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Russian Trolls Taking Over LA Weekly? Really?

By Paul Birchall

In news that has already convulsed the precarious Los Angeles cultural journalism scene, a massive putsch has taken place at the LA Weekly, where, as of Wednesday, 9 of 13 staff editors and all but one staff writer have been summarily laid off, shortly after putting the paper to bed on Tuesday night. News of the firings started leaking Wednesday morning, via various Weekly journalists’ Facebook and Twitter feeds, with coverage in the LA Times and LAIst starting shortly thereafter.  

The LA Times article quotes former LA Weekly editor Mara Shalhoup as saying, in a tweetstream, “To have such deep, devastating cuts – it’s beyond anything we could ever have fathomed.” In the Hollywood Reporter piece discussing the same story, Shalhoup notes, “We were expecting there to be some pain with the sale of LA Weekly. But we weren’t expecting The Red Wedding.” 

A month ago, the story broke that the Weekly’s previous owners, Village Media, had sold the paper to a mysterious conglomerate called Semanal Media, which (as, The L.A. Times reported), quoting the mergers and acquisition firm that handled the deal, “was formed solely for the purpose of the transaction.” The spokesperson, at the time, (according to another report in The Wrap) declined to say at the time where the company is based, or who owns it.” 

The only name initially mentioned in connection with the new regime was Brian Calle, whom The Wrap describes as “a conservative-leaning, former opinion editor for the Orange County Register.” When he was named a month ago, Calle promised not to change the Weekly’s editorial bent. 

By Wednesday, the only Semanal investor mentioned publicly so far was David Welch, a Los Angeles attorney best known for representing members of the cannabis industry. However, on Thursday, the Times announced that UC Berkeley Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky had agreed to be an investor as well, with Chemerinsky citing his respect for Calle’s work as the reason. 

Meanwhile, yesterday, LA journalist-blogger Otto Von Biz Markie (@Passionweiss) reported today “The (last?) @LAWeekly print edition came out this A.M. The site wasn’t updated at all today. No one is on socials. These buyers have no interest even of turning it into a shell of itself. This is a plot to kill the 2^nd biggest publication in America’s 2^nd biggest city.”

Yesterday, @Passionweiss referred to internal sources saying that the new management was in talks with former, disgraced OC Register writers with alt-right leanings. He references a story penned by Calle that starts: “Russian President Vladimir Putin really had no choice except to act on annexing Crimea. The reasons go back many years and involve politics, the economy and the fact that many Crimeans identify more with Russia than Ukraine.”

And, as of Thursday night, the Society for Professional Journalists released a statement, condemning the secrecy. “It’s an absolute outrage that the public doesn’t know who owns LA Weekly. No media outlet should hide who its owners are, especially one of such prominence in America’s second largest city.”

Calle responded this morning with an editorial in the paper, in which he says: “The L.A. Weekly group is made up of several investors including Brian Calle, formerly of the Southern California News Group; David Welch, an L.A.-based attorney; Kevin Xu, a philanthropist and investor; Steve Mehr, an attorney and investor; Paul Makarechian, a boutique hotel developer; Mike Mugel, a real estate redeveloper; and Andy Bequer, a Southern California–based investor. And Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, also plans to invest.”

Calle refers to the former glory days of the LA Weekly, when everybody picked it up, which was not the case more recently.

“I believe in the potential of L.A. Weekly to bring the powerful Los Angeles perspective to a new, broader audience. I am committed to keeping the Weekly alive as we transform from a newspaper with a website into a truly digital media outlet — which also happens to have a very cool print component.”

Given that this site, Stage Raw, was formed mainly from critics let go from the Weekly a few years back during the putsch-before-this-putsch, we are all keenly following this story, with particular attention to how it is going to impact coverage of the theater community. 

My first impression when this story broke was dismay – and I noticed that the Facebook threads of many colleagues who have written for Weekly are full of concern for the online archives, which basically include the history of the city’s culture over the last 10 years. What will happen if the new owners decide to shut down the records of 10,000 theater reviews, just as capriciously as they shut down the staff?

But, on the other hand, after some consideration, I am unsure precisely whether this will all turn out to be quite as terrible as that. I hope not. I am quite skeptical, though.  

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Playwrights’ Arena, The Broadwater and a Real Estate Dance, The Scenies, Sir Peter Hall Remembered

By Paul Birchall

PLAYWRIGHTS ARENA GOES TO CHURCH

Future home of Playwrights’ Arena

Excellent news from Jon Lawrence Rivera, artistic director of the now venerable Playwrights’ Arena: The company is forging a long-term agreement with New Designs Charter School to move into a former church building on Adams and turn it into a new home for the theater company. 

Rivera made the announcement on his Facebook page earlier this week, noting that the deal came about after one of Playwright’s Arena’s board members, who also served as board chair of the New Designs School and was a supporter of the company’s Act for Students program, offered the company the use of space.  Noted Rivera on his page, “So, today, I walked into the church for the first time and I had to control myself as my heart started to swell and water is about to pour out of my eyes.” 

“With a handshake for now (legal will now take over to draw up contracts), my company, the one I started with Steve Tyler 25 years ago in an old carpet factory on Pico Blvd, that has been performing all over the city for the past 15 years (sometimes in an actual hotel) has been granted a wish.” 

Responding to my question of how the new arrangement would work, Rivera explained, “Playwrights’ Arena has been working with NDCS for over five years. The program, Act for Students, has been very successful and the partnership between the school and the theater has been very fruitful.  Right now, the space is basically ours for free from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. During school hours, the space is ours, but if it rains – the school will use it as a place for the students to have lunch.  Or they may hold their assemblies there.  We do not own the building. The school owns the building. We are basically rent-free tenants. And we will expand our Act for Students program with after school workshops engaging the students in the technical and artistic elements of the theater.”

According to Rivera, the company will now have to commence a capital campaign to finance the conversion of the space into a theater (the school will handle renovations to the building itself).  “Playwrights’ Arena has always been about this city, about our writers, about our artists, about our communities,” Rivera adds. “ We are starting small when we walk in there in 2019. But my goal, is that by the time we get to 2025… we will be working to our full potential as a 199-seat theater dedicated to only new works by Los Angeles playwrights (like we’ve been doing for the past 25 years).” 

Everyone in the town’s intimate theater scene should be delighted with this prospect of a small local theater’s well-deserved rise to mid-size, though the economics of all that will need to be massaged, and may even require several visits to a chiropractor after negotiating with the stage actors’ union. But if anyone can iron out the knots and aches in a mid-size frame, Rivera can. For years, he has been one of the town’s hardest working journeyman directors and opinion makers, and his new home base promises to become central to a bona fide neighborhood and its extended community that’s connected to the school. It is also interesting to note that this occurs from a partnership with an educational facility, one of several models worth emulating.

