Theater Group Gets a Piece of the Action

South Coast Repertory, the acclaimed regional theater that sits across the street from the Orange County Performing Arts Center, is another beneficiary of Segerstrom largess.

Henry Segerstrom said Thursday that his family’s Segerstrom Foundation has given $1 million to SCR’s campaign to build a 300-seat theater adjacent to its existing two-stage complex. The new theater is to be built on the same Segerstrom-donated parcel as the center expansion.

David Emmes, the theater’s producing artistic director, said he expects to announce in three to six months how much has been raised in the thus-far private campaign, and what the target amount is. If all goes as planned, Emmes said, SCR’s new stage, complementing its existing 507-seat Mainstage theater and its 161-seat Second Stage, will open before construction begins for the center expansion.

St.Clair, the Encore

Carl St.Clair’s contract as musical director of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra runs out after the coming 2000-2001 season, but with a new concert hall on the horizon, and the symphony’s 25th anniversary season coming in 2003-04, he is eager to re-up.

“I’m ecstatic about today’s news, and it gives me more inspiration into the future,” St.Clair said Thursday. “It’s on a rise, a positive spiral. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?” Besides better acoustics and expanded programming, the new hall would allow the symphony to practice where it performs.

John E. Forsyte, the symphony’s executive director, is negotiating a fresh contract for St.Clair, who is entering his 11th year as the PSO’s musical leader. His aim: “Keep Carl as long as possible.”

Morr Moves Up

The executive committee of the center’s board of directors Thursday approved the promotion of programming vice president Judith Morr to executive vice president of the center.

Morr says that in addition to programming, she’ll handle more administrative duties--including daily operation of Segerstrom Hall--while center President Jerry Mandel works on fund-raising.

Room for Art Too

Planners have reserved space for an art facility on the campus of the expanded Performing Arts Center. The center has discussed bringing the Orange County Museum of Art to the site. Preliminary talks also include a West Coast satellite facility of the New York-based Guggenheim Museum, Henry Segerstrom said Thursday.

“There have been discussions, ideas being thrown around of the Guggenheim Museum, because they’re opening a satellite in Las Vegas,” Segerstrom said. “But it’s not something we’re actively looking at right now.”

Spin Center

Veteran publicist Lee Solters of Los Angeles--once publicist for Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra--has been retained by Henry Segerstrom to promote the newly named Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Solters is a friend of Segerstrom’s new wife, Elizabeth Macavoy, and she introduced them in New York.

Thanks From Davis

In a letter to Henry Segerstrom, Gov. Gray Davis called him a visionary and congratulated him on his $40-million gift to the Orange County Performing Arts Center expansion.

“The Performing Arts Center is a spectacular complex and the envy of many communities,” Davis said. “I am endlessly impressed by your extraordinary ability to see the full potential of your community, to inspire others and to set and achieve goals in great style.”

Added Davis: “Orange County is fast becoming a cultural heart to the entire state.”

Compiled by Mike Boehm, Ann Conway and Vivian LeTran.