People will hopefully unite under a roof devoted to being not only a playhouse, but, as Luna's directors project, a community center that offers writing workshops, poetry readings and musical performances.
And with such goings on, the playhouse could attract an equally diverse creative community from surrounding areas in the foothills, Burbank and Los Angeles. The theater will hopefully bolster the arts community, still reeling from the pending departure of A Noise Within, which is moving to Pasadena in two and half years. Glendale could use some new blood in its performing arts community, and Luna could be just the infusion.
But this is an effort that won't thrive without support.
Luna will become a community center only if the community makes it so. This is a venture that should not become a hub that caters to only one race or ethnicity. Luckily, it's founders seem committed to creating a place open to all — that mirrors the people of an increasingly diverse area.
If anyone doubts that commitment, consider the struggle just to open the place.
It was in May when Aramazd Stepanian and his group's hopes of opening the small performing arts theater were almost literally on the verge of being flushed down the toilet.
He'd already paid six months advance rent for the small, San Fernando Road storefront space, but in converting the space to a theater, city officials required him to install five toilets rather than one — a cost the city estimated at $80,000 plus a nearly $3,000 permit fee.
Four new toilets and a waived permit fee later, the dream is becoming a reality.
And it's a dream that has the potential to make this community and its neighbors better.