SACRED FOOLS GOES TO BROADWATER

And now, from the Department of Why Not?, comes news that Sacred Fools Theater Company has renamed its four theater complex, which the troupe has owned and operated since 2015, “The Broadwater” – a catch-all umbrella title for the company’s four stages aimed to simplify matters when the venues are rented by outside companies or are participating in the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Sacred Fools Artistic Director Padraic Duffy notes, “With a variety of guest companies slated to stage productions moving forward, including during the massive Hollywood Fringe Festival, ownership and Sacred Fools management have decided to rebrand the entire complex as a symbolic gesture of welcoming to all companies and artists that perform on its four stages.”

“Sacred Fools Theater Company will continue to manage the four theater spaces that comprise The Broadwater and produce a full slate of productions,” explains Duffy. “What we are hoping is that renaming the complex can be the next step in making this amazing facility not just our home, but a home and destination to countless other theater companies, artists, and audiences.”

This re-brand creates a clear division between the producing and the managing aspects of the space. Sacred Fools can exist apart from The Broadwater, and The Broadwater could theoretically exist without Sacred Fools, should the company dissolve.

Notes Duffy, “The [Broadwater] name has had a long connection with the Duffy family. My paternal grandparents refurbished their small-town bar with antique pieces they found in a hotel called the Broadwater almost 60 years ago. My father still treasures those pieces. It means a lot to the family to keep that memory alive.”

CORRECTION: Sacred Fools Theater Company does not own The Broadwater, though it does operate the facility. The building is owned by the father of the troupe’s Managing Director, to whom it pays rent.

SCENIES GO TO EVERYONE

Lord Steven of the Scenies: The Most Generous Theater Fan in the City

The Scenies, Steven Stanley’s annual self-nominated, self-curated, and self-awarded awards series, are out for 2017, and, as you can imagine due to Stanley’s invariably positive tone and attitude, there was much rejoicing through the land. Stanley is known for offering way more carrots than sticks to the productions he reviews, but there is certainly a place for this upbeat attitude within the chaotically maligned sector in which most shows are performed. For years, remember, Drama-Logue gave legions of awards – and so did Rob Stevens and Madeleine Shaner.

Stanley, to my mind, essentially keeps to the same tradition of pointing out the shows that deserve to be remembered in somebody’s scrapbook. Receiving an award is a signal that, in at least one person’s view, your show/performance was better than mediocre, and, since so many plays are like fireflies, living out their existences in a three week lifespan, the Scenies do a fine job of providing an additional item for the memory box.

I do not necessarily agree with many of Stanley’s choices, but if I wanted to hammer that point, I suppose I could create The Paulies. Stanley is a theater fan’s fan. Frankly, I’m in awestruck by how many shows Stanley not only sees, but also writes about, and then honors with awards. To snipe at his enthusiasm and energy is to snipe at generosity itself.

A list of the Scenies may be found here. Winners may e-mail Stanley for a PDF printable certificate of their win at scenies2017@gmail.com.

SIR PETER HALL GOES TO THE GREAT THEATER IN THE SKY

Sir Peter Hall

It has been a month or so, but I wanted to say a few words about the passing of Sir Peter Hall, that lion of the British theater, who died from dementia-related causes at age 86. The thing is, to those of us who have always been fans of the theater, Sir Peter represented a brand of Anglophilia that was a hallmark of theater in the US and the UK for decades. He was one of the founders of the Royal Shakespeare Company and also the English National Theatre on London’s West End. He was also part of that generation of directorial auteur who came up with consistently good, compelling work. He was one of those directors who sublimated his work to the text of the play he was working on, as opposed to using the text as a jumping off point for his own interpretation.

Hall directed the world premiere of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, the English-language premieres of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Jean Annoilh’s The Waltz of Toreadore; he staged the London premieres of Tennesee Williams’s Camino Real and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — all of which suggests that he was far from locked into the drawing room confines of his generation.  

Although he lacked the innovative heft of, say, his contemporary Peter Brook, he more than made up for his wisdom in the handling of classical materials, where he was known as a perfectionist with skills of clarity and presentation that set the standard for a works of the canon. Shortly after Hall’s death, I was talking with a colleague about him, and he mentioned seeing a production of Romeo and Juliet that Hall had directed here (At the Ahmanson Theatre) that he thought was atrocious – dull, straightforward, traditional. However, to me, the comment says more about a director at the end of his creative life, and does not put Hall’s skills into the proper context of the role he played in the mid-20^th century British theater

I was 16 when I attended the very first production of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, which Hall directed and which starred Simon Callow and Paul Scofield; it was probably the moment when I truly discovered a love for the theater. His Diaries, which described his professional life from the founding of the RSC through the 70s, make for delightful, gossipy reading, as well as being a great textbook about theatrical philosophy. I met him once, at the opening night for his production of Measure for Measure at the Ahmanson, and he was surprisingly humble and a little shy, illustrating a connection between humility and greatness. What a career the man had and what a towering figure he was in the world theater.

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Rocky Transition at the Geffen, and The Oh-So Smooth Hamilton 

By Paul Birchall

Geffen Playhouse Smacked With Age Discrimination and Disability Lawsuit

Randall Arney (Photo credit: Playbill)

It was reported by the Geffen Playhouse as a smooth transition: The 61-year-old Artistic Director Randall Arney, hired to the post in 1999 after having run Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, was stepping aside to pursue directing opportunities, to make room for the 41-year-old Matt Shakman.

Few would have given it a second thought, until Arney slapped the Geffen with an age and disability discrimination lawsuit on Tuesday. Arney’s lawsuit creates a shadow over Shakman’s hiring, though it must be noted that on learning of Arney’s departure, Shakman (before he was approached for the job) wrote Arney a heartfelt letter expressing his sadness and praising Arney’s generosity, his talent and his integrity. That letter is entered in the complaint.

Shakman comes to the position with a fine theatrical pedigree – he’s one of the founders of the award-winning Black Dahlia Theatre, where his work included well remembered productions of Orson’s Shadow and Nocturne. He has also directed a number of Geffen shows (under Arney’s leadership), such as David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People and Joshua Harmon’s hit Bad Jews. However, he’s perhaps better known for his work on TV, as a director for several episodes of Game of Thrones and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Matt Shakman (credit: thisstage.la)

Shakman certainly seems a good fit for the Geffen, a theater that straddles the Hollywood nexus of the film and stage business like almost no other company. The press release quotes from Geffen Board Co-Chairs Martha Henderson and Pamela Robinson, who note that Shakman’s “unique artistic vision, coupled with his directorial and entertainment business experience, makes him an outstanding cultural fit for our theater.”

