The Drama Continues to Unfold in Valley

Maybe it’s gridlock. Maybe it’s cheaper rent. Who knows? Maybe the Valley secessionists are on to something.

Already filled to the freeways with malls and multiplexes, the San Fernando Valley is starting to come into its own in the performing arts arena. Witness:

* Glendale’s 1,460-seat Alex Theatre is in the middle of its most ambitious season in the three years since it opened.

* The Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge is about to complete its first year’s worth of shows.

* Later this month, the Community Redevelopment Agency will break ground for the Madrid Theatre, a 499-seat venue to be built in Canoga Park.

* And by next fall, the earthquake-ravaged El Portal theater center should open its 380-seat main stage in North Hollywood.

Any one of these things might be cause for celebration among admirers of theater, dance and music who have idled in southbound 405 traffic wondering if they would make it to the Veterans Wadsworth Theater by curtain time. But together these venues--plus the nearby Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza and Antelope Valley Community Arts Center, both open since 1994--signal a rising cultural tide in the Valley.

But don’t open the floodgates just yet. It’s fair to say that arts organizations of all stripes--especially the fledgling ones--are still feeling the effects of a recession mentality. Concerts, theater, dance--these things are viewed as luxuries, and patrons are less willing to take risks with their entertainment dollars. There also are more competitors for our leisure time than ever before, not just countless TV channels, videos and multiplexes, but now CD-ROMs and online entertainment.

There have been near-casualties. Most notably, the 72-year-old Glendale Symphony Orchestra nearly dissolved last spring after a financial crisis left it with only $6,000 in the bank, a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional orchestra. Then, symphony President Paul Kinney spoke in a despairing, end-of-the-world tone. Now he has changed his tune. The symphony had its first concert this season Dec. 7--Handel’s “Messiah”--and it was a near sellout at the Alex. Steve Allen has signed on for a benefit performance in two weeks and the money is in place for another concert Feb. 8.

“A year ago, there was this siege mentality,” Kinney said. “Now everyone seems to be excited. We’re no longer talking about if we’re going to die and how we’re going to die.”

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Kinney’s determination--defiant optimism, even--is echoed by performing arts groups throughout the Valley.

Facing financial disaster--as the Glendale Symphony did, and as the Alex Theatre did after it’s ill-fated first season--demands a refocused approach. The Glendale Symphony has adopted a “well-beloved classics” policy for selecting programs. And after Theater Corp. of America flopped with less-traditional musical fare at the Alex in 1994, new managing director Martin Kagan contracted with Theater League for productions of classic Broadway musicals such as “South Pacific” and “My Fair Lady.”

That isn’t to say that the Valley gets only revivals. The Alex in particular has scheduled more cutting-edge performances for 1997, including the Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass and Spalding Gray.

But the familiar sells tickets.

That’s one of the lessons that Dave Pier learned while running CSUN’s Performing Arts Center in 1996. The 500-seat theater is state of the art, but it’s also incredibly difficult to find, tucked into an upper-level section of the sprawling Student Union complex in the center of campus. Audiences might take a chance on an unknown performer, but probably not at a venue they don’t know how to find. Unfortunately, that meant that some of CSUN’s more interesting concerts--such as jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and Howard Johnson’s all-tuba group Gravity--were poorly attended.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us in terms of raising awareness and building the audience,” Pier said. That might require backing off from his most adventurous programs, he said, while still trying not to overlap with other venues. Still, in the next few months, CSUN will host groups who perform everything from tango dancing to mariachi guitar to Japanese taiko drumming.

The drama scene continues to strengthen, with Valley Theatre League membership holding steady around 35. The number of Equity 99-seat-plan theaters--and the lower rents than in the theater district of Hollywood--mean that almost any company wanting to develop a play can find affordable space.

Edmund Gaynes, president of the Valley Theatre League, still worries that not enough young people consider theater an entertainment option. But, he said, the number of quality theaters is increasing, especially around North Hollywood. “I can really see the fulfillment of the promise,” he said.

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Central to that promise is the addition of larger theaters, such as El Portal, the refurbished movie house. After a lengthy bureaucratic battle, Actors Alley should be able to start their 1997-98 season in El Portal’s 360-seat theater. At the same time, the Colony Theater--now in Silver Lake--is shooting for a 299-seat theater at the Media City Center in Burbank. That, too, could be built by the end of 1997. And the classical troupe A Noise Within plans to expand its space in Glendale.

It would be easy to be depressed about the arts in America right now. Orchestras are folding, others are on strike. City, state and federal funding is drying up. Arts education in many public schools is a thing of the past. But in the small corner of the country known as the San Fernando Valley, there remains a core of people who never say die. The Valley’s artistic vital signs are strong, they say. And getting stronger.