{"id":117587,"date":"2026-01-02T17:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T17:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/117587\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T17:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T17:32:18","slug":"immersive-theater-proposal-for-childrens-museum-gaining-ground-in-la-habra-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/117587\/","title":{"rendered":"Immersive theater proposal for children\u2019s museum gaining ground in La Habra \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

City Hall is reviewing a proposal to build an immersive theater near the Children\u2019s Museum at La Habra.<\/p>\n

The idea is to replicate \u2014 on a smaller scale \u2014 the Chateau des Carrieres, a massive multimedia exhibit set inside a former limestone quarry in Southern France.<\/p>\n

La Habra resident Kent Roberts and his wife brought the idea home with them several years ago after a visit to the original in 2016<\/a> and have since been championing the project that is getting closer to a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe visuals will be larger than life,\u201d said Roberts, a member of the museum\u2019s nonprofit fundraising arm, Friends of the La Habra Children\u2019s Museum. \u201cOne of our first exhibits will probably be from a company that makes underwater films \u2014 so when you walk into it, you\u2019ll be surrounded by the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be like going into the Long Beach aquarium, but being surrounded by four walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Introducing local children to the wonders of the wider world will expand their horizons, he recently told councilmembers, who this fall approved\u00a0the final site choice<\/a> for the theater behind the Depot Theater building on the south side of the children\u2019s museum. Some of the old train cars used by the museum might need to be removed or relocated, officials said.<\/p>\n

Councilmembers also agreed to pay half of the planning and design costs, up to $50,000, to be allocated from the City Facility Improvement reserves.<\/p>\n

The 3,000-square-foot building expansion would house exhibits displaying immersive projections on the floors and the roughly 18-foot walls, along with music or audio.<\/p>\n

Established in 1977, La Habra\u2019s was considered the first of its kind in Southern California as a dedicated children\u2019s museum. After multiple expansions throughout the years, the museum now occupies 12,500 square feet and offers exhibits focused on art, science, culture, nature and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe children\u2019s museum has about 90-some-odd thousand people a year go through it, mostly a parent and a child, sometimes in a stroller, up to third or fourth grade. This (immersive theater) will be a new exhibit they can walk directly into,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Councilmembers also agreed to allocate up to $400,000 toward construction, on the condition that private funding for the project is fully secured before city funds are used. Final building and design plans will need to be reviewed by city officials before the project could move forward.<\/p>\n

So far, the museum\u2019s nonprofit has raised about $1.2 million for the theater, but a concrete estimate for total construction costs likely won\u2019t be available until February. Early estimates have fundraising about $4 million short.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t seem to discourage Roberts, who said, \u201cIf I\u2019m short, then I\u2019ve got to raise more money. Story of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the proposed theater will also be available to rent in the evenings year-round, creating an atmosphere \u201cthat you just can\u2019t find someplace else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re having a birthday party or an anniversary party, we\u2019ll have visuals on the wall to match the occasion,\u201d he said, \u201calong with music that goes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Hall is reviewing a proposal to build an immersive theater near the Children\u2019s Museum at La Habra.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,179,5910,23,6607,611],"class_list":{"0":"post-117587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-community","13":"tag-la-habra","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-museum","16":"tag-orange-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}