Balboa Theater groundbreaking today

Mathis Winkler

BALBOA PENINSULA -- On Monday, Michele Roberge’s office looked like a

bomb had blown up.

Not that it surprised Roberge, the executive director of the Balboa

Performing Arts Theater Foundation. After all, she and other theater

supporters were getting ready for today’s groundbreaking ceremony, which

will finally kick off the theater’s long-awaited remodeling.

“We’re really excited,” Roberge said, adding that she had a huge box

of hard hats sitting nearby.

The ballerinas with Karine Jensen’s Mandala DanceWorks company had

also just finished their final rehearsal with “Bobcat” bulldozers,

Roberge said.

The theater’s first commissioned piece, a six-minute “Bulldozer

Ballet,” will be the focal point of today’s ceremony, which also will

include speeches from foundation president Dayna Pettit and Mayor Gary

Adams.

Once renovations are completed, the theater will include 350 seats in

16 rows that gently rise in front of the stage. Dressing rooms, offices

and patrons’ restrooms will be located underground. The alley behind the

building will be used as a backstage area and will be closed off during

performances.

Asked when she expected to welcome the first patrons for the theater’s

grand opening, Roberge offered a simple answer.

“We’ll open in $4 million,” she said.

Councilman Steve Bromberg, who is one of the foundation’s original

board members, said the ceremony was a “day we’ve been looking for for

many years.”

He added that it was also nice to see the theater’s groundbreaking go

hand in hand with the Balboa revitalization project, which is set to

begin in October.

The $7.5-million project, which will take about three years to

complete, involves the remodeling of streets in Balboa’s downtown area.

The municipal parking lot, which also will serve theater patrons, and

the south side of Main Street will be the first areas to benefit from the

make-over, said Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood.

But while excited about today’s event, Bromberg also said the

foundation still had a lot of fund-raising to do.

“Even more than ever, we’re going to need financial contributions,” he

said. “The mere fact that we’re breaking ground does not mean that we’re

free financially. I just want to be sure that there’s not complacency

within the community that everything is OK now. But I’m very confident

that we’ll get there.”

Until then, theater officials will put on productions around town to

give residents a taste of things to come.

The first such performance, a “midsummer evening concert” will be held

at Corona del Mar’s Sherman Library & Gardens on July 19 and feature the

musical duo Tingstad and Rumble, Roberge said.