This year's five-week edition of the PAS will run Oct. 5­27 at the Montgomery Theater in San Jose, with a different local arts group spotlighted each night. The series' tagline is "Local Access to Global Culture."

A service of the San Jose Arts Incubator program, the PAS was developed in 1993 by the city of San Jose and Montoya Productions to help nonprofit ethnic arts groups that had a difficult time renting the highly coveted, 523-seat Montgomery Theater.

"The funding wasn't there to help support those organizations, so we had to design a program to help organizations have access to this venue," recalls Joe B. Rodriguez, who has managed the PAS since its inception and serves as arts program officer for the city of San Jose. "The larger organizations - Opera San José, San José Repertory Theatre and Children's Musical Theater - were renting this facility for two weeks or more, so that meant that groups that just wanted a single night would continually be bumped."

The PAS selects groups that meet their qualifications for artistic quality and then coaches the organizations on how to survive in a competitive arts market and how to boost their publicity and marketing.

"Our goal is to teach them to see their art as a business. That's the only way they're going to stay in business," says PAS producer Mark Montoya of Montoya Productions. "A lot of groups know what to do, but when it comes to event time, they get 100 people in the house and end up losing money and the groups go away. We don't want that to happen."

Alice Fenton, managing director of the nonprofit San Jose Dance Theatre, is grateful for the training that her organization has received from the PAS.

"I've had an opportunity to meet with experts in publicity and marketing. Our artistic coordinator has met with lighting and sound experts. The PAS is providing us with experts who help us put together the best performance possible," Fenton says.

Though the San Jose Dance Theatre has been around for 37 years - its signature event is a long-running, annual production of The Nutcracker - this year will mark the company's first year with the PAS.

On Oct. 13, the dance theater's contribution to the PAS will be Meritáge, in which the company will dance alongside performers from such local schools and companies as Dance Theatre International, Marie Stinnett Dance, Teen Dance Company and University Dance Theatre­San José State University.

"Having the opportunity to bring together talented dancers from different studios and dance academies in the area for the first time is the most exciting part of being in this series," Fenton says.

Other arts groups participating in this year's edition of the PAS will include the Flamenco Society of San Jose, the Filipino dance troupe Kaisahan, Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene and the Chinese performing arts organization Dimension Performing Arts, one of the newer PAS participants.

Founded in 1995, Dimension was selected by the PAS to join the series last year. A Peking opera was presented for its series debut. At this year's PAS, Dimension will present Theatre in a Palm, which will feature the puppetry of Taiwan's HsiaoHsiYuan Handpuppet Theater on Oct. 19.

"We're introducing the puppets because we would like to entertain a younger generation. These puppets do acrobatics. They sing, smoke, fly, dance and fight," says Dimension chairperson and co-founder Maria Chen.

According to Chen, the PAS has allowed her organization to reach a mainstream audience.

"We learned a lot from the PAS professionals. We benefit a lot by participating in this program because in the past our publicity has pretty much stayed within the Chinese community," Chen says.

According to Rodriguez, other cities have followed in San Jose's footsteps by organizing arts programs modeled after the PAS.

"Houston, Texas, has an emerging multicultural community, and they're looking to us as a model," Rodriguez says.

According to Montoya, the PAS has held up quite well during the current economic downturn, which has caused arts sponsors to cut back on their funding.

"After Sept. 11, this program is important, now more than ever. So far, the ticket sales are doing very well - stronger than last year. I think it has a lot to do with the groups' ability to market themselves, which was attained through participation in the PAS," Montoya says.

Rodriguez attributes the PAS' current survival to a $60,000 grant provided by the California Arts Council last year.

"It has allowed us secure funds for this year," Rodriguez says.

However, Rodriguez adds that next year's PAS showcase may not be as lucky because of this year's arts funding cutbacks.

Last month the David and Lucile Packard Foundation announced that it will severely reduce its grants to nonprofit organizations and lay off half its staff. Rodriguez fears that recent developments like the Packard Foundation's announcement and a city plan to slash arts funds by almost 50 percent do not bode well for the future of the PAS.

To ensure its survival, Rodriguez says that the PAS will have to seek other sources of funding besides the arts council to replace that 50 percent loss.

"All the small guys are getting hurt," says Rodriguez, who adds that the fate of next year's PAS showcase won't be finalized until late November. "It's a difficult time for the arts."

The 10th annual Performing Arts Series will run Oct. 5­27 at the Montgomery Theater, Market and San Carlos streets, San Jose. For more information and a complete schedule, visit www.passinfo.com.