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Angeleno
Magazine — June 2003
PLAYTIME
A diva woos donors for her Santa Monica showcase
by Michael
Webb photography by Tiffany Stern
Dale Franzen
is an opera singer turned impresario in the mold of Beverly Sills,
and she is well on the way to creating her dream theater for Santa
Monica College. SMC president Piedad Robinson, who is a passionate
supporter of the arts, invited her to find a use for the auditorium
of a decommissioned school that the college was using for off-campus
classes. “I was just ending my 23-year career as a singer,
and I had this vision of a little jewel box of a theater with great
acoustics.” says Franzen. “The old hall would be kept
as a rehearsal space, and the new building would fullfill the college’s
mission to reach out to the community and showcase its music, theater
and dance programs.”
To test her hunch that
the space was needed, Franzen looked around and found that there
were no easily accessible, 500-seat theaters on the westside, except
for the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, and none in Santa Monica.
She remembered what a great experience it was to perform in intimate
spaces like this after singing with the L.A. Opera in the 3,200-seat
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and knew there were many musicians and
actors who would be eager to use it. She had already found her architect
seven years before at the opening of the California Center for the
Arts in Escondido. “It was a gorgeous theater, very like the
Rome Opera,” she recalls. “I said to my husband, ‘If
I ever build a theater, I want this architect.’” Renzo
Zecchetto, who was the design coordinator for Moore Ruble Yudell,
was standing close by and gave her his card
 “From
the beginning, they knew they wanted a versatile, high-quality hall,”
says Zecchetto. “I did a sketch, built models and designed
the room from the inside out. The architecture was shaped by the
acoustics: curved planes and boxes to reflect sound and lighting
integrated into a seamless whole.” That expressive form is
set within a cubistic outer shell, and the space between provides
a foyer and circulation while acting as a sound baffle. The new
building will back up to the old classrooms, some of which have
been converted into an art gallery, and will define a courtyard
for informal, outdoor performances.
Dustin Hoffman,
who took his first drama class at SMC in 1956, became chairman of
the Madison Project, as it is called, and Franzen threw herself
into the business of fundraising for the theater’s construction.
She is already half way toward her goal of $15 million and hopes
the new theater will open in 2005. Meanwhile, she has begun eclectic
programming in the spaces that are presently available. “L.A.
is such a cool place right now with exciting things happening all
over the city,” she says. “I get 20 calls a month from
groups that want to play here, and we’ve not yet broken ground.
When we are up and running, I plan to showcase new talent and produce
works that cannot be seen elsewhere. It’s important to provide
choices for people who don’t want to drive downtown.”
Renzo Zecchetto
was born in Santiago, Chile, and was researching wood buildings
in Patagonia when he read The Place of Houses, a book co-authored
by architect Charles Moore. “I was so impressed, I flew to
Berkeley and went to work for him,” says Zecchetto. “There
I learned the importance of creating memorable places, and I’ve
tried to do that here.” He’s currently designing houses,
a new liberal arts building for SMC and a museum of environmental
art in Encinitas.
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