Hopes for a new mid-size theater, to serve arts organizations such as the Rochester Philharmonic and Garth Fagan Dance, are dead. With them has died the plan for a true performing arts center downtown.

What's left is what some politicians and arts providers wanted in the first place: a plan for a new theater for the touring shows sponsored by the Rochester Broadway Theatre League.

Maybe that's a cause for celebration. Maybe reality won out over idealism. Or maybe Rochester has once again let an important opportunity pass it by.

It's important to keep in mind how we got here. Back in 1997, supporters of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra were talking about raising money for a mid-sized theater that the RPO could use. The orchestra and its supporters have never been happy with its longtime home, the Eastman Theatre. The acoustics aren't ideal. And it's too big, making decent-sized audiences look small.

At the same time, the Rochester Broadway Theatre League was laying plans to build a big new theater for itself.

Each theater would have required substantial public and private money. The leading elected officials at the time, Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson and County Executive Jack Doyle, were concerned about having two big arts groups going after the same limited funds. So they appointed a 31-member committee to study how much additional performance space the community needed and what it could afford.

The committee included arts, business, and political representatives. They conducted a study of local performing arts groups, their venues, and their needs. They visited four cities with performing arts centers.

And they concluded that Rochester needed, and could afford, a major performing arts center. It would have four theaters: a "roadhouse," a 2500-seat theater for RBTL and other large-audience events; a "music hall of between 1200 and 1800 seats for music and dance" (now thought of as the mid-size theater); and two small theaters, a "playhouse" of fewer than 900 seats and a theater seating 300 to 500. Together, the center would serve a variety of arts groups that do not have their own home, including the Rochester Philharmonic and Garth Fagan Dance.

The objective --- "unanimous," according to one Rochesterian who served on the committee --- was to create a major arts center that would have a significant economic impact on the Rochester area. County Executive Jack Doyle put it this way, in a letter to Governor George Pataki: "Rochester seeks to position itself as the ‘Arts and Entertainment capital of Upstate New York.'"

The hope was that with RBTL and many of the local arts groups staging events in one location, the impact would be greater than if each group performed in separate locations. There would be synergy, lots of activity and excitement: enough that the center could become a regional attraction.

From the outset, the process had a major flaw. None of the committee meetings were open to the public, and every member of the committee was sworn to secrecy. The head of the committee, Tom Mooney --- then the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce but also a savvy Republican political operative --- insisted that the secrecy was essential to keep public controversy from bubbling up before the committee completed its work. But there were suspicions even then that the process was rigged to favor RBTL.

Based on what has leaked out since that committee completed its work in 1999, it seems clear that the committee was divided between arts supporters and RBTL supporters. The latter considered classical music, theater, and dance to be luxuries that didn't produce any revenue and couldn't be self-sustaining. To those committee members, the Broadway roadhouse was the only viable occupant of a performing arts center.

That committee was disbanded and another, smaller committee was appointed: two city officials, two county officials, and a business representative. They eventually recommended that the "arts center" consist of the Eastman Theatre and a separate, new complex containing a small theater and a large one, for RBTL, probably at Midtown Plaza.

That then morphed into what we now know as Renaissance Square: a transit center, which the transit company badly wanted; a new downtown complex for Monroe Community College; and a performing arts center with three theaters: large, medium, and small. The transit center was controversial, and adding the theaters to the complex dampened the criticism. There was something for everyone.

An internationally respected architect, Moshe Safdie, was hired to design Ren Square, and the performing arts center seemed to be headed toward reality.

But that was then. A few months ago, the public learned that the mid-size theater was out. There wasn't enough room at Ren Square. The mid-size theater would be built elsewhere.

Now, that theater is out, period. It won't be built. The arts groups, we're told, couldn't agree on what it should be. And there was no money anyway. And the city and county administration "have other priorities."

Sarah Lentini, the president of the Arts and Cultural Council, which convened arts representatives over the past year or so to discuss their needs, gave this explanation to this newspaper last week: "Things have changed." Time has passed, she said, and some of the groups that had previously needed a theater have found other solutions.

A 2800-seat theater, primarily for RBTL, and a 250-seat theater for Downstairs Cabaret (and, presumably, others) are still in the Ren Square plans, says Mark Ballerstein, the county's point person on Ren Square.

The Ren Square complex --- theaters, college, transit center, and some commercial space --- is expected to cost $230 million. Of that, the county and the transit authority have been promised $193 in federal and state funds, says Ballerstein. The rest, he says, will come from public and private funding.

Last week, right on the heels of the mid-size theater's death notice, came the announcement that Nazareth College is renovating its Arts Center, which will become the home of Rochester City Ballet.

On the stage with Nazareth President Daan Braveman were three Democratic state Assembly members, including Joe Morelle, who announced that the Assembly will give $2 million to the Nazareth Arts Center renovation. That money is part of $18 million that previously had been intended for Ren Square.

That may have created the impression that the Nazareth center will serve as the midsize theater, but that's not at all the case. For one thing, there aren't many open dates on the center's calendar, given the school's own heavy use, Garth Fagan Dance's annual five-day stint, and performances by Rochester City Ballet and Rochester Children's Theater. Last year, there were only 45 days when it wasn't in use, and most of those were in the summer. Nazareth's new plan for a summer dance festival will take up some of those days. There aren't many spots open for other groups.

The Arts Center renovations were never part of the discussions involving Ren Square and downtown theater space, Braveman said in an interview late last week. "My view has always been to complement what was going on in the area," he said. "We are not replacing anything that has been planned for downtown."

And the rest of the Assembly's $18 million will apparently be shared among other venues. Morelle wouldn't be more specific. "We are looking at ways to address some of the things the mid-size theater sought to address," he said.

Asked if the new Nazareth Arts Center is the mid-size theater, Morelle said: "I'm not sure I would call it a replacement for those plans. We are looking at a number of ways to host more events in the city. But a mid-size theater is not in the plans in the near future."

Left to fend for themselves, rather than move into new space, are groups like Garth Fagan, the RPO, and Mercury Opera.

Fagan will likely continue to perform at Nazareth. In an interview late last week, Fagan said he was disappointed, both that there would be no theater that could serve as home for his world-famous troupe and that there would be no midsize theater downtown.

He's in talks with Nazareth, he said. "As you know, we've performed at Nazareth for years," he said, and if the Arts Center there becomes state-of-the-art for dance, "that would be wonderful."

"Life must go on," he said, "and we happily can perform at theaters across the world."

The RPO is apparently negotiating with the University of Rochester and its Eastman School of Music for continued use of the Eastman Theatre, which the University owns. Like Nazareth, the Eastman School has its own needs for the theater, so coordinating scheduling between Eastman and the RPO is an issue.

So is money. The Eastman School is planning a second stage of renovations, which will shrink the number of seats. The RPO could be expected to share in the cost of the renovation, but like all symphony orchestras, balancing the budget is difficult, and assuming part of the expense of renovating the theater could be a challenge. It's possible that some of that $18 million of Assembly money could help fund that renovation, however.

The RPO's CEO, Richard Nowlin, didn't respond to requests for an interview.

And what about RBTL? Substantial additional investment will be needed to build the two theaters still included in the Ren Square plan. Some of the Assembly's $18 million in state funds could go to those theaters. So could $18 million promised for Ren Square by the State Senate.

And who will own and operate the theater portion of Ren Square? The plan has been for a separate, non-profit organization to be in charge. In an interview early this week, John Parkhurst, RBTL's senior vice president, said no decision has been made about whether RBTL would be that organization. But he did point to examples in other parts of the country where theaters are owned and operated by the shows' presenters.