"A look at Davidson's artistic resume is a true walk through the hallowed history of LA theater, with his involvement in an astonishing range of important drama. When August Wilson’s dramas were first being performed, Davidson provided a space for each of his dramas, providing one of the first homes for the author’s dramatic cycle." -- BY PAUL BIRCHALL
"Well, now, after several weeks during which members rearranged their schedules to attend, the union abruptly postponed the meeting. According to a letter, posted on the AEA website, from Executive Director Mary McColl, the cancellation is due to members in different cities not receiving in time the e-mails about the meeting (the national meeting was to be webcast from locations around the country)." --BY PAUL BIRCHALL
Talk about Community: Essentially all of Los Angeles’ small theater scene turned out Monday for the LA STAGE Alliance-hosted town hall at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, moderated by that organization’s Executive Director Steven Leigh Morris (also the Publisher of Stage Raw). In a nutshell, this was the heart and soul of LA theater, right here. Almost every intimate theater in the County was represented – and at the highest levels, too. --BY PAUL BIRCHALL
At the Town Hall coming up, I think I am most interested to hear how Pro99 will respond to the new Equity Website, in particular its sweeping claims that the minimum wage demand will not affect the bottom line of any of the local theater companies, or that the notion of being “allowed” to work three weeks at some under-50-seat stage is somehow equivalent to the fecund cultural scene that is at risk here. --BY PAUL BIRCHALL
"Like Rome to Carthage, Equity’s new Agreement will sow the ground with salt as to render it infertile ever after. Without those talents, the aesthetic glory that is our local theater scene will wither as if in time-lapse photography virtually overnight. This conflict was conceived, generated, and has been unremittingly conducted in bad faith, and no amount of persuasion, goodwill or parsing of the opposition’s deliberate and dishonest arguments or contorting contentions is going to alter the outcome." -- BY MYRON MEISEL
"The clock is ticking! Beginning December 14th, 2016, despite the Los Angeles community’s urging and a lawsuit served on Actors’ Equity Association by Equity members and producers, Equity will impose new rules and regulations which will change theatre in Los Angeles forever. This change will take away most of the opportunities for Equity actors to work in intimate theatre in Los Angeles and destroy Los Angeles Intimate theatre as we know it." -- PRO99 and the "Ed Asner, et al v. AEA" PLAINTIFFS
"It is interesting — indeed, startling — that the union and Pro99 could not come to some agreement over months of negotiation and discreet discussion, particularly given that the plaintiffs clearly went the extra mile in not serving the suit. It’s fascinated to contemplate what must have been going on behind doors during the talks — and whether it was the union’s intransigence or some other issue that prevented a calm and rational settlement." -- BY PAUL BIRCHALL
Aspects of Mitchell’s article have also now gone national, with theater advocacy pundit Howard Sherman posting a piquant editorial late afternoon Friday on the Arts Integrity website. “Colin Mitchell (seems), in essence, to “blame the victims” of Profiles for not speaking up sooner,” notes Sherman. “Given this manner of engaging with a serious problem at one theatre that, unfortunately, is likely happening at other theatres and in the arts at large, Arts Integrity believes Bitter Lemons has gone from bitter to vile, and will no longer give further consideration to writing that appears on the site again.” --BY PAUL BIRCHALL
'Movement and text is in equal parts. I mean we’re talking and moving pretty much the whole time. In terms of why people are excited, I mean, if we just say, “Okay. Why are people excited about making work and seeing work where there isn’t seating and a stage?” If we just take it as that. I think the answers are kind of exciting. I guess what I think first of all is that this is the screen age, and we are, I think, losing a bit of what it is to be human people with skin and muscles and sweat and tears and blood — the experience of having touch and proximity, really like an intimate experience among strangers with just human interchange: eye contact, touch, whispering, breath, and to be so close to a lot of heightened emotion and heightened physicality, really close. I feel like maybe in the digital age, there is a craving for that. I hope.' -- By Bill Raden
"Verini writes, 'After 21 years of living in this beautiful part of the country, 10 of them engaged in theater reviewing, I have decided that the curtain on the next act of my life — and I hope it won’t be the last act — should go up on the East Coast, where my family and full-time employers and, if I am to be fully honest, heart all reside.'” -- by PAUL BIRCHALL