Back then it was the Orange County Performing Arts Center, and it seemed almost too good to be true. Finally, Orange County had its own monumental temple for the performing arts – the realization of a dream that was born when Los Angeles opened its own massive Music Center more than two decades previously. It was, above all else, the embodiment of civic pride and ambition.
And it looked the part. In those days, there wasn’t much to that corner of Costa Mesa besides Segerstrom Hall, magnifying its imposing size and bold facade. Flanked by the respected South Coast Repertory and close to South Coast Plaza, the massive venue helped to provide a sprawling and somewhat amorphous county with a cultural anchor.
On Sept. 29, 1986, the Orange County Performing Arts Center was introduced to the world with a gala concert featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Zubin Mehta conducted the orchestra and soprano Leontyne Price sang the national anthem. Actor James Whitmore narrated a performance of Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.” An orchestral work was commissioned for the occasion: William Kraft’s “Of Ceremonies, Pageants and Celebrations” (note the clever acronym). The concert ended with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that included members of the William Hall Master Chorale and the Pacific Chorale. President Ronald Reagan sent a telegram of congratulations. An auspicious debut by any standard.
Through several major expansions, a name change and the creation of a school with American Ballet Theatre, several of Culture OC’s veteran journalists have witnessed milestones and memorable moments at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. We’ve asked them to share their recollections.
American Ballet Theatre and its Famous Leader Leave an Impression
by Paul Hodgins
I’ll admit I hadn’t been paying close attention to the shiny new concert hall that had opened just a few miles from my tiny apartment on the campus of UC Irvine. As a young, green faculty member of UCI’s dance department, I was concentrating more on my considerable duties as an accompanist, teacher and cat herder for a bohemian gang of dance musicians. There was no time or money for extravagances.
But nobody in my sphere was going to miss American Ballet Theatre’s first appearance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, as it was then called. The company was staging its celebrated production of “The Nutcracker” in December 1986, and though tickets were extravagant for an assistant professor, there was no question that I and my colleagues would be there.
Mikhail Baryshinikov, the company’s charismatic superstar leader, had already visited the new facility before it was completed, and his enthusiasm was generous.
“I think an ‘ideal’ theater is one that combines many elements: an intimate relationship with the dancer to the audience, a comfortable backstage area, good rehearsal rooms,” he said in a Los Angeles Times article that ran on Sept. 21, 1986, just a few days before OCPAC opened. “When I toured the Orange County Performing Arts Center, it seemed (like) a great space – a theater designed with sensitivity. Certainly we are looking forward to a long relationship in Orange County, and we hope in the future to bring our repertory performances to the audiences there. It is a terrific theater, and I hope we can spend some time there.”
Nobody had an inkling of how prophetic his words were. The Segerstrom Center opened its American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School almost exactly 29 years later, on Sept. 24, 2015.
As my wife and I (along with a group of dance students who had somehow managed to pay for pricey orchestra seats) sat expectantly in the minutes before ABT’s first-ever appearance at OCPAC, there was a tinge of disappointment in the air. A recurring knee injury had kept Baryshnikov from performing much that season, and he wouldn’t be appearing on stage that night.
But our mood changed instantly just before the lights went down. The row in front of us contained a few conspicuously empty seats next to the aisle. Suddenly, a small group appeared: Baryshnikov and his entourage, which included his memorably imposing colleague, the critic Charles Engell France.
All the dancers around me squealed in unison.The handsome Russian paused, turned toward us, and gave us the slightest of smiles and a nod. It was an affirmation: Dance would be crucial to the future of this place. I wonder how many future subscriptions for the Center’s dance season were captured at that moment?
Decades of Great Performances and Some Unexpected Moments
by Richard Chang
I was born in New York City and grew up in Los Angeles, but much of my artistic and cultural awakening (and growth) has happened in Orange County. And Segerstrom Center for the Arts has been a big part of that experience.
I arrived in Orange County in early 2000, having been hired as arts reporter for The Orange County Register. Scott Duncan, the respected and kind arts editor at The Register, took me to what was then called the Orange County Performing Arts Center during a get-to-know tour of Orange County. “This is going to be an important part of your job,” he said to me then. And it sure was.
I’ve covered the ups and downs of the Center over the years, and they’ve mostly been ups. I remember the late Henry T. Segerstrom well, and he always treated me with respect and grace. He understood my role as a journalist, and even handled the tougher questions with thoughtfulness and aplomb.
There are others associated with the Center who have left mostly positive impressions: Jerry Mandel, Roger Kirwan, Kerry Madden, Terry Dwyer, Tim Dunn, Todd Bentjen, Judy Morr, Jane Yada. I also appreciate how a new generation of arts supporters has taken over the reins, and are moving the ship forward.
I remember the buzzy announcement of a $40 million gift by Henry and Elizabeth Segertrom to build the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall – and the unusual story of how they met at a restaurant in New York City. I remember Carl St.Clair “conducting” bulldozers on the dirt lot that would become the concert hall during the groundbreaking.
