Sixty years after Estancia High School first opened its doors — and nearly two decades after a promise was made to build a state-of-the-art theater — students, educators, alumni and community members gathered Tuesday morning to cut the ribbon on the Costa Mesa campus’ new performing arts center.
The $42 million project was funded largely by Measure F, approved by voters in 2005 to finance construction projects through the sale of bonds. It brings Estancia in line with the other three high schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, each of which already boasts modern theater facilities.
Principal Michael Halt noted the new building joins a string of recent campus upgrades, including a fully renovated school interior, technology improvements, a 50-meter swimming pool and improved athletic facilities.
Newport-Mesa Unified Board of Education President Krista Weigand marveled at how quickly the building took shape.
“I can’t believe it was completed in under two years,” she said. “This new space is more than a building. It is where creativity, collaboration and students’ voices will be heard.”
A facility years in the making
The performance center features a 350-seat theater, a 150-seat black box theater, prop and scene shops and storage, two dressing rooms and a green room. Its opening marks the end of years of false starts, lawsuits and relocations.
Plans first emerged in the mid-2000s, only to be delayed by rising construction costs.
A proposed location threatened the school’s senior lawn, sparking student protests and eventually a lawsuit from the city of Costa Mesa, which argued the district had not properly reviewed the project’s environmental impacts. That legal battle stalled construction for years until the district agreed to move the building to its current site along Placentia Avenue.
Construction on the project began in late September 2023.
Superintendent Wesley Smith acknowledged the disruptions of construction with humor.
“Buildings like this, they don’t get built quietly. It can be noisy, there can be a little bit of dust, lo and behold, the pipes here were also built 60 years ago, and we had the water shut off twice during construction. Once we had to let students go home early, they didn’t mind that,” he said to laughter. “The city, I don’t think, liked it very well. And then they had power go out once. All of those disruptions happened so that we could have this great building.”
Smith added, “I read a quote once, ‘The theater doesn’t make actors, it makes human beings more human.’”
“I can’t think of something that our world needs more right now than increased humanity,” he said. “This amazing place is going to increase the humanity in our communities for years and years to come.”
Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting also carried deep significance for Estancia’s drama tradition. The main theater is named for Barbara Van Holt, who founded the school’s drama program a year after she joined the campus in 1966 and led it for more than three decades. The stage in that 350-seat theater bears the name of her successor, Pauline Maranian, who guided the program for 26 years before stepping back in 2022.
Van Holt’s twin daughters, Heather and Holly, attended Tuesday’s ceremony. Heather Van Holt said their mother would have been “overwhelmed in the best way” by the new facility. Barbara Van Holt died of cancer on March 16, 2022, a day after “Barbara Van Holt Day,” a designation the city of Costa Mesa established in 1985.
“She was so dedicated. It really was her life to continue the arts and to get kids interested in theater,” her daughter said. “If she were here today, I think she would be jealous that she didn’t get to use this space.”
Holly Van Holt said theater has always been a central part of their lives. The sisters have both worked at South Coast Repertory for decades — Holly Van Holt as a conservatory manager and Heather Van Holt as a digital media manager.
“I haven’t really known anything other than theater my entire life. She made a big impression on us, not enough to get on the stage, though,” Holly Van Holt said with a laugh.
Maranian, Van Holt’s successor, was visibly moved and said being recognized alongside her mentor was deeply meaningful.
“I am very honored and humbled. It’s been a long time coming. This program all started with Barbara, I wish she was here,” Maranian said.
She described theater as a transformative experience for students.
“Students learn to express themselves, learn the value of empathy, teamwork and cooperation,” she said. “I think it just changes people to be another version of themselves, and surprises them with gifts they didn’t know they had.”
The celebration also drew alumni who recalled Estancia’s early years. Kathy Gordon, a member of the school’s first graduating class in 1967, said seeing the new facility left her “overwhelmed.”
“After 60 years, it’s amazing. We had such a small theater, it was just this little cramped thing, and to see a theater dedicated to Van Holt is great. She was my English teacher,” Gordon said.
Gordon, who said she’s spent 35 years working at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, said her Estancia experience sparked a lifelong connection to theater.
“It never goes away,” she said.
The Estancia drama department has been staging its musicals either offsite or in the school’s outdated Barbara Van Holt Theater.
Sophomore Emmanuel Cuevas, who will play the bishop in the musical “Frozen,” the school’s first show in the new theater, said he is grateful to spend his next three years on the new stage.
“I feel so excited because I can’t wait to actually go on this stage and perform to everybody in this new theater,” he said.
Senior Derrick Laster, cast as Kristoff, said the upgrade will elevate Estancia’s productions.
“For the past three years, we’ve been doing musicals at the Costa Mesa theater,” he said. “Now that we finally have this big theater, our productions are going to be insanely good. I’m really looking forward to the future of Estancia drama.”
Theater director Amber Reyes, herself an Estancia alum who studied under Maranian, said she is thrilled to lead the program into its new chapter. She noted that 75 to 80 students are involved in the “Frozen” production, scheduled for Nov. 20-22.
District spokesperson Annette Franco said the new performing arts center will serve primarily Estancia students and students in the district, while also being available for community use as scheduling permits.