Front and Center

The Orange County Performing Arts Center finds itself at a historic crossroads in its 10-year history. Knowledgeable observers say it must grow or it will face a series of problems from declining significance in the regional arts-and-entertainment market to the possible loss of local arts groups whose growth it was intended to foster.

The center last week named a new president, Jerry E. Mandel, who will leave his current post at UC Irvine as vice chancellor for university advancement to take up his new job July 1. But he is already making plans and formulating policy for the county’s most prominent arts institution.

Built with private funds for $73.3 million, the Costa Mesa center has a single, 3,000-seat hall and a small black-box theater that holds 225 to 350, depending on the seating configuration. Its annual operating budget has averaged about $20 million for the last several years. Some $5 million in donations must be raised each year to cover the gap between earned income and expenditures. That subsidy comes from private sources.

In addition to presenting its own events, the center is a host venue to five organizations that regularly perform or present concerts there: the Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Opera Pacific, the Pacific Chorale and the William Hall Master Chorale.

Mandel spoke this week about center operations, future programming and where he thinks the center is headed. In separate interviews (see F24 and F25), the center’s two other top administrators--board chairman Mark Chapin Johnson and vice president for programming Judith O’Dea Morr--add their thoughts.

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Question: What is the top issue on your agenda?

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Answer: The most important thing we face is expansion. We have a tremendous need for new facilities. We must reach out to new audiences, and we can’t do that without expansion.

Q: How long will it be before we see a second hall? Experts I’ve spoken to say it will take probably two years for planning and fund-raising and four more to build it.

A: I haven’t even started thinking through it. But I certainly couldn’t quarrel with those numbers. I would say that’s realistic. There are probably some people who think we could fast-track it. But even fast track would take years.

Q: Do you think it will be a concert hall or multipurpose hall, which could host theater, opera, dance and other performing arts besides music?

A: I don’t quite know yet. I certainly lean at this point toward a concert hall. But I want to wait for the board members to see what they think. I want to talk to the other groups, the Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific and the Philharmonic Society. Whatever we do is going to be in cooperation with them. We are together on this. They’ll probably get tired of hearing that. We are together on this whole thing. That will be one of my most important mantras.

Q: A study the center commissioned recently indicated that as the arts-and-entertainment market expands, the center’s lack of growth will cause it to lose more and more market share, and that, among other things, that would reduce its ability to compete for top acts.

A: An equal, if not bigger concern is that we’re already missing out on a number of potential opportunities because we don’t have enough facilities. For example, one of our problems is that we don’t have enough time in the schedule for Broadway musicals to stay longer and play to more people. We’d like them here longer than a week, which is what usually happens. Talk about audience development! There are plenty of people who would love to come here for those shows, but they’re not here long enough.

Q: The Broadway series helps the bottom line. But overall the center has to raise $5 million to $6 million a year for its operating budget. Why so much? And how will you keep that figure from climbing?

A: The cost of excellence in the arts is expensive, particularly when you’re dealing with a labor-intensive business such as this. We have to become more efficient. We need to look at our management structures. We need to make certain we’re doing everything in the most appropriate way. But we need to dramatically increase our fund-raising--for operations, expansion and an endowment--and we will do all of that because this county deserves it.

Q: How will you compensate for your lack of experience in running a major performing arts center?

A: I think there’s a tremendous similarity between universities and arts centers. What it’s about here is what goes on stage. What it’s about at a university is what goes in the classroom. Good management techniques, financial skills, marketing skills, fund-raising, public relations--these are needed at arts centers today. I’ve had 20 years of dealing with those exact topics in a nonprofit setting at universities.

Q: That leaves out programming skills, where you have no track record.

A: Twenty years ago you would have selected for a university president a professor of English who wanted to get out of teaching. And for a performing arts center you would have selected someone who absolutely was a programmer in the arts. I think that’s changed, particularly as we look into the next century with the expansion we’re talking about. That will require the kind of skills I have.

I’ve given a lot of thought to what we’re going to do here. I think, long-term, some strategy needs to be done, some consensus building, team building, putting a management team in place, setting goals and objectives for people. With [Judith O’Dea Morr] heading programming, with a marketing person--we don’t have one yet--and with a vice president for development we’re going to hire, that will be my senior management team.

