Auditoriums

Glendale school board members have approved plans for a $320,843 renovation of the Crescenta Valley High School auditorium, where equipment and furnishings date back to 1959, when the building was built. The board unanimously voted Tuesday night for a two-phase upgrade inside the 1,532-seat auditorium after reviewing maintenance reports earlier this month from Gregory A. Williams, auditorium facilities supervisor.

The Glendale City Council took the first step toward banning a decades-old gun show at the Civic Auditorium, directing the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would permanently bar the sale of guns on city-owned property. Despite their desire for the ban, however, the majority of City Council members also agreed to allow a gun show already on the calendar for March, saying that they didn't want to create an immediate financial problem for the event's organizer. The decision angered more than 100 gun advocates who packed City Hall on Tuesday night to oppose any measure that would hinder the gun show, which has historically paid to use the Civic Auditorium across from Glendale Community College as its venue.

Residents will bid farewell this weekend to a piece of city history, the Westminster Auditorium, before it is razed to make way for a health-care center. The auditorium, built in the 1940s, has served as a community center and gathering place for more than five decades. It was originally part of the 17th Street School, most of which has been demolished.

Glendale is considering a measure that would ban guns shows from its civic auditorium. The City Council will discuss the issue Tuesday night. The council has several options, including canceling rental contracts with the Glendale Gun Show for coming events, banning all gun sales on city property outright, or allowing the show to operate through the rest of the year and then ban it, according to a city report. The next gun show at Glendale Civic Auditorium is scheduled for March.

The mayor of Compton presented a $500,000 check to Compton Unified School District officials Thursday, money that will be used to convert a high school auditorium into a city cultural center. "Our search to find the perfect performance hall led us to Compton High School's auditorium," Mayor Omar Bradley said during a news conference at the auditorium.

A nonprofit arts group in the Antelope Valley has offered to purchase or lease a historic downtown auditorium from the city of Lancaster with plans to restore the building for gallery space and offices for community groups. Members of the Antelope Valley Allied Arts Assn., a group that sponsors an annual arts festival and awards scholarships in the area, wants to take control of the two-story Memorial Hall at the southwest corner of Lancaster Boulevard and Cedar Avenue.

A planned renovation and expansion of the Glendale Civic Auditorium that would have turned the aging building into a modern, mini-convention center has been scrapped in favor a scaled-down face-lift. The City Council voted Tuesday to search for an architect for the project, now called a rehabilitation, rather than a renovation.

For all of Doris Robles' 70 years, James A. Garfield High School has stood as the center of her life: the place where she graduated 52 years ago, where her mother was PTA president, where eight children and three grandchildren were educated and where she still spends much of her time as a volunteer.

If Pierre Boulez has his way--and he often does--the concert hall of the future will be a place to spend a weekend day. "Right now, an orchestra is like a restaurant," said Boulez, perhaps the 20th century's most formidable and influential composer-conductor-administrator. "It opens at 8, closes at 10, and what happens the rest of the time is of no interest to the public. But people should be able to come and spend the whole day, the way they do in a museum."

No opening-night jitters or triumphant curtain calls--not for any of the aspiring singers, actors and musicians of 1997, whose high school careers will end without their ever performing in the school's 900-seat auditorium. Condemned after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the 42-year-old Henry Mayo Newhall Auditorium at Hart High School has remained closed because of a legal dispute between the local school district and its insurance company.

More pop music will be coming to the Shrine Auditorium. Goldenvoice, the concert promotion firm behind the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, will immediately assume control of all booking and operational aspects of the venue south of downtown L.A. and its adjacent Expo Hall, with plans underway for a multimillion-dollar renovation to take place throughout 2013. The Shrine Auditorium will continue to be owned by Al Malaikah Auditorium Co., an offshoot of the national fraternal organization most commonly known as the Shriners.

Boxing keeps turning up the volume on the hype. Apparently, if you sell it loudly, fewer will notice if it is lousy. Oscar De La Hoya, never lousy in the ring, was presenting a card of boxers at a media gathering the other day for a Saturday night show at Staples Center. It is a card headlined by little guys, bantamweights (118 pounds) and super bantamweights (122). "These are tremendous, tremendous fighters," said De La Hoya, champion of the double gushy adjective. They may turn out to be. But there will be those there Saturday night to watch Abner Mares versus Anselmo Moreno in the main event and Leo Santa Cruz versus Victor Zaleta in the semi-main who will remember when there was no question, when the little guys were kings in Los Angeles boxing.

Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly are taking their status as BFFs - best frenemies forever - to the next level early next month when they square off in a 90-minute, pay per-view event in the nation's capital. Dubbed "The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium," the face-to-face meeting Oct. 6 will be moderated by CNN anchor E.D. Hill and will be modeled after a mock presidential debate: 60 minutes of conversation between the host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and Fox's top-rated "The O'Reilly Factor," then 30 minutes of audience questions.

Outside the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Friday, just before the Swedish producer/DJ Aviciiperformed the first of his three concerts this weekend, a guy passed out on the lawn.  The fellow looked to be in his mid-20s, buffed with protein-supplement shakes and so annihilated that he flitted around the front yard like a little fratty hummingbird searching for sugar water (or tequila). Three police officers chased him before he finally collapsed in a leaden pile right in front of several thousand people waiting in the ticketing line.  This obviously had nothing to do with Avicii or the venue (which wasn't even serving alcohol - go figure)

BET Awards executive producer Stephen Hill sat perched on a makeshift control board in the middle of the Shrine Auditorium on Thursday as production technicians readied the historic venue for the network's 12th annual awards show. The three-hour-plus production will air live on Sunday and feature performances by D'Angelo, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj and Usher, as well as a tribute to the late Whitney Houston led by her mother, Cissy Houston. One of many crucial questions: Hill needed to know exactly where a mirror ball would be hung for a planned Donna Summer tribute.

For a television critic, the Emmys are always a mixed bag. It's always great when shows and performances we have supported from the beginning are recognized, but sometimes — if you can believe it — the shows and people we believe deserve to win don't. But there is one consistent bright spot in the process — when people whose work has been consistently terrific over the years are recognized for the first time. This year saw quite a few accomplished performers get their first Emmy nomination.

Paul Chavez walked inside the San Fernando High School auditorium and couldn't help but remember the days he stood side by side with his father, legendary farm worker advocate Cesar Chavez. He saw the Mexican flags and banners with his dad's words "Si, Se Puede" (Yes, it can be done) and "Viva La Huelga" (Hurray for the strike). "It's been seven years since he died," Paul Chavez said. "But it still feels like it was yesterday."

Corporate sponsors could soon be adding their names to L.A. school athletic fields, auditoriums and other campus properties. The Los Angeles Unified School District board moved forward Tuesday with plans to seek corporate sponsors as a means of generating revenue. Under the approved rules, the superintendent could sign agreements worth up to $500,000, with school board approval required for larger amounts. Sponsors would not be able to sell or market specific products to children; instead, they would have "branding" opportunities.

Garfield High physical education teacher Rosa Velasquez and students from her drill and cheer teams were two weeks from staging a production of "Grease" in the school's historic auditorium when a three-alarm arson blaze gutted the East Los Angeles landmark. That was four years ago. Since then, her students have performed in the gymnasium, in classrooms and even on muddy fields as funding issues, insurance disputes and other hurdles have delayed reconstruction. On Monday, two days after classes ended, work was finally scheduled to get underway on a $50-million rebuilding project that promises a new, state-of-the-art facility as well as a replacement of the main administration building, which was connected to the auditorium and also sustained fire damage.