ORANGE COUNTY 1986 YEAR IN REVIEW : SPOTLIGHT ON ARTS--FINE AND POP --IN TURBULENT YEAR : NEW CENTER FILLS NICHE IN THE CULTURAL SCENE

Before the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s opening in September--by far the county’s biggest social-cultural event of the year--the new structure prompted lots of questions: Would visiting performers approve? How well would tickets sell? Would the community accept the Center? Would local arts groups feel welcome?

Only three months have passed, hardly enough time for definitive answers to all the questions. But tentative evaluations are beginning to shape the $70.7-million Center’s reputation. Critics’ reactions to the acoustics in Segerstrom Hall, as the Center’s main theater is called, have varied widely, but some have been quite positive. Visiting artists seem comfortable at the Center. Subscriptions, the staple for the survival of arts organizations, have sold very well.

On the down side, some local groups complain that the Center cannot offer them enough performance dates for future seasons. Also, at least two groups--the Orange County Philharmonic Society and Opera Pacific--have taken flak for seating donors first and turning away or giving lower priority to members of the public.

Based on interviews with Center officials, performers and arts patrons, here is an early look at how the new facility is faring:

The Sound of the Music

One lesson the Center’s first weeks provided is that grand promises about a new hall’s acoustics can lead to a letdown when the reviews come in.

Most Los Angeles music critics were disappointed with the hall’s performance opening night. But since then, at least one authority--Times music critic Martin Bernheimer--has praised certain aspects of the Center’s acoustics, noting, for example, the lack of distortion in the “shimmering pianissimos and crashing fortissimos” of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Oct. 1 concert under the direction of Kurt Sanderling.

Packing the House

Many ensembles performing at the Center have drawn full houses. Thomas R. Kendrick, the Center’s executive director, says that sellouts of the New York City Ballet and other groups will enable it to enter 1987 without a deficit.

“We expected there would be interest in the Center,” Kendrick said. “But what is surprising is the degree of interest so far.”

But he cautioned that he projects a deficit of at least $4.5 million for 1987 because the cost of presenting cultural events typically outstrips the amount earned at the box office. Kendrick said the Center now has a development staff which is aggressively seeking corporate and private donations. Still, each group sponsoring programs in the hall has been surprised by the flood of ticket orders. In fact, Erich Vollmer, executive director of the Orange County Philharmonic Society, had to field complaints that hundreds of people could not get seats because donors to the Center and to the society were given priority. Such treatment for donors is essential to attracting the dollars on which nonprofit arts groups depend, Vollmer said.

Local Emotion

Relations between local arts groups and the Center remain sensitive as the Center strives to strike a balance between bookings of out-of-town groups and county-based performers.

The Pacific Symphony and other local groups are unhappy because Kendrick has said the Center would have a hard time giving the locals more than 80 of 200 dates in 1987 and 1988.

Michael Gilano, president of the symphony’s board of directors, said the symphony is interested in 90 to 120 dates per season in response to strong audience interest since the Center opened. He has revived the old idea of building a concert hall specifically for local groups--a proposal that seems to pop up each time local groups become dissatisfied with Center policy. “We’ve been very successful in the Center,” Gilano said. “Now, our plan is to become a major, nationally ranked symphony orchestra, and I don’t know if we can grow at the Center.”

Community Relations

“The Center serves a very select audience right now,” said Robert Garfias, dean of the School of Fine Arts at UC Irvine. “There has been a great need for the Center and great support, but they need a broader audience, economically and ethnically.”

Said Paul Apodaca, curator of folk art at Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum:

“If it is going to be a major cultural force in the county, it is going to have to have a more imaginative and diverse mix of programming, one that mirrors the ethnic diversity of the county and the state.”

Kendrick has said one of his goals is to have Center events draw people with a broad range of backgrounds and interests. Paul Schimmel, chief curator of the Newport Harbor Art Museum, said the Center’s mere existence helps other arts institutions in Orange County raise their standards and realize their potential. “Every time art people in Los Angeles ask us about the museum’s potential for expansion, if they ask whether the support is there, we mention the Arts Center and say it’s an example of what can be done here.”

The Great Clapping Flap of 1986

Premature clapping has received more critical attention than any other sound to come out of the Center. Music critics and performers have complained that the Center’s audiences applaud between musical movements, distracting performers and destroying the impact of the music. But at least one arts expert sees something positive in the questionable manners of local audiences. “I’m glad people are clapping in the wrong places because it was lots of people who were doing it,” said Keith Clark, music director of the Pacific Symphony. “And that tells me there are a lot of people out there who have never been to concerts before. We want those people to come. The point is that the Center is new and everybody is learning.”

The Out-of-Towners

Generally, out-of-town artists seem to like the Center. A few dancers with the New York City Ballet complained that the Center’s floor was too hard. Center officials say they are aware of the problem and might buy a special dance surface.

John Hansen, tour manager of the Cleveland Orchestra, based his view of the Center on his experience in moving orchestra gear in and out of the theater for a recent concert. Hansen said he wants to return.

“At the Orange County Performing Arts Center, it was easier setting up than at almost any other hall that we have been to in the country,” he said.

“We travel with 22,000 pounds of equipment, and we need easy access to clothes and instruments, and the backstage rooms were spacious and comfortable,” Hansen added. “They (Center staffers) did the lighting the way the orchestra likes it. You need overhead lighting rather than front lighting because front lighting gets in the musicians’ eyes.”

Setting a Course

Center staffers compare the first three months to the shakedown voyage of a new ship. A source familiar with the theater’s technical operation said the trip has had rough moments. “It’s proving to be a harder theater to work in and not as easily flexible as everybody was hoping,” said the source, who spoke on the condition he remain anonymous.

“It takes longer to change over between different modes of operation, for different kinds of performances, than people expected. It takes more people to operate some things. . . . Little mistakes (in design) are showing up.”

One small design problem was a pipe in Founders Hall, a rehearsal room that converts into a 300-seat theater. Technicians were supposed to suspend theatrical lighting fixtures from the pipe, which turned out to be too large and incompatible with lighting equipment. A solution had to be improvised. “Little errors are bound to happen,” Philip Mosbo, the Center’s director of theater operations, said of the pipe problem. “Overall, it is going very well. We’re finding there is a fairly long learning curve with this building, maybe six months or more as far as the crew learning how to make changes as quickly as possible.”

A Parting Shot

In early December, Len Bedsow, who stirred controversy as the Center’s first executive director, quietly left California. Bedsow, a self-proclaimed curmudgeon, didn’t even tell some of his closest friends he was going.

Bedsow stepped down from his post in 1985, at age 67, after serving four crucial years. He participated in the hiring of architects, acousticians and other specialists who would design the Center. Highly opinionated and outspoken, he made enemies. He was particularly strong in his view that the role of local groups in the Center should be kept to a minimum. But he also earned the admiration of many who worked on the project.

Bedsow and his wife, Jane, moved to Danbury, Conn., to be near their daughter. In a recent telephone interview, he repeated his warning against permitting the Center to become dominated by local groups.

“Somebody in the theater business in New York said to me not long after the opening, ‘Hey, Len, it looks like a great theater they’ve built out there, but it looks like it may turn out to be the greatest community theater in America.’ ”

Bedsow said he left the West Coast with plenty of warm memories of his years in Costa Mesa and he wishes the current Center staff good luck.

“I went to the opening, and it was a big emotional experience, very satisfying,” he said. “It will always be a part of me.”