However, Deadline Hollywood is now reporting a rather different take on the transition. 

The suit reports that, following the Geffen’s remarkably successful 2015-16 series, Arney was summoned in February, 2017 to a brief meeting with Henderson and Robinson, where he was told that his contract was not going to be renewed, due to “concerns about succession.” Henderson and Robinson subsequently sent a letter to the other Board members, noting that Arney and they had mutually agreed that Arney would transition out “in order to position the theater for the future.”

The document suggests that two events changed the mood of Arney’s tenure at the Geffen: the hiring of Gil Cates, Jr. (son of the theater’s late Producing Director and Board Chair, Gil Cates) as the theater’s  Managing Director, and Arney’s manifestation of early stroke-like symptoms of Bell’s Palsy.

The filing claims that the Board offered Arney a six month severance package in exchange for signing a non-disparagement clause, which Arney refused. Instead, on June 28, he filed a discrimination complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (charged with enforcing California’s civil rights laws). According to the complaint, the agency replied immediately with a Notice of Right to Sue.

Among the indications of discrimination, the suit mentions that from Arney’s 55th birthday, the terms of his employment contracts grew shorter (two years with an option to extend one year, which the Geffen executed), until his final contract, in which that extension option was removed. Also, the suit alleges that the theater violated the terms of its own employee handbook by failing to give Arney an annual performance review until 2014. That review was glowing. However, Arney received no performance reviews after that. Finally, the suit alleges, the Geffen created the false narrative (published in the L.A. Times) that Arney agreed to leave in order to pursue other directing opportunities — which Arney says was not part of the discussion prior to or during the brief 10 minute meeting. Arney is requesting punitive damages and attorney fees.

Whatever happens, two things are certain: It is a troubling way for Arney’s tenure to end, and it unfairly tarnishes the introduction of Shakman, who may understandably wish that he had stayed with Game of Thrones. We’ll continue to follow this story and update it as we learn more.

Hamilton Opens

Opening night curtain call (Photo by Paul Birchall)

I was all prepared to take a quite cynical approach to Hamilton, which finally opened here in Los Angeles at the Pantages last week — but then I had the good fortune to win the theater critics’ lottery and got to go see it. I won’t lie: Here is a show that lives up to every bloom of the tulipmania-like hype that surrounds it. In a very basic way, the mix of hip hop music, American history, and strong emotional vitality actually serve to move the American musical theater into a truly modern generation.

I have never been a fan of hip hop. And, unlike many of the teenage girls seated in the audience in the row in front of me, my awareness of the music was limited to hearing the soundtrack a couple of times on YouTube. I’m extremely glad I did a bit of homework before I went to the show, though — and if you get a ticket, either by forking out $250-700 at the box office or by winning the daily lottery (or the California lottery, which is pretty much what it takes to afford a ticket) — I have to recommend being familiar with the music before seeing the show. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lyrics are really smart and urgent, and the hip hop rhythms elevate the words to a heightened realism that approaches operatic. It really is that good. But your enjoyment will depend on how familiar you are with the material before sitting down at the theater.

Hamilton also turns out to be the perfect response to our own political era. A line, in the scene taking place right before the Battle of Yorktown, when Michael Luwoye’s driven Alexander Hamilton ripostes with Jordan Donica’s droll Lafayette, “Immigrants! We get the job done!” resulted in a huge ovation from the audience. And the comparison between the honorable men portrayed by Luwoye, Isaiah Johnson’s towering George Washington, and Joshua Henry’s nicely nuanced Aaron Burr and the villains we watch on today’s news — well it’s an odious contrast indeed.

The songs are amazing — I wasn’t expecting to be so moved by the beautifully elegiac “It’s Quiet Uptown,” the perfect summing up of the grief process, as well as by the astonishingly lovely rendition of “Finale,” Solea Pfeiffer’s (as Eliza Hamilton) haunting description of her life after her husband’s murder. Johnson’s wise balladic recitation of George Washington’s farewell address was incredibly moving, and so was the ferocious performance by Emmy Raver-Lampman (as Eliza’s sister Angelica) beautifully limning a hopelessly unrequited love for Hamilton in “Helpless.” And of course Rory O’Malley’s terrifying, Gilbert and Sullivan-y turn as King George III.

For those of us lucky enough to attend opening night, we got an extra treat. At the curtain call, almost the entire original production crew came on stage to join the cast and the swings, including playwright-composer Lin-Manual Miranda, who gave a really touching opening night speech. You can watch it here if you like.

A Pat on Our Back: Thank You, We’ll Take It

It’s been a few weeks, but I still wanted to take a second and recount a nice mention that Stage Raw, this now-venerable site, received in Howlround, the national think tank blog for theater-makers. While referring to a recent national panel meeting of the Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations in New Jersey that took place a few months back, reporter Ruth Zamoyta described this site as “the L.A. theater destination” for Los Angeles theater journalism.

The article was a summary of the panel meeting, which explored innovative ways of continuing and adapting the tradition of arts journalism to the modern, post-print context. One of the panelists was our own Steven Leigh Morris, representing LA STAGE Alliance, of which he is the Executive Director. In the piece, Morris described how Stage Raw was created in response to the citywide reduction of theater journalism. We’ve recently celebrated our fourth year and aren’t going anywhere!

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NMI Takes AEA to the NLRB, City Garage Sees Its Future, and Showdown in Chi Town: Paul Birchall’s Got It Covered

By Paul Birchall

NMI Vs. AEA VIA NLRB

Scott Guy at NMI’s conference on musical theater. (Photo: Courtesy NMI)

One of the main stories to come out of the recently closed Hollywood Fringe (can it not expand from one month to two, so we can see more of the shows that sold out as soon as tickets went on sale?) was one which I reported on in my last column: The national thespian/stage-managers’ union, Actors’ Equity Association (Equity/AEA), had served papers to union actors performing in a Hollywood Fringe show produced by New Musicals Inc. (NMI). Equity ordered its actors not to work with NMI, which the union has placed on its “Do Not Work” list for refusing to sign Equity’s newly imposed collective bargaining agreement.

Now comes news that NMI, producer of 1001 Minutes of New Musicals in this year’s Hollywood Fringe, has submitted what they call an “initial proposal” with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), complaining about the rationale behind being placed on the Do Not Work list, and about Equity’s refusal to meet with the company to discuss a way of getting off the list. 

