Old Town theater opens with week of shows

By: CHARLES HAND - For The Californian | Wednesday, September 28, 2005 3:38 PM PDT ∞

Melissa Manchester's grand-opening performance at the Old Town Temecula Community Theater on Tuesday will likely be the last performance by a major celebrity for some time.

Not only is the cost high, but that is not the point of the theater, manager Bruce Beers said.

"We wanted to start with a big splash," she Beers, but the theater is dedicated less to splash than those willing to swim in the local waters.

The remainder of the grand opening week is more representative of the programs likely to follow. The blues-fusion group Allison Brown Quartet, which will perform Wednesday, will be followed by the Temecula Valley Master Chorale on Oct. 6.

Jake Shimabukuro, a Hawaiian ukulele artist, will play Oct. 7, and Kid Ramos and Three Rhythm Kings will perform Oct. 8. California Consort, a new Southwest County symphony, will make its debut Oct. 9.

"The theater is for the community," Beers said.

The theater is not, however, for the usual.

"My goal is to bring artists to the community who usually are not seen here," he said.

Beers came up from Escondido, where he oversaw the openings of two community theaters. He was working in one of those theaters when the job to oversee the Old Town project came open in Temecula. The theater was built in part with donations from members of the community and fund-raisers held by a variety of arts groups.

Already, interest from community groups that want to use the new theater is running high. Though the theater season has just begun, there are no more than a dozen time slots remaining in the 2005-06 schedule and those will probably go pretty quickly, Beers said.

"Right now, it's hard to get into the theater," he said. "We getting some of the local organizations that have been stymied by not having the production values they want."

They can get those values in the new theater. Though it is small at about 365 seats, depending on the configuration, it has the lighting, high ceiling and acoustics required by some of the groups. The first weekend after the grand opening will bring the first test of those production values with the Fine Arts Network's presentation of "Jekyll & Hyde," which debuts Oct. 21.

Exactly what the rest of the theater season will look like, Beers cannot say.

"We will design it on the fly," he said.

The theater and the adjoining Mercantile Building are linked by a passageway. The mercantile serves as an entrance for the theater. In that entrance are a small art gallery and a bistro. Like the theater itself, the bistro is a work in progress.

The theater's bistro has a small stage, dance floor and space for 50 or so people. Beers wants to create in it the atmosphere of a Chicago speakeasy ---- to the point that a mister has been installed to create a "smoky" atmosphere. There will be no bar at first, but Beers wants to add that.

Beers said he has three goals for the bistro. One is to give the customers what they want. The second is to offer new acts, "maybe something just a little edgy," as he describes it. The third is to find artists willing to participate in the community.

"We're looking for artists who can connect with the community," Beers said.

That means performers willing to teach master classes, to work with the schools, even offer other performances.

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