Another cultural oasis rises in the East Valley next month as the $63 million Tempe Center for the Arts opens alongside the rippling water of Town Lake.
Although not quite on the scale of the 2-year-old Mesa Arts Center, the Tempe venue’s two theaters, seating 600 and 200, rival the facilities at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts and the Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. It gives an instant boost to Tempe’s standing as an arts destination.
It also offers a case study of the opportunities and the challenges of the Valley’s new era of decentralized arts and culture.
For a long time, only Scottsdale rivaled downtown Phoenix as a place to see quality art and performances. But the Valley’s dramatic growth as a "network city," rather than a traditional metropolis with a dominant core, has created demand for cultural offerings in every community.
Not necessarily the same offerings, however.
Jody Ulich, Tempe’s cultural services manager, said the city thought it would be a losing proposition to try to compete with the programming at the Scottsdale and Mesa venues, both of which present well-known national and international performers.
Instead, the new center will focus almost exclusively on providing a home for Tempe-based companies, including Childsplay, A Ludwig Dance Theatre and the Tempe Symphony Orchestra.
"I’m really excited about the Tempe performing-arts center," said Matt Lehrman, director of the nonprofit arts Web site ShowUp.com.
"I think of the potential of groups like the Tempe Little Theatre, who have a chance to perform in a real professional venue and rise to the occasion. I think that’s great for Tempe and the whole Valley."
With its strikingly angular profile and gorgeously appointed main stage – from its cushy seats and mahogany walls to its high-tech acoustic system – the TCA is an attractive venue for any performing company. Nonetheless, committing to the venue was not necessarily an easy decision.
"It’s a whole new day for us, and that’s very exciting – and a little scary, too," said David Saar, artistic director of Childsplay, which is internationally recognized as a leader in theater for young audiences.
Saar said the company weighed the pros and cons of presenting its entire season in Tempe. On the plus side were the state-of-the-art facilities and the luxury of being the chief tenant, rather than wedging shows between productions by other companies.
And the negative?
"The balkanization of the Valley and the difficulty in getting people to cross too many city lines in their travel to entertainment," Saar said. "That’s a reality that we’ve fought over all these years. . . . We would have different people come to the Herberger (than) Scottsdale."
Despite the fear of losing some customers, particularly on the west side, the advantages of the TCA tipped the scales.
In contrast, Desert Dance Theatre made a compromise decision, said artistic director Lisa Chow. Her company will perform its two annual repertory concerts in Tempe and present a regional dance festival there in January. But it will continue to present its annual fall festival in Scottsdale, and keep up its partnership with the Chandler Center for the Arts, performing for school audiences.
Those were established audiences that Chow did not want to lose, and although Desert Dance will consider the Tempe center its home base, that won’t stop it from performing in other venues, including the Paradise Valley and South Mountain community colleges.
"We’re real excited to have a space in Tempe that we can be proud of," she said. "(But) you never know what your audience is going to be like until you actually get there. It’s the same thing when we perform in Phoenix. A lot of our East Valley people don’t want to go to Phoenix, and vice versa."
And that is the dilemma for all performing companies, as well as the venues: how to balance the need to serve the local community while also reaching out to a broader audience.
Saar, for one, leans toward the latter mission.
"It’s my hope that the Tempe Center for the Arts becomes a place for family entertainment in the Valley," he said. "That’s what is Childsplay’s job to help in."
Kerry Lengel
http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/0828fallarts0826southeast.html
