Struggling Simi Arts Hall Gains Foothold

While patrons at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center drank champagne toasts, watched “Fiddler on the Roof” and danced the night away during a New Year’s Eve gala, there were other reasons to celebrate in the back room.

For starters, “We’re still open,” joked David Ralphe, general manager of the combination theater and art gallery, which has regularly sustained monthly losses of several thousand dollars since opening two years ago.

“It takes three to five years to create this type of facility,” Ralphe said. “We have two years under our belt and we’re moving into our third year and we’re pretty much on target in terms of attendance [and] the variety of entertainment we brought into the community.”

While the center has struggled financially and has still not raised half of the $2-million endowment it is seeking, the facility is completing one of its strongest quarters and its ledger has edged into the black as it enters this new year.

Now the challenge is to get more people to realize the center exists, Mayor Greg Stratton said.

“It hasn’t become institutionalized in everyone’s life yet,” Stratton said. “That’s what really needs to be done. There are still a lot of people who don’t automatically think about it. When they finally go to something there, they go, ‘Oh my goodness, when did this happen?’ ”

The light salmon-colored center with marbled-stained glass windows was opened in November 1995 with the intention of providing Simi Valley with a sense of artistic community.

The city paid about $800,000 to acquire the building, then used about $3 million in federal and historic preservation grants to convert the shuttered 1920s Methodist Church--a former funeral home, seasonal haunted house and even a temporary high school--into a 270-seat theater. The center now has 240 seats; the first two rows were removed to improve the view of the stage.

The original pews were reupholstered with plush green material. The former choir loft was filled with additional theater seats. The building’s second floor was converted into an art gallery and now features 1935 to 1937 photos of France’s Ballet Rouse, taken by pioneering photographer Horace Bristol of Ojai.

With a limited budget--it projects spending just $316,450 in the current fiscal year--the center often has difficulty paying for big-name artists but it has gained a reputation for being acoustically superior, Ralphe said.

This past year, increased ticket sales helped boost the center’s revenues. Playhouses nationwide aim to fill at least 65% of their seats, and Ralphe estimates his center, on average, filled 70% of its seats in 1997--a five-percentage point improvement over the previous year.

Also, the center’s mailing list has more than doubled to 4,199 addresses within the past year.

“We’re coming out of a very strong season,” Ralphe said. “We’re coming into a very strong production year and pre-sales are excellent.”

After a year kicked off with a sold-out performance by actress and singer Shirley Jones, followed by the musical “Big River” and performances by groups such as the Los Robles Master Chorale, the 1998 calendar of events should be just as strong, Ralphe said.

In addition to a jazz series, other events scheduled to follow “Fiddler on the Roof” include the musical “The Wiz” in early February, and performances by the Westlake Chamber Orchestra.

For the first time, the center also will try to raise money for operations via television. In April, the center is scheduled to conduct a PBS-type telethon on Comcast Cablevision’s local public access station with the hope of raising at least $50,000.

The center’s supporters want to create a $2-million endowment, which should generate sufficient interest to defray much of the facility’s annual operating expenses. And if ticket sales remain healthy, the center should be able to become self-sustaining, Councilwoman Sandi Webb said.

But to date, collections have been slow. The contributions barely inched up from the $800,000 the center had last year.

“We’ve had some setbacks in the foundation and they weren’t able to do some of the fund-raising as fast as we had anticipated, but that’s the way these things go,” Webb said.

The city gave the center several loans totaling more than $240,000 to cover start-up costs and has since spent thousands of dollars to pay for the building’s upkeep, utilities and maintenance.

Webb said she hopes the center will soon raise enough to become self-sufficient, so that no additional money would have to be taken from the city’s general fund.

“I think it’s a beautiful theater and I think the city really needed one,” said Webb, who initially voted against the city paying to create the center. “I love to go there. I still would not have changed my vote. I just don’t think it should be done with taxpayer money.”

Yet Webb said she is convinced the center will eventually make enough to pay for itself once people realize what a treasure it is.

In fact, the facility’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year estimates the center’s operation will generate revenue of $2,350 more than anticipated expenses this fiscal year.

Compared with ticket prices of $65 or more for most plays in Thousand Oaks or Los Angeles, the little playhouse in Simi Valley is reasonably priced, Stratton said. For instance, tickets range from $8 to $15 for the current “Fiddler on the Roof” production.

“It’s a very good bargain,” he said.