Some more details about NMI’s concerns may be found at Footlights, which include the company’s original press release, and also NMI’s request that people involved with the theater community send them their stories about being threatened by Equity for working in theaters of 99-seats or less, by Wednesday, July 6, which is when NMI Executive Director Scott Guy is scheduled to be deposed for his statement to the NLRB. 

According to NMI’s Open Letter to the Theater Community, “The National Labor Relations Board has notified the union of the charges against it. As we understand it, the next steps will be for the NLRB to collect affidavits from our staff and colleagues and gather evidence and corroboration of our charges, at which time we can expect either dismissal, settlement or a trial.  We’re hopeful that there will be a swift conclusion to this matter.” 

The heart of the matter is one of the exemptions to the union’s new contract, which allows “membership companies” to employ union actors as volunteers and thus able to perform in fringe festivals and large ensemble productions that would otherwise be priced out of existence by union salaries. The determination of what constitutes a membership company, however, is made by the union in conformity to standards that NMI, among others, finds arbitrary, capricious and punitive.

In addition to NMI, for example, the union has refused the membership company exemption (or explain its reasons for said refusal) to Interact Theatre Company, despite that troupe’s decades-long history as an ensemble company in Los Angeles. Interact’s most famous (and outspoken) member, John Rubinstein, was particularly vocal in opposing the implementation of the union’s new contract.

“The case, on the face of it, is pretty simple,” Guy told Stage Raw. “We’re asking to be removed from the Do Not Work list.  We’re asking to be recognized as a membership company.” 

Guy noted that AEA’s reasons for declaring NMI a non-membership company are based on two criteria, one of which Guy says is erroneous, the other dubious: AEA claims that NMI didn’t file the application by the April 1^st deadline, and that they didn’t apply under their “official” company name: Academy Rep Company.  

“First of all, we applied on March 31, a day before the deadline,” Guy insists.  “And, as far as the name – yes, we have a couple of DBAs, but our professional name is well known.

“We’re turning to the NLRB for help involving the department that deals with employees’ relations to unions, when a union is not treating a business fairly,” Guy added.  “We’re being treated differently from other theater companies, when we’re put on a Do Not Work list and others aren’t. We’re turning to (the NLRB) for their government muscle to get a meeting with the union.”

Guy hopes that the NLRB will broker a meeting between his theater company and Equity (which has steadfastly refused to discuss the issue). “They’ll [NLRB] weigh the evidence in support of the case. At that point, the NLRB may dismiss the case – they have that right – but I think we’ve passed that point. . . So much depends on the NLRB meeting, but whatever happens, we will have options.”

Keep following Stage Raw for more updates. 

CITY GARAGE FINDS A PARKING SPACE, AT LAST

Good news for Santa Monica’s City Garage, the uniquely idiosyncratic theater company run by impresarios Frederique Michel and Charles Duncombe: The Santa Monica City Council has voted to move forward with the arts-focused redevelopment of Bergamot Station — the former 19th century railroad stop and car storage facility, later to become a  manufacturing center and, finally, a light-rail stop and service yard alongside a haven for galleries, museums and the one legit theater. According to Michel’s presser, “[The Council] voted overwhelmingly to approve a plan that will keep the galleries at Bergamot and add new cultural uses, including spaces for a museum, a community arts center, restaurants, cafes, an arts-themed boutique hotel, and space for nonprofits.”

Duncombe adds that the plan allows room for two new theaters, to replace the current City Garage venue, slated to be demolished. Says Michel, “We’re particularly excited that it also includes a small performing arts center which will be the new home of City Garage.” 

Adds Duncombe: “One [theater] would be dedicated to City Garage but what we are proposing is that, if we can show sufficient institutional strength, we would have the chance to curate the entire center with a really rich mix of theater, dance, music and performance art — presenting and producing companies from across L.A. County with a special emphasis on local groups.”

Duncombe estimates that such an outcome is about five years away.

An article in the Santa Monica Daily Press further explains the redevelopment complex, which is a major reversal of earlier plans to create a more corporate setting for the Expo-line station adjacent area.  “The Council’s vote locked in long-term protections for existing art galleries and arts-related tenants by tying rent increases to the Consumer Price Index,” explains the article. 

Santa Monica Councilmember Kevin McKeown adds, “The plan approved by the Arts Commission, the Bergamot Committee, and now the Council represents a major shift from the original proposal years ago to disrupt the galleries to excavate underground parking. Instead, galleries will be retained and guaranteed subsidized rent, while Santa Monica gets a new arts museum, and other community benefits making Bergamot a truly public space.” 

It couldn’t happen to a nicer company, as City Garage is a theater group that crafts assertively stylized, non-commercial theater based steadfastly on artistry and sophistication. In their press release, the executives of City Garage note, “For us, it is an opportunity, over the next five years, to expand and professionalize the program so we can be ready for the new space.”

Punishing a Critic for Cluelessness?

Have you been following this puzzling story involving the Chicago Sun Times theater critic Hedy Weiss, and how theater companies in Chicago had purportedly banded together to refuse her press tickets to their shows? The fracas arose from a review Weiss wrote a review of Antoinette Newandu’s play Pass Over at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. It was a generally positive review, but Newandu and Steppenwolf found some of Weiss’s generalizations about race to be out of line and protested, in an article in American Theatre, the nature of white privilege which inevitably informed Weiss’s sensibility in reviewing Newandu’s play. The debate sparked the formation of a group called the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition, which rallied behind the notion of convincing 70 Chicago-area theaters not to offer press comps to Weiss to see their shows.

However, a June 23 update in the Chicago Reader noted that Steppenwolf Theatre, in its official response, was encouraging better community dialogue, with “no mention of cutting Weiss from its list of invited critics.” Meanwhile, the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition appears to have changed its mind; no list of theaters removing Weiss from their press invites has been forthcoming.

As Diep Tran discusses in the American Theater piece, Weiss has often been proven socially tone deaf in her approaches towards issue works. Notes Tran, “This is hardly the first time she has stirred controversy, whether calling Tony Kushner a “self-loathing Jew” (in a 2004 review of Caroline, or Change), praising a recent production of In the Heights with a white lead actor in a role written as Dominican-American as having an “unusually ‘authentic’ cast,” or wondering aloud—in an infamous 2013 review of Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s Invasion!, a satire of anti-Arab hysteria—“What practical alternative to profiling would you suggest?” 

I don’t particularly want to address the politics or the question of white privilege in criticism. I do look forward to the day when the critical press pool will be more diverse, in age, gender and ethnicity. However, it would be even nicer if the trade paid enough to entice people to do it: These days, theater reviewing, like play writing, is a hobby, except for maybe a handful of individuals across the nation. It’s a challenge to find a diverse crowd for those sorts of income-challenged avocations.

