pit

SQUARE FOOTAGE: 10,906

COST: About $2.95 million

ARCHITECT: Art Yanez of the Tarzana firm of Fisher Merriman Sehgal Yanez.

PROJECTED OPERATING COST: $250,000 annually

MANAGED BY: City of Los Angeles’ Cultural Affairs Dept.

WHO WILL PERFORM THERE: Community cultural organizations and others that will rent the space