Oakland School for the Arts

When the Fox opens in fall of 2008, patrons will be able to dine in its on-site restaurant, see a show and then hang out afterward in an adjacent nightspot. During the day, as many as 500 arts students will roam the halls.

“It is the best gift any school could ever be given,” said Oakland School for the Arts Director Saul Drevitch, who is currently running the 340-student school out of portables on a closed street behind the Fox. “There is no better way to physically, as well as psychologically, center ourselves that we do arts in education than to do that in a space that screams excellence in arts.”

The school, opened in 2002 by Brown as a public charter school, now has 340 students in sixth through twelfth grades who study vocal or instrumental music, theater, dance or visual arts. The high school is Oakland’s highest scoring academically. Two-thirds of the students are Oakland residents, and about the same percentage is African American

OSA currently is trying to raise $3.5 million for improvements to the new space, such as outfitting its studio

While the school plans to grow to 500 students, Drevitch said he expects to share the space to make it “as much an arts center as an arts school.” Michael Morgan is expected to move his East Bay Youth Symphony there, and Youth Movement Records  in West Oakland also likely will move in and run an after-school program. Drevitch also hopes a citywide youth jazz band, gospel choir and theater program will operate out of the Fox.

“At the end of my tenure, if all who have benefited are our 500 students, I will have failed,” Drevitch said. “I want that space to be open 24-7. There’s too much need and too few facilities.”

Another Planet Entertainment

The theater itself will be run by Another Planet Entertainment, the Berkeley-based enterprise headed by former Bill Graham Presents executive Gregg Perloff. The firm also operates the Greek Theater in Berkeley, the Independent in San Francisco and the amphitheater at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, in addition to booking shows throughout the Bay Area.

“I’ve been watching the Fox sit idle for 30 years. I think it’s a crime,” Perloff said. “It’s a theater that should be brought alive.”

The theater, with a capacity of more than 3,000, will have a terraced floor that will allow various seating arrangements, from an open dance floor to cabaret tables to rows of chairs, depending on the show. The balcony alone seats 1,000.

Perloff envisions a younger crowd than the neighboring Paramount draws for its concerts, a variety of genres of music that appeal to Oakland’s diverse population, and ticket sales in the $25 to $39 range. “Ninety percent of the time we’re looking for a more active audience that wants to dance, stand up, move around,” he said. The closest competition will likely be San Francisco’s Warfield, he said.

“Since we started this project, I can’t tell you how many people have mentioned to me that they live in the East Bay and go into San Francisco for entertainment and can’t wait for the Fox Theater to open so they don’t have to cross the bridge,” Perloff said. But with the19th Street BART station a few steps away, Perloff expects plenty of San Franciscans to take the short train ride to get “the benefits of all the modern amenities with the beauty of this historic building.”