Weiss came to review a play I was in when I lived in Chicago 35 years ago. She was gracious and intimidatingly glare-y at the opening night party but still ate some of the very nice canapes served by the producers at the Griffin Theater on Chicago’s North Side. At that time, I was young – and Weiss had already been reviewing plays for a couple of decades.

But the larger issue, beyond the generational/attitudinal divide and the understandable and justifiable anger directed at Weiss, is that she is guilty really of little more than cluelessness and perhaps of a complacency that comes from being comfortable in such a long career. The attack against her was personal and raised freedom-of-speech concerns.

Two questions: Do we collectively “ban” those for expressing views we find objectionable? Are the arts not supposed to be a place of refuge, where any and all ideas, however offensive, have an open forum? To its credit, Chicago theater has answered no and yes to those two questions.

Weiss is not the only drama critic in Chicago. Her writings can be contrasted against those of her colleagues in an open-market of opinions and attitudes. For a community to revoke Weiss’s press privileges would have been a lame way of treating someone who is basically a functional repository of a city’s theatrical memory, however oblivious to changing cultural norms or how constricted her perspective has become. Kudos to Chicago for rising to the occasion and reminding us of what theater is actually for.

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Summer Approaches: Fringe, Smoot, Caesar, Work, Tony

By Paul Birchall
 
LETTER FROM THE FRINGE

It’s that time of the year when the Hollywood Fringe Festival is in full swing, and the L.A. theater community both expands and contracts; a veritable cornucopia of small plays are showcased within the mile or so area around the Sacred Fools and Complex theaters. This year, the Fringe Festival press material boasts that there are 350 shows going up during the three week between June 9^th and June 21. You would have to clone yourself to see all the shows in that time-frame.

Some critics demur over the Fringe’s lack of curation – essentially any producer/presenter can come in, pay the festival fee, and put on a show – but I think that the egalitarian nature of the festival is actually its great strength.  Certainly in the first couple of weeks, before the critics and the Yelp reviewers weigh in, no one has any idea which show is going to be the Golden Ticket and which is going to be Just One More Showcase.  Anything is possible!  Some shows’ reputations are going to spread and the cream will rise to the top.

A strong recommendation already: Make sure you get to the Valhalla that is “Fringe Central,” the pop up bar and club that has opened up in the old Dragonfly club space for the festival period.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:  I am not sure that L.A.’s intimate theaters needs a union at this time, but they definitely need a bar – and for the next three weeks, we have a centralized space to hang out, get buzzed, and talk theater.

The experience of stepping into Fringe Central is like coming into the club house for the Nerd Theater Kids – who are all of us, really, or you wouldn’t have read this far into my column in the first place.

Last Wednesday, Fringe Central’s Opening Night party was great fun, with hundreds of gaily caparisoned folks, mostly performers and producers of the various shows slated for presentation, but a number of fans and press folk, too, milling around and, really, being part of a community.

I chatted briefly with Fringe organizer Matt Quinn, who asked me to make sure that you knew about Pick of the Fringe, a sampling of scenes from about 7 Fringe shows that a panel of “experienced independent judges” have selected as being especially noteworthy.  I am not entirely sure how these shows can have been chosen so quickly, but the list includes Titus Sharkdronicus and Nothing Bad: A Werewolf Rock Musical, so I don’t think you can go wrong.

DO NOT WORK

HE WHO DOES NOT WORK DOES NOT EAT, translation from a Soviet poster

A few days ago, the Pro99 Facebook simmered with rage, following the rumor that “Do Not Work” instructions had been orchestrated by AEA (Equity), warning union stage actors against working in certain productions being cast as part of the Fringe.  If the rumors turned out to be true, it could potentially cast a chill on Fringe shows, which represent the epitome of the intimate theater scene so many of us work in.

The Facebook thread, now apparently removed, was filled with outrage at the thought that Equity might be working to encroach even on shows that clearly have no reason to exist other than to be pop-up productions playing to houses of 20 to 30 guests.

I was concerned by this rumor and kept an eye on the Facebook thread, where I was quite interested to discover a comment by current AEA President Kate Shindle, who weighed in on the issue. She noted, “there (are) a menu of options for LA fringe producers. Some are on contract and some are on code.  The distinction here is that codes are not available to producers on the DNW list. I’m told that letters have only been sent to the cast of a single show, because that producer is on our DNW. The rest of the fringe is proceeding with some shows on contract and some on code.”

Fringe publicist Stacy Jones told me that the show in question was a Fringe show entitled, Dames, Dicks, and Butterknives, which was being put on as part of the Fringe’s 1001 Minutes of New Musicals event, being put on by New Musicals Inc., which, in fact, has been on the “Do Not Work” list since January, for refusing to sign the union’s imposed new collective bargaining agreement for theaters of 99-seats or less.

Now, we can say what we must about the L.A. “Do Not Work” list, in particular how it vindictively consists of the folks who were active in Pro99 movement challenging the union’s policies and tactics, and how it is randomly wicked for the union to forbid its members from working at local, intimate companies like the Odyssey, Matrix, Skylight, and, yes, New Musicals Inc, but AEA is, at least, not trying to pull a fast one during the Fringe.

ET TU TRUMPUS?

Gregg Henry as Julius Caesar/Shakespeare in the Park, New York

President Trump’s son Donald Jr. tried to somehow connect the deadly shooting in Virginia, where a deeply disgruntled man shot a Republican Congressman, a lobbyist, and staffers who were all preparing for a charity baseball game, with the Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar in which Gregg Henry’s Caesar resembled the U.S. President. The younger Trump overtly made the connection on Wednesday afternoon, when he retweeted a conservative political commentator Harlan Hill’s comments that “Events like today are exactly why we took issue with NY elites glorifying the assassination of the President.” In his retweet, Donald Trump Jr., added the word “This!” to his comment.

Lend me your ears. Let’s talk a moment about the chilling death of satire that the fracas around Oscar Eustis’s staging of Julius Caesar, and, yes, also about the earlier debacle concerning Kathy Griffin, who lost a number of gigs, possibly her career, following her appearing in a photo holding a fake severed Trump head. And when I heard about Eustis’s Julius Caesar, who claimed emphatically on NPR that his intention was not a parody but a tragedy, that there was no glee in his version of the Shakespearean assassination. Beauty is the eye . . .

However, theater and art are among the few ways that “average” folks have of speaking directly to power. Artists and writers have poked fun at their overlords since Aristophanes. William Hogarth in the 1660s depicted rulers as monstrous beasts – if he were alive today, he’d make Trump look so hideous, it would make Kathy Griffin’s jab seem like a summer kiss.

