Between acts, another show

Golden light from a trio of Venetian glass chandeliers spills over the silk-upholstered walls, drenching a display of Barbizon School paintings on loan from the Norton Simon Collection. On a wall apart, a portrait of a woman holds court over the proceedings -- on this night, a klatch of opera buffs clinking flutes of champagne and engaging in talk about Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Rarely opened to a reporter or photographer, this is the Founders Room in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center, for nearly 40 years the city’s premier intermission spot. The portrait, festooned with fresh flowers, is of Dorothy Buffum Chandler, whose indefatigable fund-raising was the catalyst for the creation of the center in 1964. “My mother saw the room as a necessary adjunct to the Music Center but not self-congratulatory in any way,” says former Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler. “I think it’s an elegant room, a gracious, functional room for people who enjoy the arts.”

“The essence of Buff Chandler is here -- the room reeks of her persona and presence,” says Founders Room member Ginny Mancini. “It is a room full of warmth and welcome, like Buff herself.”

Warmth, yes, but welcome only to major donors and their friends. Like the posh chambers reserved for arts benefactors on the East Coast -- the Metropolitan Opera in New York has its Board and Eleanor Belmont rooms, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington its Golden Circle -- the Founders Room is where donors of $75,000 and up prove that giving well is the best revenge. While most theatergoers queue up in the lobby during intermission to sip drinks from plastic and scramble for a vacant chair, members toss down preordered cocktails and settle onto plush velvet sofas. The room even boasts two women’s bathrooms -- a perk so convenient that “they alone are worth the admission price,” one member confides.

“Mrs. Chandler had this wonderful idea of having a room that everyone could see when they left the [second-level] elevator,” says Robert Willoughby Jones, who managed the space in the ‘90s. “She wanted wives to tell their husbands, ‘I don’t care what it costs -- we have to belong here!’ ”

The two-story, 3,000-square-foot sanctuary has been an “effective fund-raising tool,” says Richard Owens, the center’s vice president of advancement. Access to the room has been a major incentive for donations to the center and its resident companies -- the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Opera and Master Chorale. In addition to the required donation, the 1,500 active members pay annual dues of $500.

This is a room where heads are not easily turned, where, on a recent night, Los Angeles Opera artistic director Placido Domingo and his wife, Marta, converse sotto voce with opera buffs such as Patricia Kelly, wife of the late actor Gene Kelly. “This room has the excitement of a feeding tank. At intermission, you jump right in, chat with friends, meet people, chat with people you are in awe of,” Kelly says. “It’s a little lagniappe for the evening.”

Champagne, cappuccino and cocktails are served at the opulent verde marble bar. Bowls of salted nuts and trays of fancy cookies sit on the room’s chic Chinoiserie tables, and, with a reservation, members can enjoy dinner before the curtain goes up. “We try to extend a feeling of appreciation to our members,” says Elba Smith, the room’s executive director. “That means providing a friendly environment -- from the service to the ambience, from the drinks to the food.” Formalities are downplayed, the only steadfast rule being that “men must wear jackets,” Smith says. (She has a dozen hanging in a closet, should someone forget.) Gate-crashers are few. “People are generally respectful of our sign that says it’s for members,” she says.

In Orange County, donors of $100,000 and up to the Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa spend intermissions in the Center Room. Amid walls displaying 3rd century Syrian mosaics on loan from the J. Paul Getty Museum, they sip cocktails on cushy banquettes and pick at chocolates served on marble tables. “This space is special to me,” says donor Michele Rohe. “It’s a beautiful spot where I can relax and talk with friends.”

Both arts centers have additional donor rooms on their drawing boards, with another Founders Room -- this one with skylight, garden and private elevator -- to be housed in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a yet-to-be-named private space planned for the new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The Music Center has no plans to up the ante for access to its new space at the Disney, Owens says: “It will be available to Founders’ members across campus.” And while existing Center Room donors will be able to use the new space, new donors will pay more. “We haven’t decided on the amount yet, but it will be significantly more,” says center President Jerry Mandel. “Now is the time to join.”