Closer Look -- No vacancies in these houses

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Ever since she first saw her own children perform in

theater productions at their schools a few years back, Linda Safran has

been hooked on the power of the stage.

“As I sat back and watched my children bloom, my heart bloomed,” she

said.

As a result, Safran began helping to bring shows such as “Annie,” “The

Wizard of OZ” and “Bye, Bye Birdie” to life in Newport Beach schools.

Last fall, Safran, her husband, Michael, and other residents formed

the Newport Beach Theater Company, a nonprofit organization that wants to

expose the city’s children to all aspects of the trade.

With the group in place, next came the search for a space to perform.

Approaching the city about public venues seemed the way to go. But the

Safrans and others soon realized that Newport Beach’s extremely limited

theater space is booked to the nines.

Ninety seats is all there is

City officials immediately suggested they contact Rae Cohen, the

president of Friends of the Newport Theatre Arts Center, which puts on

plays on Cliff Drive. For more than two decades, that group has

functioned as the city’s unofficial theater company and puts on about six

performances each year.

The city bought the dilapidated building, which used to serve as a

church, in the 1970s. Cohen’s group has raised more than $100,000 for

remodeling in addition to $60,000 the city set aside some years ago. Each

year, Newport Beach also spends about $7,000 to clean and maintain the

center, city officials said.

A City Council policy states that Cohen’s group has priority rights

for the use of the theater and oversees programming even though city

officials are included in the scheduling of community theater activities.

The theater, which can seat 90 patrons, remains the city’s only

performance space.

“There really is quite a dearth [of space] here,” said LaDonna

Kienitz, the city’s community services director. In addition to the

center, the City Council chambers and a meeting room at the central

library that seats a maximum of 200 people is all there is.

Cohen asked the Safrans to submit a proposal for the use of the

theater. While her group puts on most performances at the center, guest

artists have come in for short engagements that have typically lasted a

few days.

But the Safrans envisioned more than that. They asked Cohen to give

them several weeks between the center’s regular shows. Cohen countered

that while her group only performed about 112 to 120 days per year, she

needed the auditorium for rehearsals and set construction for the rest of

the time.

“That’s the way we’ve used it over the years,” Cohen said last week.

“Even though it seems we might have a lot of down time.”

The Safran’s attempt to get blocks of time at the center prompted one

of the city’s elected leaders to take up the case.

At the Feb. 13 City Council meeting, Councilwoman Norma Glover asked

city officials to draft a lease agreement with Cohen’s group to establish

the organization as the exclusive company in charge of performances at

the center.

“People that are well-versed in theater should be making the decisions

about who can perform,” Glover said last week. “Those aren’t decisions

that City Council people should be making.”

The Safrans, other parents, children and teachers protested the move

at last Tuesday’s council meeting. On March 13, council members are

expected to discuss the issue again.

An arts center on open space?

That meeting, potentially, could also mean an end to a proposal to

create an arts and education center on open space land behind the city’s

central library. After a highly emotional discussion that seemed to

engulf council members just like supporters and opponents of the idea,

five of the seven city legislators voted last Tuesday to bring the issue

to a head.

At their next meeting, council members will decide whether they are

generally willing to consider using open space to make room for the

center.

Members of an ad hoc committee charged with reviewing the proposal for

a cultural center will meet Tuesday to see whether they can come up with

a recommendation on the issue to council members.

Councilman Steve Bromberg, who chairs the committee, said he felt

obliged to do this before the March 13 vote.

“There’s a gap,” he said. “The committee has not reported back to the

City Council and it’s mandated to do that.”

Environmentalists, such as members of Stop Polluting Our Newport,

vehemently oppose the project since the city already has limited open

space.

But ardent supporters of an arts center, such as Arts Commissioner Don

Gregory, said the city’s inability to create a space for theater and arts

education disappointed him.

As far back as 1969, a document outlining visions for the city’s

future pointed out the need for a cultural center.

“With the time devoted to work decreasing in our society and time for

recreation increasing, the concept of a cultural center for Newport Beach

assumes ever greater importance,” reads a section in “Newport Tomorrow,”

a communitywide study conducted at the time. “The essential first step, a

commitment of land for the center, has been urged by previous citizen

groups.”

Gregory said he’s not ready to give up on the plan even if council

members decide to kill the idea of a center behind the library.

But suggestions for alternative sites, such as the defunct Port

Theater on East Coast Highway or Corona del Mar High School, seem

impossible, Gregory said. Either there’s not enough space to include

rooms for classes or parking, or potential traffic problems will create

uproar among residents, he said.

Another possible piece of land, the lower portion of Bayview Terrace,

is already earmarked for affordable housing for seniors.

“I feel sorry that in 32 years, they haven’t been able to come up with

something,” said Gregory, a Tony Award-winning producer of Broadway and

television shows. “It’s embarrassing. It’s a shame for the leadership of

this community.”

Even the pros are scrambling for space

When the Safrans made their case to council members last Tuesday,

Bromberg, a board member of the Balboa Performing Arts Theater

Foundation, told them that the Balboa Theater would welcome them with

open arms.

Once the building has been renovated, that is. Unlike Cohen’s group,

the Balboa foundation already has a 25-year lease with the city, which

bought the defunct movie theater and handed it over to the nonprofit

organization for renovation.

When asked about a possible reopening date for the theater, executive

director Michele Roberge put it bluntly.

“Four million dollars from now,” she said, adding that at the

earliest, the theater would be up and running in 2002.

And Roberge, who has been trying to set up preview performances in

town before the theater’s opening, said that she hasn’t had any luck

finding space so far, either.

“There’s nothing -- there really is nothing here,” she said, adding

that she had also contacted the school district regarding the performing

arts center at Newport Harbor High School.

“That’s booked solidly during the school year and closed for

maintenance during the summer,” she said.

District officials confirmed there’s rarely time for outside groups to

perform at the center because all schools in the district use it for

productions.

“We’re pretty much booked all the time,” said Sandy Boodman, who

oversees the center’s scheduling for the district. She added that it’s

the only real theater space the district has.

Since the Balboa Theater will be run as a professional theater,

community groups will also have to pay to use it. While nonprofits such

as the Newport Beach Theater Company will get discounted rates, they

would still be expected to fork out several hundred dollars per day, said

Roberge, adding that definite fees had not been set.

“It’s very normal for a group like Linda Safran’s to have to pay,” she

said.

Since she’s started to think about unconventional theater venues such

as car dealerships herself, Roberge seems to have taken on the challenge

of making do in a city that has virtually no space for the performing

arts right now.

“We haven’t given up yet,” she said. “The fight has just begun. It

takes people saying no before you figure out a really creative

alternative.”