SAN DIEGO - A vast expanse of deep blue water rolls onto the white sand of La Jolla Cove, ebbing at the feet of sunbathers stretched beneath the cliffs that bank the beach.

Less than five miles up the coast, but worlds away from the surf and sun, slender scaffolding clings to the cinder blocks of a world-class theater at the La Jolla Playhouse.

San Diego nourishes widely acclaimed theaters, including the La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Lamb's Players Theater and San Diego Repertory Theater at the Lyceum, which have originated the Tony Award-winning musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie," the musicals "The Who's Tommy" and "The Full Monty" and a version of the Tony-winning revival of "Henry IV," which later was done in New York with Kevin Kline as Falstaff.

"People come here because they want the beaches and the sun, and as an arts community, we'll never be able to fight that. So, let's join it," said Rick Prickett, director of cultural tourism for the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, a lead agency in the effort among the city's tourism and art communities to place San Diego on the national radar for cultural tourism.

Since 2000, San Diego Art + Sol has labored to change the perception that San Diego is exclusively a beach town.

Nestled on the hilltop campus of the University of California, San Diego, the La Jolla Playhouse has long drawn and developed top theater industry talent. That trend began with artistic director Des McAnuff.

"Just the idea of theater and palm trees seemed to be an oxymoron or a contradiction, but what I found is that artists love a beautiful environment," said McAnuff, a two-time Tony winner for best direction of a musical, for "Big River" and "Tommy."

Since its inception two decades ago, the Playhouse has been lauded for its original work, directorial freedom and role as an educational institute in affiliation with UCSD. One-third of the projects started at the Playhouse have gone on to other runs, including Broadway, London, Los Angeles, Lithuania, Moscow and Vienna, Austria, according to McAnuff.

Several world premiere productions have received Tony awards - Broadway's highest honor - or nominations, including "Big River" in 1984, "Tommy" in 1992 and 1994's revival of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

"By and large, the Playhouse has been a progressive arts institution, and I think that fits in with the image of the new San Diego," McAnuff said.

When its third theater is completed in October 2004, the La Jolla Playhouse will offer three distinct theaters - a thrust stage jutting into the audience, a traditional proscenium arch theater and a black-box space in which the stage and audience area can be reconfigured to suit the production. The Playhouse also will boast a restaurant with a cabaret, a play development center and a design studio.

The La Jolla Playhouse presents the two-play cycle "Continental Divide" through Aug. 1. The Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre is scheduled to open with the world premiere of Lee Blessing's "The Scottish Play" Nov. 16.

About 15 miles down the coast into downtown San Diego, 1,200 acres of lawn anchor one of the largest cultural parks in the nation, with more than 85 performing arts and cultural organizations. It's here in Balboa Park that The Old Globe's Summer Shakespeare Festival is being revived this summer after a 20-year hiatus.

"It's a major jewel in our crown and one that's been missing - and one that few theaters in the country have attempted to do," said Jack O'Brien, artistic director of The Old Globe theater, and winner of a 2004 Tony for directing the Lincoln Center Theater revival of "Henry IV." ("Henry" also won the play-revival prize.)

"Anthony and Cleopatra," "As You Like It" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen" will be performed on nightly rotations by a resident acting company through Sept. 26.

"We've been a cultural anchor consistently in this park, in this part of the community, for longer than most people have been alive. That doesn't happen in America. You don't see a cultural organization spanning generations," said O'Brien, who also won a Tony last year for his direction of "Hairspray," which won for best musical.

"Accidentally, this somewhat naive and sleepy beach town welcomed culture into its midst with great pride."

A sidewalk at the front of The Old Globe complex leads to El Prado walkway, the heart of Balboa Park's cultural offerings, and home to the San Diego Museum of Art.

More than 390 pieces of artwork and liturgical items from the Vatican that catalog the 2000-year history of the papacy, most of which have never been on public display, will be exhibited at the museum through Sept. 6. The San Diego Museum of Art is the only West Coast viewing and the final stop for the "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of Popes" 18-month North American tour.

Further into downtown, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego showcases a two-part art collection directed by actor Cheech Marin exploring Mexican heritage, lifestyle and identity in America through abstract and photorealistic paintings.

"Chicano Visions" and "Chicano Now" will be on display through Sept. 12 at the MCASD downtown and La Jolla locations.

Just over a mile down the coast, a slender, emerald-colored peninsula juts into the San Diego Bay, leaving behind downtown San Diego and reuniting the arts with the city's balmy heritage. Here, at Embarcadero Marina Park South, the San Diego Symphony holds its outdoor Summer Pops series, a marriage of classical and popular music, through Sept. 5.

The city's oldest musical institution was forced to file for bankruptcy in the late 1990s but has since regained stable financial footing, due in large part to a $100 million donation in 2002 to the symphony's endowment fund from Qualcomm Chairman and Chief Executive Irwin Jacobs and his wife.

The season closes Labor Day weekend with the 1812 Tchaikovsky Spectacular, showcasing the U.S. Navy Band, a military canon salute and the "1812 Overture."

The festive notes of victory erupting from percussion instruments harmonize with the waves striking San Diego's shores, at once embracing the city's persona as a beach-seeker's paradise and trumpeting its new identity as a destination for the cultural tourist.

"It's like a great recipe. All the ingredients were there and just took a long time to simmer," the visitors' bureau's Prickett said.