I remember the star-studded opening of the concert hall, and meeting and interviewing legendary actor Angelica Huston on the red carpet. I also got the chance to chat with Esa-Pekka Salonen, then music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Opening night of the concert hall was a treat, even though fireworks near the end of the festivities kind of got out of control. I remember smoking debris falling on the crowd dressed in tuxedos and glitzy evening gowns. Several people covered their heads with programs to avoid being hit.
I remember Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visiting the Center a couple of times, including the opening of the symphony hall. “I’ll be back,” he quipped.
And of course, I remember all the great shows at the Center: “Rent,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Spring Awakening,” “Mamma Mia,” “Hamilton,” the unforgettable Cape Verdean singer and barefoot diva Cesaria Evora, author Amy Tan, a world premiere by Philip Glass during the concert hall’s opening weekend.
I endured The Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner. I know the four-opera epic is adored by some and has an obsessive following, but I considered it a form of German-language musical torture. But “The Ride of the Valkyries” was, admittedly, pretty cool.
Other highlights: The Kirov Ballet performing “La Bayadere,” and chatting with the smartly dressed Henry and Elizabeth Segerstrom at intermission; the Mariinsky Ballet and Theatre, conducted by Valery Gergiev; blues icon B.B. King; Kronos Quartet; a taping of NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”; and all the great jazz acts – Regina Carter, Branford Marsalis, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington and the late Geri Allen.
I know this might sound corny or mushy, but a 2023 performance of “The Nutcracker” by American Ballet Theatre brought tears to my eyes. It was just so beautiful and well done. Thank you, Center.
Two Perspectives
by Anne Valdespino
I served two stints at the Orange County Register, one as a general assignment and performing arts writer, the second as a society columnist. That gave me two different perspectives on the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. During the first I wrote about classical music, hearing many wonderful soloists and orchestras, including world premieres of works played by our own Pacific Symphony. However, it was the dance concerts that stayed with me.
I was fortunate to write critiques during a golden era: Baryshnikov was directing American Ballet Theatre and The Joffrey was performing masterworks such as Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes versions of “The Rite of Spring” and other classics with Tina LeBlanc, Edward Stierle and Jodie Gates, founder of Laguna Dance, in leading roles.
A trained classical musician, I had never danced but steeled myself to accept the challenge. I couldn’t pass on seeing Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey and other premier American companies. It coincided with the end of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall fell and the Kirov, the Bolshoi, the Moscow Classical Ballet leapt over its ruins to dazzle us.
I will never forget seeing some of these companies up close, compared to sitting in the nosebleed seats I was used to buying as a music student. From the rafters, you might admire the dizzying patterns of Nijinsky’s choreography in “Le Sacre,” but could not fully appreciate the athleticism of watching danseurs flying through the air or the heartbreaking expressions of the prima ballerinas: observing love at first sight as Juliet spots Romeo for the first time or watching fear harden into courage in The Chosen One’s face before she makes the ultimate sacrifice.
A single assignment did tax me. My editor sent me to cover every cast change of Baryshnikov’s staging of “Swan Lake,” and while it was exhausting, each time I heard Tchaikovsky’s famous overture I felt renewed and excited. Susan Jaffe as Odette/Odile set a standard for me in that role. She seemed physically bewitched by the evil Von Rothbart, a ripple of movement that started in her left fingertips then radiated through her arms, shoulders, back and out through the fingertips of her right hand. Later, when I learned about career-threatening injuries she suffered bringing her roles to the stage, I had to admire her even more.
I had so many good memories in the theater, it became one of the reasons I returned to the Register after working as an editor at the L.A. Times and Orange Coast magazine. I was offered a position as the paper’s society columnist and I knew many of my evenings would be spent covering post-performance parties. Did I get to see more wonderful shows? You bet. I also got a window into the world of those exclusive celebrations attended by the Segerstrom’s administrators, its donors and the artists.
I witnessed priceless scenes, such as watching a Russian dancer staring at his first cake pop and shaking his head before setting it back down on the tray. Seeing Oleg Gabyshev dance brilliantly in the title role of Boris Eifman’s “Rodin” was memorable, but watching him rock out at the cast party to ACDC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” was really a treat.
I had the privilege of attending the Candlelight gala with special entertainment by Huey Lewis one year and the Beach Boys the next. One of these evenings made the biggest impression of all when hours of revelry were a bit much for a woman who collapsed and needed medical assistance. Segerstrom staff, including then-President Terry Dwyer, closed ranks around her, standing at attention facing out, creating a human privacy wall until help arrived.
The Segerstrom Center isn’t just a theater. It’s the people — administrators, volunteers and donors — who dedicate themselves to maintaining the building and caring for the artists, the patrons, and the thousands of school children who are coming to a show for the first time in their tender little lives. They’re the ones keeping the flame alive for all of us who enter it like a temple. No matter how world-weary or work-stressed we are, we go with great expectations and feel our hearts beat just a little faster when we hear the first notes of an overture.
