Lyric Theater Pops Up as Something of a Surprise

Local arts mavens were perplexed when the name “Pacific Lyric Theater” showed up in the recent Harrison Price Co. study advising the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa about future expansion.

In exploring needs for an additional concert hall of 2,300 to 2,500 seats, a small theater of 600 to 850 capacity and, further down the line, a mid-size theater of 1,200 to 1,500, the study projected Pacific Lyric Theater as occupying 66% of the bookings in the mid-size theater within 10 years. That’s more than any of the other projected users, including the Orange County Philharmonic Society, Opera Pacific and Fullerton Civic Light Opera.

Why were arts aficionados puzzled? Not because they had any specific information to make them doubt that Pacific Lyric Theater could live up to such expectations; most had simply never heard of Pacific Lyric Theater.

But then, that’s understandable: it has never mounted a production. In fact, today, it barely exists except as the brainchild of 39-year-old T. K. Thompson of Newport Beach.

“We’re really in the embryonic stages,” Thompson said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “We have meager funds in the bank now, enough to keep the day-to-day routines going.”

So how did this “embryonic” group wind up in a study that, should all its recommendations be carried out, would involve an expansion of the Center costing up to $119 million.

“When you’re out there, you hear about all kinds of groups,” said Nicholas S. Winslow, one of the authors of the study.

Center President Thomas R. Kendrick, while acknowledging that the mid-size theater is the lowest priority among the three additional facilities detailed in the study, said that the Center’s only contact with Pacific Lyric Theater was one 1987 meeting between Thompson and Center General Manager Judith O’Dea Moor. At that time, Thompson was told that the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall would not be an appropriate size in which to try to launch a company.

“The Center at this point has no priority on the mid-size theater,” Kendrick said.

According to the study itself: “Without the Pacific Lyric Theater, projected usage in the theater is only 21 weeks in 10 years, not sufficient to warrant further study. . . . Because the major user of this theater has not yet performed in Orange County, we recommend that further consideration of this theater be deferred until such time as a track record is established.”

But despite the gloomy prognosis, Thompson is undaunted.

“The idea is to create a resident theater company here that can produce professional musical theater productions, including, mainly Broadway-type things, classical operettas and modern things, like (works by) Andrew Lloyd Webber,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he incorporated Pacific Lyric Theater as a nonprofit organization in December, 1987. Since then, “we have had no activity, essentially, except for our organizational things,” he said.

The three-member board, including Thompson, “has not grown substantially at this time. We’re new, and we don’t have a venue.”

Thompson, who has worked with such musical-theater groups as the College Light Opera Company of Falmouth, Mass., and the Music Theatre of Wichita, Kan., already has a connection with the Orange County arts scene: his wife, Gail Robertson, is a violist with the Pacific Symphony.

“There is no resident musical theater company in Orange County and we think there is an audience for it,” he said. “It’s more accessible to a larger audience base than perhaps (straight) opera or classical music.”

Thompson bridled at talking about money, however.

“I’m tired of the idea that the quality of a production is tied to how much money is spent,” he said. But he did agree that “you have to have money” to do anything.

He wants to start his first year with a budget of about half a million dollars, “and by the end of 10 years, reach a $7-million to $8-million budget.”

“The numbers are just projections, but they’re based upon my experience and what I feel is possible. . . .

“The company wants to start small and build an audience, and over a period of time become a company that is really indigenous to here, so we don’t have to bring in touring groups that take the money out of Orange County.”

With dim prospects of a home at the Center, venues may be a problem.

“We may be moving around for the first few years,” he said. “I hope ultimately we would have a space that is home. That is one thing lacking in many places: an orchestra or musical theater that doesn’t have a home and must rent another space and then get out. I would like to have a space we’re identified with.

“I don’t envision wanting a theater much larger than 1,000 seats because the nature of the kind of work we want to do will lend itself to a more intimate situation than a 3,000- to 4,000-seat theater.”

Thompson has his eye on the new Irvine Theater, which is scheduled to open in November, as well as other sites, which he did not specify.

Thompson said that there would be no competition between his group and Opera Pacific, which also mounts Broadway musicals and operetta, or with the Center itself, which presents its own series of musicals in association with PACE Theatrical Group.

Kendrick said it is too early to tell whether Pacific Lyric Theater could be a serious competitor to the Center’s presentations.

But Opera Pacific’s general director, David DiChiera, spots potential conflict.

“Opera Pacific is committed to producing the complete gamut of opera, operetta and musical theater,” DiChiera said Tuesday by phone from Detroit, where he also heads up Michigan Opera Theatre. “We will be expanding our operatic offerings over the next several years but will continue to produce operetta and musical theater, and as the company grows, those offerings most probably will increase also. . . . (There would be competition) to the degree that we would both--in some part of our offerings--be presenting the same works in the same category. To that extent . . . we would not be able to continue our growth.”

DiChiera added that he also has eyes upon any smaller theater that the Center may build.

“My approach is that when another venue becomes available that is small, we will take advantage of that also to complement what we do in the larger house (Segerstrom Hall). It will give us more flexibility to match up the new venue with the right work.”

Thompson acknowledged that he faces a long row to hoe.

“It’s a very ambitious plan, perhaps too ambitious,” he said. “It’s certainly going to be a struggle. But I’ve had these struggles before. We’ll just try it and see.”