But, just in this year, we are seeing a attempt to silence satire and criticism that is chilling – I’d say unprecedented, but there is precedent, actually – in in countries that lose their rights of free speech. In any case, if you believe that Trump is Julius Caesar, well, I’m not so sure. I’m more in agreement with this article, instead.

THE TONY AWARDS, HO HUM

I really don’t have much to say about The Tonys this year, which were really much ado about nothing. I haven’t seen Dear Evan Hanson yet, but I was pleased that a new work won – and how could you not be delighted with former Los Angelino Ben Platt’s enthusiastic award speech? And, while they kept us on tinder hooks as to whether Bette Midler would perform – she didn’t, and the number with David Hyde Pierce was really a ho hummer – but she at least gave a whiz bang of an acceptance speech, telling the band to “shut that crap up” when they tried to interrupt her before she was finished.

But Kevin Spacey as host. I mean, really: In 2017, we’re getting Johnny Carson imitations on the Tonys? I’m in my 50s and I barely remember who Johnny Carson was. Probably one third of the award-winners in the audience, in their 20s and 30s, got the joke. Even worse was his imitation of Bill Clinton, which just felt mean. I noticed he didn’t try to imitate our current orange-headed leader – but perhaps Standards and Practices put the kibosh on the idea. One can imagine that in our present climate, if Fox and Friends went on about a Trump imitation on the Tonys, it would cause Netflix to cancel House of Cards.

I am frankly far more enthused by last week’s release of the Shubert Awards, a series of grants that the Shubert Foundation distributes to theaters across the country. This year, a large number of LA Theaters were the honored recipients of the Schubert largesse, including some bona fide surprises. Of course, you’d expect some of the grand winners to include the Center Theater Group ($200k), the Geffen ($110k), and Pasadena Playhouse ($30k). LA Stage Alliance was awarded $15k. But there were also awards to some of our beloved smaller companies, including Rogue Machine ($10k), Cornerstone ($60k), A Noise Within ($25k), and the Odyssey ($30k). Congratulations to all the award grantees, and try not to spend all that dough at an Opening Night Party!

GARY SMOOT

Gary Smoot

Stage Raw was sorry to hear about the passing of the great local and Seattle theater designer Gary Smoot, who died in Seattle last May. Amongst his many contributions to shows at L.A.’s Circle X, Smoot served as production designer for productions of Love Loves a Pornographer, The American Book of the Dead, and for his extremely memorable set design in Great Men of Science, No 21 and 22. He’d been a multi-award winner of many LA Weekly, Garland, and LADCC accolades, and, in addition to frequent gigs with New York theaters, was a long time company member of Seattle’s Annex Theatre.

In a note to Stage Raw, Smoot’s longtime collaborator Jillian Armenante, noted that “he was an amazing artist who affected communities in Seattle, Los Angeles, and NYC theater. He had an incredible ability to think outside the box and accomplish a great deal for very little. He was integral in forming the early aesthetic of Annex Theater (now in its 30 year in Seattle) and at Circle X, having designed many of their early successes. He literally won an Ovation Award with a $200 set budget!”

Paul Mullin, a playwright who Smoot frequently designed for, most memorably in the 2006 production of Louis Slotin Sonata, noted, “I will never be the same. I had plans for projects that only Gary could help me with. I am lost without him. But being lost as an artist is kind of the point I guess. It just happens to feel like shit at the moment.”

Smoot’s longtime partner Jamey Hood added, “He brought as much joy, wit, and magic to our relationship as he did to his design work. His uncontainable creative energy was attractive both on stage and off, but at the same time, he was consistently genuine, accessible, and authentic.”

The theater community’s invited to attend a special Memorial to honor Smoot, to be held Sunday, June 18 at 6 PM at Barnsdall Theater in the Barnsdall Art Park. RSVP here.

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Spring News Roundup

Actress in 2015 Hollywood Fringe Files Claim for Back-Wages; New Theater Movement in LA; Michael A. Shepperd elected to AEA National Council; Laura Zucker Steps Down at LACAC; Dan Bonnell on a Slow Road to Recovery

By Paul Birchall

Actress Files Claim for Back-Wages in Four-Performance Hollywood Fringe Show

La Llorona, at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe

A hearing is scheduled June 5 at the Department of Industrial Relations Los Angeles Office in the case of plaintiff Dolores Quintana, an actress in Matt DeNoto’s play La Llorona. Quintana was in a production of four performances at Hollywood’s Theatre of NOTE, in the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival. The claim for almost $3,000, originally filed against defendants DeNoto and director Kathryn Mayer in 2016, was for back-wages and penalties for unpaid wages, at a rate of $9/hour minimum wage for rehearsals and performances.

DeNoto claims to have recruited a cast of volunteer actors for his Fringe Festival production. Furthermore, a public casting notice submitted in the case file clearly states the rate of pay as “none.” (DeNoto paid each of his ten actors $140 in expense reimbursements. That amount has been deducted from Quintana’s claim, and none of the other actors has filed a complaint.) 

Quintana is being represented by David Mack, who is also representing actress Ann Colby Stocking in a similar case regarding a performance in 2013 under the 99-Seat Theater Plan at the Odyssey Theater. All of the actors in that production, including Stocking, signed a statement acknowledging that they were performing under that AEA (stage actors’ union)-sanctioned Plan as volunteers who were entitled to expense reimbursements, which they received. Nonetheless, three years later, Mack and Stocking filed a claim for back-wages and penalties against the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (though not against co-producer L.A. Women’s Shakespeare Festival) for over $6,000.  

For that case, AEA attorney Susan Davis (Cohen Weiss Simon, LLP) recently filed a letter of support for Stocking, claiming that 1) The 99-Seat Plan was an internal rule and not a collective bargaining agreement and that 2) despite the AEA Plan permitting actors to volunteer, Stocking should be entitled to back-wages and penalties under State labor law, because the Odyssey Theatre is a “commercial enterprise” — as defined by the selling of tickets, refreshments and charging for parking. (Tickets were also sold to three out of the four performances of La Llorona. The fourth performance was “pay what you can.”)

If the “commercial enterprise” argument holds, then every community theater across California that uses volunteer actors, and sells tickets and refreshments to offset occupancy costs and other expenses, is potentially in violation of California’s labor laws.

And if Quintana prevails, the most vulnerable first victim could be the Hollywood Fringe Festival itself, which is a laizzes faire assemblage of volunteers putting up shows for all reasons under the sun, except commercial ones. If the judgement is in Quintana and Mack’s favor,  anybody performing in a Fringe show could potentially file a claim for unpaid wages, up to three years after the fact, despite signing off as a volunteer going into rehearsals. This couldn’t help but have a chilling effect on anybody who wishes to stage a show in the Fringe.

