Overall Attendance Rises at Performing Arts Center

COSTA MESA —  More than 700,000 people bought tickets for shows in the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s main hall in 1995, the first time attendance has topped that figure, officials announced Tuesday.

“That demonstrates the community’s desire to see the offerings we present,” center president Tom Tomlinson said before the members’ annual meeting.

Total paid attendance in 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall was 711,684, a figure divided equally between those who attended events presented by the center and the combined total of those who bought tickets for events put on by local performers and presenters who rent center facilities. Those groups are the Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the William Hall Master Chorale and the Pacific Chorale.

The increase of 74,793 ticket buyers over 1994 was attributed to a greater number of events held at the center last year: 288, versus 245 in 1994. At the same time, however, a considerably smaller percentage of people bought tickets to each of those events.

Average paid attendance for 163 center-sponsored events was 74.3% in 1995, down from an average of 86% the year before. At some events, notably a rare Southland performance by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and an engagement by San Francisco Ballet, paid attendance barely topped one-third of the hall’s capacity.

Still, Tomlinson said, “total attendance being up demonstrates that we can continue to do more events and more people will [eventually] attend.”

Significantly, local groups had a higher average attendance than the center did, for the first time since its inaugural season in 1986. For the 136 events put on by local groups, paid attendance averaged 78.6% in 1995, up from 73.2% in 1994.

Private donations to the center in 1995 came to $4.45 million. The center also added $4.3 million to its endowment, bringing it to $12.3 million in cash and cash pledges, the largest increase in one year. Expenses in 1995 totaled $23.7 million, and revenue, primarily from box-office receipts, reached $19.3 million. The difference was offset by donations, which yielded a $50,000 budget surplus.

In other business, the center’s board voted to move into a new phase of feasibility studies for a long-planned second theater.

Tomlinson also announced that the Nederlans Dans Theatre, in a return engagement, will open its 1996-1997 dance series in July.