CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Board Agrees to Consider Larger CDMHS Theater

Plans to build a small “thrust theater” that caused a stir earlier this summer among some Corona del Mar High School parents have been replaced with plans to build a bigger Proscenium stage — along with a hefty price increase, according to the Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials and other sources.

Originally, CDMHS’s proposed new theater would be a so-called thrust theater, which is a theater-in-the-round-type stage geared toward small musical ensembles. That theater would cost about $10 to $13 million of funds from Measure F, a 2005 bond measure that already paid for the Newport Harbor Loats Theater.

But many parents who have students involved in arts programs at the school complained that CDMHS should get a more traditional, larger Proscenium theater, like the Loats Theater. District officials said that the plans would build a variety of theaters that all schools could use, like CDM used Loats for its spring performance of “The Wiz.” Parents were rallying in June and planning to attend a meeting to voice concerns, but that meeting was postponed indefinitely and the matter ended up in the board’s hands. (Read our earlier story here.)

At last week’s Board of Education meeting, board members considered and approved a Proscenium-style theater for CDMHS, noting the cost increase could be an extra $1 million.

“The change from ‘thrust’ theaters to the more traditional proscenium stages does require some additional square footage, and will entail some additional cost,” according to the online agenda. “In today’s dollars, the change reflects an increased price tag of about $1 million for each project. Of course, costs at the time of actual construction will determine the final cost of each project.”

District spokeswoman Laura Boss said the cost increases are “speculations based on the market at this point in time.”

“This is what we had wanted at the school and I am very happy that the board was willing to look at the design,” said the school’s theater director, Ronald Martin, in an email this week. He said he had not seen the revised plans.

The board’s agenda offered background into the theater projects. “Measure F, as approved by the voters in 2005, called for two sizes of theaters to be built under the program. Two larger theaters of approximately 26,000 square feet were to be built at Newport Harbor High School and Estancia High School. Two smaller theaters of approximately 24,000 square feet were to be constructed at Corona del Mar High School and Costa Mesa High School. As adopted, the ‘Ed Specs’ for the theaters to be built under Measure F adopted a macro view of offering different performing arts facilities throughout the district, calling for the larger theaters to be traditional proscenium arch facilities a minimum of 500 seats and the smaller theaters to be designed as ‘thrust’ stages of a minimum of 350 seats. It was reasoned that a variety of performing arts facilities available throughout the community would create greater opportunity for all students.”

Besides a new theater, Measure F funds also are being used for a Corona del Mar Middle School enclave project; read more about that here and here.