Under California labor law, both cases will rest largely on who had the power during the rehearsal process — whether the producers were working around the actors’ schedules in setting up rehearsals, and whether the actors had the liberty to leave at any time without consequences.

DeNoto and the Odyssey Theatre’s Ron Sossi are arguing that their actors had such autonomy, and that the working relationship between the actors and the producers was not predicated on the producers profiting financially from the labors of the actors. If they were, that would be the foundation of an “employer-employee” relationship in a commercial enterprise, which DeNoto and Sossi insist was not the case in their respective productions — an assertion contested by the AEA lawyer Davis, in Sossi’s case.

Though the Odyssey complaint was filed in 2016 — three years after the performance in question — the DIR has still not ruled in the case.

New LA Theater Movement/PRO99 Plaintiff Elected to AEA National Council

Michael A. Shepperd

As LA theater continues to adjust to Actors Equity’s rewriting of the local intimate theater scene, a group of the city’s small theaters has bound together to form a consortium – an organization of theaters that have been denied the “membership company” exemption in the new AEA rules — meaning that unlike those theaters have been granted that exception by AEA, the consortium’s theaters are not allowed to have AEA actors volunteer and possibly accept expense reimbursements.  

A press release for the group, first published by Footlights, lists 16 local theater companies that have formed the Independent Theatres of Los Angeles — members of which are part of the creative core of the L.A. stage community. These include the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, The Skylight Theatre, the Santa Monica Playhouse, and Playwrights’ Arena, among others. The consortium has already held general auditions for interested non-AEA talent.  Almost one thousand actors have been seen so far, or are on a waiting list to be seen.

Skylight Producer Gary Grossman, also one of the former plaintiffs in the recent Pro99 lawsuit against AEA, states in the release that ““The purpose of ITLA is to say to Los Angeles and all other cities listening that our theaters will continue to provide an opportunity for all artists to volunteer their craft,” which is a euphemism for the theaters hedging their bets. Most of ITLA’s theaters, including Playwrights’ Arena and the Skylight Theatre, are on AEA’s “do not work” list, because they refused to sign the new collective bargaining agreement that the union imposed on them over the strenuous objections of local membership. Grossman says that all actors (AEA and non-AEA) are welcome to work in these theaters, though the AEA actors will have to sort out their options directly with their union.

In other union matters, another plaintiff in the AEA lawsuit, Michael A. Shepperd (artistic director of the LGBT-oriented Celebration Theatre), was just elected to the union’s National Council – yes the same Council that overturned a 2/3 referendum of local membership in April 2015 to preserve the former 99-Seat Plan. That Plan is now history.

Can Shepperd make a difference? Or will he be yet another in a chorus of voices in the wilderness? To represent local interests, he’ll need to conduct a charm offensive, and he’s the right man for that job – capable of being both charming and offensive, each when needed.

Changes at LACAC

Laura Zucker

Laura Zucker, the sometimes prickly, super-smart Executive Director of the LA County Arts Commission has announced her resignation, after serving 25 years in the post.

“The last 25 years have been filled with wonderful opportunities to grow the arts in Los Angeles in so many ways. I’ve been continually inspired by the resiliency and ingenuity of the artists, organizations, educators, advocates and arts and culture supporters who shape our region. The Arts Commission is terrifically positioned to move into its next phase and I’m ready for new challenges,” Zucker said.  

Zucker’s myriad accomplishments include the eight-fold increase of the public arts grant program, which funds almost 400 nonprofit arts programs. In addition, according to the County’s press rep, “Ms. Zucker was instrumental in the adoption of Los Angeles County’s civic art policy in 2005, and since then more than 40 civic art projects have been completed and another 40 commissions ranging in size from $10,000 to $1 million are underway. She led the creation of Arts for All, the region’s initiative dedicated to restoring arts education for all public school students, which is now working with 65 out of the County’s 81 school districts. She also spearheaded the creation of the largest paid summer arts internship program in the country, which employs 132 undergraduates each summer to work in performing arts organizations,” reports the county’s press department.

No word yet on Zucker’s replacement

Landmark Former Globe Theatre Faces Bulldozers

It looks like one of West Hollywood’s last remaining independent theater companies is in danger of losing its home, as Odalys Nanin’s decade-old Macha Theatre Company is engaged in an old fashioned gentrification battle with landlord Emser Tile, who owns the building in which the Macha Theatre resides. The landlord has filed notice to demolish the venue, along with a number of buildings around it, to create an updated mixed-use complex.    

The Macha Theatre, which recently celebrated its 10^th anniversary operating in the former Globe Theatre on 1107 N. Kings Row, is a unique structure, built to resemble Shakespeare’s Globe Playhouse, with a circular stage and audience on pew like seats at three quarters round. Under Nanin’s watch, the theater has steadfastly devoted itself to productions of relevance to the local LGBT community, including self-produced shows including Marilyn, My Love, The Adventures of the Lieutenant Nun, and Garbo’s Cuban Lover. 

In an attempt to prevent the demolition of the unique performance space, Nanin filed a request with the West Hollywood City Council for the theater to be named a historical landmark, which would preserve the space. In a brief conversation at the West Hollywood City Council Meeting in April, Nanin noted to me that the playhouse “structure is a post-war corrugated building, the only one in West Hollywood, and the inside is a precise half scale model of the original Globe Theater.  It has been there for 45 years!” 

Although the contract consultants hired to evaluate the building’s historical status returned a report stating that the site was “probably ineligible for designation through the Commercial Historical Resources Survey,” the theater points to consultants from the LA Conservancy and the West Hollywood Preservation Alliance who noted that building’s historical merits. 

At a recent West Hollywood City Council meeting, the city council ordered its staff to perform additional analysis and evaluation of the historical value of the Macha, as well as the buildings surrounding it. Noted Nanin, “(If Macha goes), there will be no artistic landmarks in the city of West Hollywood.  Yet, we’re considered ‘the Creative City’!”  

We’ll keep you informed as to how this story develops.  

Dan Bonnell’s Long and Winding Road

Dan Bonnell

It’s been over a month since we learned about director Dan Bonnell’s stroke, right on the eve of a production planning meeting at Sacred Fools Theater, The news has been covered thoroughly and sympathetically in Steven Leigh Morris’s piece for this website, but now we’ve learned that actress Jacqueline Wright has started a Facebook fundraising page to help pay Bonnell’s medical bills. Dan still hasn’t woken up, though he’s being weaned off a ventilator and is showing some signs of what could be interpreted as responsiveness. Be sure to follow Stage Raw for more information!

