Debbie Reynolds' stage commitment in North Hollywood wasn't just another job. And she's certainly not doing it for the money.

Actually, the former "Singin' in the Rain" star is fulfilling a promise she made to herself, albeit in notebook form, several years ago.

"Looking through my old books as far back as five years ago, I had notes that said, 'Check at the El Portal,' 'Ask what's with the El Portal,' every year for five years,' says Reynolds. "This year, I didn't have work early in February. I admire the people who saved the El Portal. I admire their far-thinking attitudes for the arts. They're doing a great job, so I think it behooves those of us in the industry to take a couple of weeks and do a show.'

Her two-week engagement in A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters,' as part of the El Portal's new San Fernando Valley Playhouse season, is also in several ways a homecoming. The former Miss Burbank - in 1948 - owns a dance studio on Lankershim Boulevard. As a child, she rode her bicycle to the El Portal back when it was a 10-cents-a-show movie house.

Think she still knows the local haunts? "I know my way around better than cabdrivers do,' replies Reynolds. "I know all the side streets. I never get on the freeway.'

"I've seen the view to Malibu leave and civilization come rushing in,' she continues. "I still prefer the old days, because they were so uncrowded and there was no smog. There was just Ventura Boulevard. That was it. There were no businesses on Ventura past Vineland. But the El Portal was here then, and it's here now. It's terrific that they saved it. That's why I'm here, really.'

The two-character play "Love Letters,' in which a man and woman read a lifelong correspondence, is often performed by celebrities as a benefit piece. For the North Hollywood production, Reynolds helped to recruit an old friend: John Saxon, with whom she starred in the 1958 Blake Edwards film "This Happy Feeling".

"He's younger than I am by about four years,' says Reynolds, 71, "So I thought he was too young to be my other romance in that movie. He was so good, even though I felt funny because he was younger.'

Petite, elegant and as candid as ever, Reynolds rarely finds herself far from a live audience. A regular performer in Las Vegas, Laughlin and Atlantic City, she'll close "Love Letters' on Feb. 15 and open her cabaret act at the Orleans in Las Vegas on the 18th. She'd also like to bring the cabaret act to the San Fernando Valley Playhouse for a couple of weekends later in the year.

Reynolds is also scheduled to shoot a pair of movies, as well as continue her appearances on "Will & Grace" (as Grace's mother) and in the TV show "Halloweentown.' She also has an autobiography to update ("I'm going to name names,' she promises) and a celebrated collection of movie memorabilia to try to find a new home for since her Las Vegas museum folded in 1997.

"We're now making a deal with Dollywood, and it looks like it's going to have to go down there,' says Reynolds referring to Dolly Parton's Tennessee-based theme park. "I can't seem to make it happen here in Hollywood, as hard as I've tried, and I'm finally going to have to give up and go where the people are. And the people are there.'