But one thing I’d like to make clear. I think there’s a feeling out there that I’m not going to be involved with programming. That’s absolutely not true. I have some definite opinions about that, but I want to talk to a lot of people. I want to hear from the [center] board. I want to hear from the community. Starting in July I’m going to go out as much as I can and speak with all the volunteer organizations. That’s part of my role, being an ambassador. I want to hear from others. I want to know what people are interested in.

Q: What if they tell you: “Rock ‘n’ roll”?

A: Obviously we’re not going to do heavy metal here. But there’s no reason we can’t do standard kinds of pop things. This center belongs to everybody in Orange County. We’re always going to do our mission--classical music, ballet, opera, Broadway shows; but, again, I definitely will have influence. I have a lot more depth in jazz than most people here have. I can tell you the jazz series will reflect a lot of my interests.

I even think we need to consider occasionally producing our own musicals. I use the analogy of the La Jolla Playhouse. Some of their shows have ended up on Broadway. I think we need to consider doing that, maybe in conjunction with other organizations. But to do that we need enough time in the schedule to make that money back. For that we need to expand.

Q: Are you aware that the center co-produced “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” with the [La Jolla] Playhouse in 1990 and took a $250,000 bath?

A: I was not aware. We won’t do it like that.

Q: There’s been talk about one day turning the center into an “arts destination” that will rival Lincoln Center in New York and Kennedy Center in Washington. Have you been to Lincoln Center?

A: Only a couple of times.

Q: Kennedy Center?

A: Once. This is why probably in the first part of August I’m going there to talk with folks at both places. I also want to see some shows on Broadway. I want to talk to people at Carnegie Hall, just to get into that loop and see what they’re doing. I really believe that if you’re smart, you learn from other people. I want to see what ideas they have, especially what hasn’t worked. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I want to know those sorts of things. Anybody smart in this business, or any kind of business, does that.

Q: Your main experience has been fund-raising in a university setting. Does that translate to the arts?

A: Oh, sure. What I’m going to enjoy about this is that over the last, now almost 10 years, I’ve been in a vice chancellor or vice president role. I set the deals up, went out, did a lot of the work, brought in a lot of the smaller gifts. But with the big gifts you usually call in the chancellor or the president to close the deal. Here, I’m going to hire a first-rate vice president for development--I’m moving on that right away--who is going to set all those things up, and I’ll be closing the deals along with the chairman of the board.

Q: How soon are you going to hire a vice president?

A: When the board did the search for a president, they did one simultaneously for a vice president and let it lag about a week behind. I’ve already called the search firm and said, “OK, I want to see the finalists next week.” I would hope to have a decision within three weeks.

Q: What will count most?

A: No. 1, whoever is hired is going to be a very experienced senior person. No. 2, if he or she also has an arts background, that’s a real plus. Certainly the person has to have a real passion for the arts.

Q: Will he or she have to come from the county?

A: It might help, but since I know the people in this community, that’s not as important. Whoever it is will have to fit the management style, be a team player. There’s going to be a lot more consensus here than they’re probably used to.

Q: Do you have any other priorities?

A: This is preliminary thinking. I’m not even officially here yet. An interesting thing is what Lincoln Center does on Sundays. They have inexpensive concerts--they invite families--and it’s Sunday at the center. That’s one way to attract a larger, more diverse audience. This would be based on availability, of course. But we have Sundays that are dark, which we ought to utilize.

I’m also very much into expanding the education program. I’m really concerned about the audiences of the future. As I look around Orange County, its demographics are changing. We have a growing population. We’ve got a lot of people that need to be exposed to the arts and need to get the incredible benefit of arts. Long range, they will develop a love for it and communicate that two or three generations down. But if you don’t start now, it won’t happen.

Business is growing in this area: There are a lot of new high-tech start-ups, biotechs, software companies. Those are young aggressive entrepreneurs. I want to find ways to get them involved too, as sponsors and audience. A [fund-raising] campaign and sponsors are very important, but what the center is about is what people come to see. That’s why I want to do this job. I want exciting things on the stage.