The Rodazes were in Ecuador working on a production of The Wizard of Oz they planned to tour around South America when the Riviera became available.

''We were ready to do it, ready to take the risk,'' Rodaz says.

And though they're still involved in movies and TV, they decided to bring Area back -- but with a twist. It would be called TeatroAreaStage (though they've since gone back to Area Stage), and its main shows would be in Spanish with English subtitles. They signed a five-year lease on the Riviera, a much larger and more sleekly outfitted space than the company's namesake predecessor.

''Ever since we closed Area, we vowed we'd try at some point to do it again,'' Rodaz says. ``After the last performance [at the old Area Stage], it hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. It was who we were for 10 years. We had our children there.''

Though the older kids are out of the house (Melissa just graduated from law school, Anthony is in the Marines, and Billy is at Florida State University), the younger two have helped make the new Area Stage a family affair.

CAMP PRODUCTION

Rachel, who will start her senior year at New World School of the Arts High School in the fall, and John-John, a student at Rockway Middle, are involved in Area's summer camp production of Fiddler on the Roof to be performed Wednesday and Thursday (a teen version of Sweeney Todd will be done July 21-24). They also work on Area's professional productions, John-John as an assistant stage manager, Rachel (and her boyfriend, Thomas Zeng) doing the English translations of Spanish-language scripts.

The Rodazes have done two productions so far, ¡¿Se quieren?! (Do They Love Each Other?!) by Pierre Palmade and Muriel Robin, and Tu ternura Molotov. On Aug. 15, they open another Ott play, Pony, as a Rodaz-directed co-production with Teatro F y F, a company run by Venezuelan actors Franklin Virgüez and Flor Nuñez.

More co-productions will be part of the company's programming mix; says Banda-Rodaz, the practical one, ``My mission is to pay the rent.''

The switch back to Area Stage happened after the Rodazes discovered a TeatroStageFest in New York via Google and decided it was a little too close to TeatroAreaStage. Still, Rodaz says, going back to the old name felt odd.

''For me, Area Stage was always that little space on Lincoln Road,'' he says. ``It was a particular time in South Florida theater. We thought we have a new mission, a new vision, so we should have a new name.''

SPANISH THEATER

He plans, before too long, to do some productions in English but remains committed to cultivating a new audience hungry for serious theater in Spanish. It is an audience being served by such companies as Teatro en Miami Studio, Prometeo, Teatro Avante, Teatro Abanico, the Hispanic Theatre Guild at Teatro 8, Dream Theatre Productions and Kimbara Cumbara. And now, by Area Stage.

''It's a thrill for me to work in Spanish. Another language evokes different emotions,'' Rodaz says. ``In some way I feel like I'm home again. Now that I'm older, I feel like I missed something.''

From the old Area to the new, the Rodazes have remained a team. Married 18 years, they're different people who can argue fiercely, but Rodaz feels they complement each other. Banda-Rodaz ''has more nerve than I do,'' he says.

And even though the scale of their efforts and their working language are different, in many ways, the Rodazes have come back to their do-it-yourself theater days. He designed the Tu ternura Molotov set, for example, and one night the couple stayed at the theater from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. painting it, getting parts of it to perfectly resemble concrete.

''For us,'' Banda-Rodaz says, ``it's like large, live canvas.''

So too is the reborn Area Stage.

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