Back, Better Than Ever

What better way to mark this year’s anniversary of the Northridge earthquake than the opening of North Hollywood’s El Portal Center for the Arts?

When the temblor hit in January 1994, the old theater, once home to vaudeville and silent movies, was weeks away from reopening as a community playhouse. Damage from the earthquake delayed the opening--for six years.

Now El Portal, like the rest of the San Fernando Valley, is back on its feet. And better than ever.

Its restoration, funded by $4 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $1.5 million from the Small Business Administration and $500,000 in private donations, preserves the best features of the old movie palace, which first opened in 1926. The lobby still has the bas-relief sculptures depicting scenes from California history. The 73-year-old proscenium arch still frames the main stage.

But the 23,000-square-foot complex now houses three theaters, seating from 40 to 400, along with an art gallery and support facilities. Its programs, beginning with the West Coast premier Jan. 14 of Carol Lawrence and Joseph Campanella in Joe DiPietro’s “Over the River and Through the Woods,” promises a mix of mainstream and off-center fare.

El Portal is seen as the anchor of a revitalized theater district in North Hollywood--and, one can hope, the catalyst for making this still-struggling neighborhood a livelier, more livable place.

But El Portal’s significance extends beyond North Hollywood.

Although Actors Alley, the nonprofit group that runs the center, hopes to attract patrons from throughout Los Angeles, Valley residents are its targeted constituency. So if you’ve ever complained about the Valley being stereotyped as a cultural wasteland--or if you’ve ever voiced this complaint yourself as you headed over the hill for your theater or art fix--now’s the time to support a major theater closer to home.

Actors Alley doesn’t expect the relationship to be one-way.

Its season offers two more titles new to the area (Ronald Smokey Stevens and Jaye Stewart’s “Rollin’ on the T.O.B.A.” and Ben Elton’s Beverly Hills-set comedy “Popcorn”). Because of North Hollywoods’s--and the larger Valley’s--growing Latino population, center directors have made a commitment to showcasing Latino artists, literature and heritage.

El Portal also has an ambitious community outreach program. It plans to establish an artists in residence program with nearby Lankershim Elementary School, internships with Van Nuys High School’s drama magnet school, an alliance with Cal State Northridge’s theater department and partnerships with human services agencies serving seniors and at-risk young people.

Through programming and through outreach, El Portal has the potential to be a focus for the Valley, to bring people together, to break down the isolation that too often characterizes this huge, sprawling city.

Oddly enough, that was one outcome of the earthquake. It gave us a shared experience. In overcoming the tribulations it brought, it made us stronger. Six years later, the opening of El Portal celebrates and continues that sense of community.