The Art of Success

By TONY LYSTRA

May 15, 2000 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

SIMI VALLEY — The inscription scrawled across the green room’s wall in the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center reads: “This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” It is signed--with two hearts--”Love in XX’s Rita Moreno.”

The actress, famous for “West Side Story” and many TV and film roles, was the first to perform at the arts center during its two-night opening in November 1995.

“She fell in love with this place,” said Fred Helsel, the center’s assistant manager. “She called it a jewel. She loved the intimacy. She loved the warmth and friendship.”

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the city-owned Cultural Arts Center, which has proved itself a worthy performance hall and a popular community attraction.

Attendance is on the rise, donations from local patrons are rolling in and the center is moving forward with establishing an endowment that could one day make it self-supporting.

“At least we see evidence that this thing can make it on its own,” said City Councilwoman Barbra Williamson, who sits on the city’s Arts Commission, which oversees the center. “There are many nights when it’s sold out,” Williamson said.

Nestled between a string of strip malls along Los Angeles Avenue, the two-story plaster, Gothic-style building is the pride of the community. The structure is decorated with wrought-iron lanterns and lattice awnings, and surrounded by palm trees.

The building has a rich and somewhat offbeat history. Built in 1928, it was once a Methodist church, then a Jewish temple and eventually a funeral home, where the funeral home’s director and his family lived downstairs.

Among the 217 performances that the center hosted last year were “Annie Get Your Gun” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” as well as several youth performances, high school graduation ceremonies and classical concerts.

The 240-seat center is currently wrapping up a presentation of the Tony award-winning musical revue “Side by Side by Sondheim” and will host Neil Simon’s “The Star-Spangled Girl” later this month.

“This is one of the most outstanding public and private projects that I’ve worked on and one of the most successful,” center General Manager David Ralphe said.

But there are enormous challenges ahead--including turning the center into an independent organization that operates without city subsidies.

The city doled out $120,050 to pay for the building’s maintenance and utilities this fiscal year. The center depends on ticket sales and rental fees, about $288,300 a year, to fund the rest of its operations. It reimburses the city for the $113,500 provided for three staff positions.

Port Hueneme’s Dorill B. Wright Cultural Arts Center provides an example of how high the stakes can be for city-funded venues. A city budget crisis killed that center in 1993, and civic leaders have been reluctant to reopen it despite an economic recovery.

“Employees were being laid off all over the place and you can’t sustain a cultural arts center in that kind of environment,” said Denis Murrin, the Port Hueneme center’s former director.

The lesson for the Simi Valley center, Murrin said, is to wean itself from city funds.

That has been the goal since the Simi Valley facility’s inception, Helsel said. The Cultural Arts Center Foundation, a group of 17 community members who have continually sought funding from local patrons, hopes to establish a $2-million endowment that will make the center mostly self-supporting. So far, it has raised $500,000.

But the arts center continues to look for new sources of money. Last Friday night, it hosted a fund-raiser at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that raised about $120,000, Williamson said.

Despite the center’s growing success, organizers say they are working hard to raise the facility’s profile in this community of 100,000.

“Five years later, some people are still discovering us for the first time,” said Phyllis Cortese, the foundation’s executive director. “People have a hard time seeing the tangible benefits of the arts.”

Helsel said some don’t expect such a small venue to feature professional productions. “It’s been a struggle getting people to accept that the quality of the entertainment in this facility is very high,” he said. “There’s always a struggle in fighting that image.”

Small victories keep Simi Valley boosters chugging toward their goal.

Last year, during a benefit dinner and auction at the Reagan library, organizers had planned to auction only half a dozen items. But the auction grew when audience members began offering their own services, vacations and other items to bidders. The auction raised $36,000 and the entire event--including ticket sales--grossed more than $100,000.

“There was a sort of magic that night,” Cortese said. “People are still talking about it.

“It’s like a baby learning to crawl,” she said. “Very soon, we’ll be walking on our own.”