Small Venue Debuts at Grand Central

The clean, comfortable and cozy theater in downtown Santa Ana that was home to the defunct Alternative Repertory Theatre will be back in business soon--as a satellite space for student productions of the Cal State Fullerton theater department, and as a home for a variety of other performing arts and film offerings not necessarily connected to the university.

The 80-seat hall has been renamed the Grand Central Theater, after the Grand Central Art Center that houses it.

The Art Center, in a refurbished 1920s building at 125 N. Broadway, in the heart of the Artists Village district, is owned by the city and run by the university; most of its space is used for graduate students’ art studios and dorms.

Susan Hallman, chairwoman of the Cal State Fullerton Department of Theatre and Dance, said six short-run productions are planned from March through May, three of them repeats of shows that have been or will be seen on the main campus in Fullerton.

When not being used for Cal State productions or rehearsals, the theater will be booked with a gamut of other offerings, said Andrea Harris, site director of the Grand Central Art Center. Art-film series, performance art, comedy, performance classes, programs in which jazz or blues musicians lecture and perform, and experimental plays and theater workshops are all part of the mix she hopes to establish in keeping the space as busy as possible on Thursday through Sunday evenings.

The theater also could be rented for guest productions by “some of the stronger community [theater] groups,” said Hallman.

At least two grass-roots nonprofit theater groups, the Hunger Artists and the New Voices Playwrights Workshop, had coveted the former Alternative Rep space. But the university’s own theater department had first dibs after Alternative Repertory, which had an exclusive lease, went out of business in June. The Cal State theater department was interested right away, Hallman said, but the faculty took a go-slow approach in scheduling productions in Santa Ana.

“‘S Wonderful!”, a musical revue of Broadway favorites, will launch the theater’s new phase March 1-4. It is a remounting of a show that recently played in the 120-seat Arena Theatre on campus.

Hallman anticipates drawing mainly from theatergoers in central Orange County who might not otherwise attend Cal State Fullerton productions, and art lovers who already are used to coming to the Grand Central and other Artists Village galleries for exhibitions.

Downtown has three other small theaters within a few blocks’ radius. The Rude Guerrilla Theater Company’s Empire Theater is on Broadway, caddy-corner to the Grand Central building; the Hunger Artists Theater is on Fourth Street, and the DePietro Performance Center, home to the Orange County Crazies comedy troupe, is on Main Street. New Voices hopes to launch a theater in the basement of the Pacific Symphony building on Santa Ana Boulevard, which would bring the district’s total to five small theaters.

Hallman hopes Grand Central shows will draw well enough to cover costs. “If nobody comes, you’ve got a problem. But I think we can build a following and make this a very viable extension of the department.”

The new theater will augment venues of 500, 200 and 120 seats on campus. Hallman said it will let the theater department provide more learning opportunities for actors, directors and playwrights. Plays on campus usually run just two weeks because the music department needs the same venues for its performances. Transplanting shows to Santa Ana for an additional weekend will give actors more stage experience.

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Student shows playing only at the Grand Central will let promising undergraduate directors have a shot at overseeing a public performance, and will make it possible to stage plays that have smaller casts. Cal State Fullerton has 300 to 330 undergraduate and graduate theater majors, Hallman said, and productions on campus usually have to be large-scale shows to maximize opportunities for student actors. Students in the theater-management program also will get hands-on experience running the Grand Central Theater.

“I love the space,” said Hallman, although she never saw it used during Alternative Repertory’s 18-month tenure. “It’s very exciting for us, a whole new thing to do.”

Harris said the Cal State Fullerton Foundation, the fund-raising wing of the university that operates the Grand Central Art Center, took possession of the theater less than two months ago from ART, which had paid $1,000 a month in rent.

Since then, the Los Angeles neo-burlesque troupe, Velvet Hammer, has performed three shows in the theater in conjunction with the premiere of a documentary film about the troupe. Harris said the shows drew turn-away crowds.

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On Stage

The Grand Central Theatre’s schedule:

“‘S Wonderful!” Broadway musical revue, March 1-4 (already played Arena Theatre on campus).

“The Salt That Saved the Kingdom,” an adaptation for young audiences of a Romanian folk tale that is said to be the source material for Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” March 10-18 (also at Arena Theatre, Feb. 9-11).

“Mama Drama,” sketches about motherhood by Leslie Ayvazian, Christine Farrell, Donna Daley and Rita Nachtmann, with songs by the Roches, March 22-25 (also at Arena Theatre, March 10-18).

“Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll,” by Eric Bogosian, April 19-22.

“Joined at the Head,” a new work, May 3-6.

“The Altruist” and “What I Meant to Say,” one-act plays by Nicky Silver, May 10-20.

Information: (714) 278-3371.