Disney/10″/dt1st/mark2nd

By ELIZABETH HAYES

Staff Reporter

The El Capitan Theatre will reopen Nov. 20 with the Walt Disney Co. film “A Bug’s Life,” after nine months of renovations to the backstage area.

Even sooner, a Disney Store will open in the retail space adjacent to the theater that once housed a furniture store and more recently a candy shop.

The completely refurbished theater has a larger stage to accommodate the live shows that take place before screenings of Disney films, said Ed Collins, director of operations for Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, a Disney affiliate that leases the theater from CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Co.

While Disney renovates the ground-floor theater’s stage, CUNA has been engaged in a $9.8 million facelift to the rest of the office building, partially funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the L.A. Community Redevelopment Agency. The renovations include seismic upgrades, new systems and repairs to the Art Deco detailing.

Disney gave the theater a $6 million facelift in 1991, fixing up the auditorium and lobbies, but waited to tackle the backstage areas until the Hollywood Boulevard theater had established itself. Today, the El Capitan is said to be the nation’s highest-grossing single-screen theater.

Disney is now putting the finishing touches on renovations to the backstage area, which encompasses dressing rooms, rigging, sound and light systems and production offices.

Meanwhile, the former Masonic Temple next door, which Disney bought last summer, has been re-christened the El Capitan Entertainment Center and will be used for a “Bug House” an interactive attraction opening in conjunction with the movie.

And in January, Disney will begin installing a Wurlitzer pipe organ in the El Capitan that was originally in the Fox Theatre in San Francisco. But with 3,000 pipes to install, the organ won’t be ready to belt out intermission music and silent-movie accompaniment until June.