Act 2 for El Portal

Vibrant would hardly be the word to describe the heart of North Hollywood these days. The area around Lankershim and Magnolia boulevards looks more like a disaster movie set than the center of the thriving theater and arts district its supporters envision. But that’s changing. Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded $3.8 million to the nonprofit group trying to restore the El Portal Theatre--the centerpiece project in the NoHo Arts District.

The 72-year-old vaudeville theater was weeks away from reopening as a community playhouse before the Northridge earthquake damaged the building and made it unsafe. An earlier FEMA grant of $1.3 million didn’t come close to covering the repairs. With the latest infusion of federal cash, the nonprofit Actors Alley will be able to refurbish the theater’s electrical and air-conditioning systems as well as make final structural and decorative repairs.

Getting El Portal up and running should help lend credibility to the emerging arts district and attract greater attention from developers and artists who are interested in taking advantage of the neighborhood’s proximity to studios, freeways and, in two years, the Red Line subway. But the federal money will go only so far. Actors Alley still needs to raise as much as $500,000 on its own to complete work at El Portal. That’s where Valley residents hungry for serious theater come in. Helping rebuild El Portal can do more than just provide a space for plays or concerts. It can help rebuild a neighborhood hit hard by middle-class flight, an earthquake and Metro Rail construction and turn it into one that has the potential to be truly vibrant.