Serendipity Theatre: A Tale of Ups and Downs : Audiences: After two seasons, artistic director Scott Davidson says people are not aware that quality drama for children is regularly available.

Two years ago, the Serendipity Theatre Company launched its resident professional children’s theater at the Coronet Theatre in West Hollywood. During those two years, the company has had sellout successes--among them Judy Blume’s “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing,” “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” based on the book by Laura Joffe Numeroff and E. B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web.”

A few shows, aimed at older children, have been problematic, not in the stagings, which were generally outstanding--but in attracting audiences.

As the company geared up for its third season, beginning Friday with “Winnie the Pooh,” artistic director Scott Davidson took stock.

He and his wife, Jody Davidson, Serendipity’s executive manager, are still optimistic about the venture, he said, but they are sometimes frustrated as well.

“One of the keys for this group to survive is community awareness,” Davidson said. “But letting people know that 48 weeks out of the year we are producing theater for family audiences with Equity performers has been one of the most difficult things for us to achieve.”

One reason for that, he said, is that some of the media have a hard time taking children’s theater seriously, despite the fact that 75% of his actors are Equity members.

Finances are another concern. “Subscribers are building,” he said, “but this has obviously been a difficult year for L.A. and that’s had some effect on us, as it has on theaters across the board. When you’re a fledgling institution, that can be particularly difficult.

“We’ve been running almost 100% on hard income--ticket sales, school shows, classes and theater rentals (for two adult plays, “Wrong Turn at Lungfish” and “Brooklyn Laundry”). This is the first year we’ve received any government money--a $10,000 city grant.”

As to the hesitant audience response to “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Most Valuable Player” (the Jackie Robinson story), Davidson assumes that those plays were a harder sell because they’re about “issues too controversial or difficult to deal with.”

“Yet, when you do get (audiences) through the door,” he said, “the response is almost always positive. People who told us they didn’t want to bring their child to see ‘The Diary of Anne Frank,’ for instance, because it would be depressing, came up after the show and said, ‘I’m so glad we came.’

“Those are the things that reaffirm the choices you make, even though the blockbuster audiences aren’t coming through the door.

“I think we produce some of the strongest scripts available for young audiences,” he said. “I put together a season I feel will cover a range that will be interesting for our audiences. Some will be more for younger kids, some for older kids--that forgotten audience group, I call them, the junior high into high school range.”

Davidson acknowledged that two plays in his 1992-93 season aimed at that “forgotten audience” may fall into the hard-sell category: “Bridge to Terebithia” (Nov. 6-29), Katherine Paterson’s stage adaptation of her sensitive book about friendship and death, and “Little Women” (Dec. 4-30).

“ ‘Bridge to Terebithia’ is a simple contemporary story that deals directly with issues that face people,” he said.

“ ‘Little Women,’ everyone says ‘that’s a little girl’s show.’ You’re constantly getting this backlash of what is appropriate for the sexes, which is very much a part of the world, gender-stereotyping. But Jo, for instance, has appeal for any child who cares about independence of spirit, thought and action.”

The other show for older children is Madeline L’Engle’s fantasy, “A Wrinkle in Time” (Jan. 8-Feb. 21). Preschoolers, ages 3 and up are offered, in addition to “Pooh,” O. Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” (Feb. 26-April 4), Marjorie Weinman Sharmat’s detective spoof “Nate the Great” (April 9-May 23) and another mouse story, Katharine Holabird’s “Angelina Ballerina” (June 4-Aug. 1).

“I try to pick an eclectic season,” Davidson said, “reflecting a range of taste, performance styles, visual concepts, emotions, and hopefully a range of issues. They’re not just individual shows; they’re all components of an entire season.

“The season is a component of the organization and the organization is what’s vital to the cultural fabric of L.A.,” he said. “Longitudinal studies prove that quality theater for family audiences will perpetuate quality theater in a community . . . kids who went to children’s theater, grow up and support adult theater. In turn, they take their children back to children’s theaters. That’s what our goal is.”