Audience members cue up to witness in “The Car Plays” which was performed in cars on the plaza. Photo courtesy of SCFTA 
Audience members moved from car to car during “The Car Plays.” Photo courtesy of SCFTA 
Road signs were created to direct the audience through the cars in “The Car Plays.” Photo courtesy of SCFTA 
The action of the play took place between actors inside the cars. Photo courtesy of SCFTA 
Audience members were encourage to get inside the cars to be inside the action of each scene. Photo courtesy of SCFTA
Segerstrom Does Big and Small Well
by Joel Beers
The Segerstrom Center for the Arts has always done big well. That’s partly because it was built for it: Segerstrom Hall boasts a stage roughly 125 feet wide and 64 feet deep, a 110-foot-high stage house that provides the vertical space needed to float in scenery, ample wing and fly space, a 90-musician orchestra pit and nearly 3,000 seats — enough capacity to help pay for all that real estate.
The Center has put that bigness on display with spectacles ranging from Broadway tours of “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Aida” to Wagner’s massive four-part “Ring Cycle” in 2006, part of the opening celebration for the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. But perhaps the ultimate example came in 2010, when “Peter Pan” was so elaborate it required a 1,300-seat, 100-foot-high theater tent to be erected on the grassy area behind the concert hall. The production surrounded audiences with more than 15,000 square feet of high-resolution video, creating a 360-degree CGI environment complete with flying sequences.
But the Center eventually learned to do small very well, too. Its 2006 expansion added several venues and an outdoor plaza, bringing the campus to more than 300,000 square feet.
Central to that expansion was the 500-seat Samueli Theater, which became the primary site for some of the Center’s most adventurous and experimental programming: the Off Center Festival.
The Off Center Festival debuted in January 2012, an attempt by the Center to stretch beyond its traditional diet of Broadway, classical music, ballet and jazz to reach more adventurous audiences. President Terry Dwyer had begun experimenting with alternative programming aimed at younger audiences several years earlier, presenting this kind of work sporadically before deciding to consolidate it into a festival. He enlisted Mark Russell, the founder of New York’s influential Under the Radar Festival, as a creative consultant. Russell, who had spent more than two decades transforming New York’s Performance Space 122 into a nationally recognized home for experimental performance, helped give Off Center its artistic identity.
The idea was to make adventurous contemporary performance more accessible, and easier for audiences to sample, with inexpensive tickets and a mix of theater, dance, music and performance art presented over several weeks each winter. Its first lineup included “Chautauqua!,” a satirical take on the old traveling entertainment shows, and “Ten Tiny Dances,” 10 contemporary dances performed on a 4-by-4-foot platform. Subsequent festivals offered everything from “The Car Plays,” in which two audience members at a time sat in the back seat of a parked car to watch 10-minute plays, to Mariachi Flor de Toloache‘s all-female mariachi music and Philadelphia drag performer Martha Graham Cracker, who made her West Coast debut at the festival in 2018.
The festival also brought international and boundary-pushing artists to Costa Mesa, including the Belarus Free Theatre‘s politically charged work and Mehr Theatre Group, which is producing “Blind Runner,” its West Coast premiere at South Coast Repertory this fall. Its final edition, in January 2019, featured “Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True,” in which Nigerian women shared stories of their lives and experiences; Flaco Navaja’s “Evolution of a Sonero,” a blend of music, poetry and storytelling; and Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra’s “No Place to Go,” a hybrid of concert and play about work, unemployment and the struggle to make a living.
As theater critic for OC Weekly, a newspaper that prided itself on championing the bold, adventurous and experimental, I attended one or two productions during most of the festival’s years. But the two that stand out most to me came courtesy of the impossibly talented Roger Guenveur Smith.
Smith, a stage and film actor whose credits include Smiley in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” is a gifted performer and cerebral storyteller. He brought two very different productions to the Off Center Festival: a one-man show about Rodney King in 2015 and an ensemble production, “The Hendrix Project,” in 2018.
The first was a meditation on the tragic life of one of the most consequential and misunderstood figures in modern Los Angeles history. Smith approached King with sympathy but without sentimentality, exploring the man behind the grainy video images that had become an indelible part of American history. It was intimate, thoughtful and, at times, searing — the kind of performance that lingered long after the lights went down.
The second was quite different. Smith didn’t star in “The Hendrix Project”; he directed an ensemble of actors who explored the life, music and cultural legacy of Jimi Hendrix. Rather than presenting Hendrix as simply a rock icon, Smith used multiple performers and voices to examine the racial, cultural and artistic forces that shaped him. It was ambitious, cerebral and theatrical in a way that felt perfectly suited to the Off Center Festival.
I saw hundreds of Orange County theater productions during my 25 years as a critic, and many of them have since blurred at the edges of memory. That’s the nature of theater: It is ephemeral. But those two Roger Guenveur Smith productions have stayed with me as much as anything I saw during that time.
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