A second chance for ailing theater?

Five years ago, the Madrid Theatre opened with much hoopla in Canoga Park.

Built on the site of an adult movie house ruined by the Northridge earthquake, the 499-seat theater was touted as the first real performing arts center in the western San Fernando Valley. Its supporters had visions of glamorous opening nights and an infusion of dollars into local businesses from well-heeled theater-goers.

The reality was disappointing. Most nights, the theater, operated by Los Angeles’ Cultural Affairs Department, was dark. Groups that did book the facility complained of bureaucratic red tape, high fees and little or no help in marketing events.

Now the theater appears to be on the brink of a new beginning. Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, who represents the neighborhood, has proposed that its management be turned over to the Valley Cultural Center and a cooperative of community arts groups.

Now being vetted by city attorneys, the motion is expected to come before the full council in the next few weeks and is likely to pass, Zine and others say.

“I’m very hopeful,” said City Controller Laura Chick, the driving force behind the Madrid project when she represented the district on the council. “This is near and dear to my heart.”

Named for a silent-movie house that occupied the site in the 1920s, the Madrid was built at a cost of almost $3 million. Hopes for the Madrid were understandably high. A feasibility study done before construction found that 3.2 million people lived within a 20-mile radius of the Madrid, and the study speculated that it could draw 50,000 people annually.

But the gala evenings never materialized.

“If you check the schedule for the Madrid, it’s more often dark and not in operation, and it should be just the opposite,” Zine said. A calendar for the next few months lists only a handful of events each week, including senior and youth programs, and the occasional concert and visiting show.

Zine said local businesses also expressed dissatisfaction, saying the theater failed to attract the large numbers of potential patrons they had hoped for. “The intention was right, but the promises were not being delivered,” Zine said.

“I personally don’t think the city should be in the business of managing theaters,” Chick said. It’s a position Zine shares. Her view is that management, including programming, is best left to theater and arts professionals who have the experience and contacts to facilitate smooth operation and exciting entertainment.

Zine said the nonprofit Valley Cultural Center, best known for its summer series of Concerts in the Park in Woodland Hills, would work closely with other community arts organizations.

The Valley Cultural Center’s chief executive and president, James Kinsey III, explained: “Our proposal is to make the theater available to the community and at reasonable rates and to have it programmed five or six nights a week.”

As for the cooperative, he said, “We’re looking at a core group of acting companies, musical groups, dance, theater, the whole gamut.”

Each of the half-dozen cooperative members would contribute to a fund to promote and market theater events. The San Fernando Valley Symphony and several local theater troupes are expected to be in the core group, Kinsey said.

The Madrid costs about $471,000 a year to operate, and it generates about $34,000 in rentals and other revenues, according to the Cultural Affairs Department.

Kinsey thinks the proposed cooperative would be able to generate more money, as well as more and livelier entertainment. Zine emphasizes that the new management structure, which he hopes will be in place by July 1, will be truly cooperative, not monolithic. The Valley Cultural Center won’t be bossing around the other groups, Zine said. “Everybody’s going to have a piece of the pie.”

And what if the plan fails to breathe new life into the Madrid? Zine is willing to move on to Plan B: “If I’m not seeing activity five nights a week,” he said, “we’ll make other adjust- ments.”