The Newport Performing Arts Center, in the city's vibrant Nye Beach neighborhood, has become a cultural hub for the central Oregon coast. (Courtesy of Oregon Coast Council for the Arts)

They called it "poverty gulch," a tumbledown artists' haven of shacks and cheap motels, among them the Blue Bonnet, known locally as the "Blubonic" for the rats that infested the Nye Beach neighborhood in Newport.

Then some artists got together and proposed a performing arts center, a dream that city officials listened to with a sort of indulgent grin, never imagining it would go any further.

It took some time - years, actually. But on Sept. 17, 1988, they cut the ribbon on the $3 million, 23,000-square-foot Newport Performing Arts Center, forever changing the once low-rent neighborhood. This month, as the center celebrates its 30-year anniversary, it continues growing with phase seven of a capital campaign that will see the renaming of a theater for the late David Odgen Stiers, arguably the most famous of the center's advocates. Stiers, best known for his role as stuffy Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in the TV hit "M*A*S*H," was predominantly involved with the Newport Symphony Orchestra, but also directed plays at the center and hosted the holiday reading of "A Christmas Carol" for years.

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The late actor David Ogden Stiers. (Ross William Hamilton/1982)

As lucky as the center was to have Stiers' support, Stiers, who died in March at age 75 in his Newport home, no doubt felt equally fortunate to have the center.

"It was really the attraction of having this space and community that was so high quality in support of the arts that helped him make this his home," said Sharon Morgan, former executive director of the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts. "Long before Stiers, there were the local artists of great talent and energy. He made a great contribution. It was a home ... a welcoming and appropriate place for him."

The story of the center begins in the '70s, when local performers and dancers decided they needed a stage to call home. At the time, they made do with performances in an old gymnasium and the basement of a former school, now Newport City Hall.

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Newport artist Jan Kunz confers with Alice Silverman in 1988 about Kunz's portrait of Ben Silverman, slated to hang with Alice's in the new performing arts center in Newport. Today the center is home to the Alice Silverman Theatre. (Oregonian file photo)

"They came in with a petition with 2,000 people on it," said Don Davis, Newport city manager at the time. "They wanted money from urban renewal. We said, 'You'll have to raise a half a million dollars in order for us to play ball.' We didn't expect to see them again, but they fooled us. They raised $700,000."

They did so in part through the generosity of arts patrons like Alice Silverman, for whom the theater is named, and Norm and Dolores Winningstad, for whom a downtown Portland theater is named, as well as significant grants from the Meyer Memorial and MJ Murdock Charitable Trusts. But they also raised money by hosting penny drives, potlucks, dance marathons, tony luncheons and other events. It took close to four years, recalled Mark Collson, former mayor of Newport.

"We did all kinds of stupid things," he said. "I've got a picture of myself running around in top hats at some fashion event."

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The main lobby of the Newport Performing Arts Center, which hosts theatrical events, recitals, concerts, art exhibits and more. (Courtesy of Oregon Coast Council for the Arts)

Designing the center also called for a fair amount of compromise. When the performing arts center advocates told the city they wanted a 1,000-seat arena, Collson recalled, "We basically said, 'Look, you may find an event that you fill once a year, but we are not building a church for Easter Sunday.' "

Then there was the blighted neighborhood to deal with, including three weeks of baiting rats and the demolition of "ancient cabins," some with no floors.

"It was just a mess," Collson said. "A nasty, nasty place."

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Sara Gannon and Gregory Card, both Newport School of Dance students, perform at the 1987 ground-breaking ceremonies for the $1.9 million Newport Performing Arts Center. (Carmel Finley)

Even so, the 4.5-acre property cost the city about $750,000 and it likely would have been more if not for the city's stealth.

"As a city we didn't go buy it," Collson said. "We sent out what I'll call a shill. If the people who owned the property knew the city was interested we would have paid a lot more." The so-called shill bought it and then sold it to the city.

The center opened with two theater and three dance companies.

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The Newport Performing Arts Center is just a short walk from one of Newport's many beaches. (Amy Wang/Staff)

"There really weren't other performing arts groups," said Mark McConnell, another former mayor of Newport and a performer himself. "It was the beginning of the symphony and more dance companies and more theatre companies. All that blossomed from the idea that there was a place to be and place to perform. It changed the performing arts community and I think it has attracted, over the years, people to the community just because there was the opportunity either to attend or participate."

McConnell had a role in the first play staged in the facility, in the small theater known as the studio or black box theater. It is the theater to be enhanced and renamed for Stiers.

"I think they can use his name to gather support from whoever David's friends are outside of the community," McConnell said. "He played a very important role with the symphony. He was an active member in helping with the fundraising and advocating for the PAC in general and that was really good. He was a delight to be around, an interesting character."

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A dress rehearsal for the Porthole Players' recent production at the Newport Performing Arts Center, the loopy time-travel comedy-adventure "On the Verge," by Eric Overmyer. (Chris Graamans)

Today, the center is home to 11 resident companies, known as "PAC rats," who include four theater groups, two dance companies, the Newport Symphony Orchestra, two singing groups, a teachers association and an international film series. They've completed six phases over six years of a $4.3 million "Entertain the Future!" capital campaign to fund new acoustical, lighting, sound and technical systems, an expanded lobby and women's restroom, and new signage. Nye Beach has changed as well, with the old shacks replaced by condos, restaurants, art galleries and boutiques.

"The dream continues," said Catherine Rickbone, executive director of the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts. "When people come to the PAC, perhaps they have a meeting there or some other business and they're sitting in the lobby or in the Alice Silverman, and I say, 'Do you realize that you right now are in a dream?' Thirty-five years ago this was just a dream in the community, but they knew that we needed a place, a home for the performing arts. This is about place and then what you do when you are in that place. The Performing Arts Center. For the coast."

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"The PAC! A 30 Year Spectacular"

What: A retrospective including live performances, videos, vintage posters and pictures, special events, and photographs of those who were instrumental in creating the Newport Performing Arts Center.

Where: Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W. Olive St.

When: Saturday, Sept. 15. Dinner, 5:30 p.m.; show, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: Dinner and show, $100; show only, $30. Reservations: Bonnie Prater, 541-574-2655 or bprater@coastarts.org.