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Playwrights on Playwriting, 2017

A panel ostensibly about gay theater resounds with universal themes

By Paul Birchall

L-R: Donald Jolly, Robert Patrick, Michael Kearns, Mary Casey, Tom Jacobson, Odylys Nanin, Dee Jae Cox, Victor Bumbalo (Photo by Paul Birchall)

Last Wednesday night, West Hollywood was all a-glitter, as an LA Fashion Week show was taking place in the Pacific Design Center courtyard. In front of the famous blue glass-walled skyscraper, models stomped behind splashing fountains and a gigantic neon screen flashed gorgeous blue-glowing images of butterflies, while a siren-voiced songstress warbled a haunting ditty. However, as it turns out, the real fireworks were across the street, in a humble meeting room at the West Hollywood Library, where a panel of locally and nationally renowned playwrights came together to discuss the history and the future of LGBT theater.

(Note: The West Hollywood Library is part of the Los Angeles County Library system, where the writer of this article is on staff.)

Hosted by playwright and TV writer Victor Bumbalo, the panel, entitled “Gay Theatre, Its History and Its Future,” boasted a who’s who of local theater queer royalty, from legendary godfather of gay theater Robert Patrick to figures such as Tom Jacobson, Mary Casey, and, of course, Michael Kearns. Also on the bill were impresario and writer Dee Jae Cox (LA Women’s Theater Project) and Macha Theater’s Odalys Nanin.

The younger generation was represented by Donald Jolly, author of Riot/Rebellion (about the Watts Riots) and Bonded (about the scandalous love affair between two male slaves in pre-Civil War Virginia).

Beginning with accounts of how they got started writing, the general theme was one of breaking boundaries in an undiscovered area. And although the mood of the panel was upbeat and amiable, their actual views, informed by the current political/social climate and its relationship to the arts, was pessimistic.

Patrick noted that what was once edgy and challenging has become increasingly mainstreamed.  “It is much harder today to get noticed,” he lamented. “There are today more small gay theaters than anyone can imagine.  Did you know that there’s a gay theater in Kankakee? I get offers to cover gay festivals every day – some of them earn ten prizes and still they’re just on a list of plays getting sit-down readings in a room in the afternoon.”

Interestingly, as the talk commenced, the LGBT aspect of the panel almost became secondary:  What was important was that the panelists were all playwrights, and, as playwrights, their considerations, fears, and hopes were essentially the same as playwrights working in any genre – e.g., how do we get our plays performed, and how do we grow great theater?

Bumbalo sagely suggested that the trend these days is actually to avoid putting on full on productions of plays that might be too challenging for a mainstream audience. “Nowadays, the works are put into ‘development,’ with new plays being presented only for readings or for ‘development’ – it’s because they can get a grant [to develop] the new work, there’s no real plan to put the show on!”

There’s also been this rise of five- or 10-minute play festivals, Bumbalo continued.  “If you have 25 plays, you have at least 25 sets of friends who will come and see each show.  And you can tell the grant givers that you served 25 different playwrights, even though each play is only 10 minutes long.”

Cox confirmed some of these complaints, claiming, “One of the ways theater has changed is in its cost.  The cost to produce a show is astronomical. Yes, you can do staged readings and development, but people simply don’t want to put money into a play.”

An equally grim impression was offered by Nanin, who, while discussing the phenomenon of gentrification, by which a theater moves into an area, boosting real estate values, before being shuttered because the theater company can’t afford the increasing rents,  mused, “Small theaters are disappearing because so many of them are being demolished and turned into condos!”  Nanin announced that her Macha Theater, the former Kings Row Theater, has been sold for condos.  Nanin mentioned that she is currently petitioning to have the theater declared a historical landmark in an attempt to prevent this from happening.

The discussion turned to how LGBT playwrights can reach an audience. Kearns took the lead here, noting that his recent production of Queerwise, just completing a successful run at the Skylight, had utilized non-professional performers telling their own stories about the AIDS crisis and legacy. This, to him, suggests that LGBT theater is expanding into different niches.  “Gay theater has burst open in so many hybrids,” he noted.

He also suggested taking a good strong look at the market — advice useful for any playwright, not just one laboring in the LGBT field.  “What audiences are not being served?  What isn’t being done?  If you feel invisible, and you hear of a show and your story is being told, you will go and see it.”

Jacobson mentioned that productions of his ferocious Walking to Buchenwald and a trilogy he is writing about a neighborhood bathhouse of his youth will be expected in the seasons ahead. He noted that it isn’t ticket cash that will save a show. “What I’d suggest is not to entirely depend on the audience (to fund the show),” he explained.  “Cornerstone Theater, for example, gets great grant funding and foundation funding — their shows are chosen to plan for that.”

Added Patrick, “One of the reasons Off-Off Broadway worked was because people put on the shows in places that made their money by other means — coffeehouses, bars — they weren’t dependent on the play for their living.

Mentioned, almost as an aside, was the local omnipresent 99-seat issue, with the discussion of how Equity’s decision to demand that small theaters pay its union actors minimum wage will affect the creative scene.  Jacobson suggested that the LA scene might wind up echoing Chicago’s scene, where there’s an exciting fringe theater circuit, but made up mostly of non-Equity actors.  “Once you turn to Equity, you have to stop performing.  The truth is, you can do theater anywhere with non-union performers.”

In the end, though, much of the concern came down to money — how to make it and how to sustain the theater that puts on LGBT plays.  Cackled Patrick, “Two companies I go to regularly sell booze!” to which almost all members of the panel nodded sagely.

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L.A. Theater’s Witch Hunters

By Paul Birchall

Photo credit: Flickr user Robert Mongomery, cc license by 2.0

UPDATE: February 8, 2017. A source close to Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) confirmed that a “Cease and Desist” letter had been sent by the Union to “Equityworksla,” and added that “Equity had absolutely no involvement in this communication to Playwrights Arena.”

There has been one disturbing incident of a new bullying tactic by an anonymous party towards the entities that put on intimate shows in our community. It is directly related to the murky waters covering the reciprocal agreements among unions in the entertainment field. A complaint currently being adjudicated by the National Labor Relations Board is the right of one union (Actors’ Equity Association, or AEA) to place, summarily, members of other “reciprocal” unions, such as the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (SAF-AFTRA) on AEA’s “do not work” list.

Though AEA has been claiming that reciprocity is part of its agreements, AEA’s sister unions (including SAG-AFTRA) have been conspicuously quiet on this matter for almost two years, while private conversations with union reps suggest that they have no incentive or desire to enforce reciprocity.

Jon Lawrence Rivera of Playwrights Arena, received an oddly menacing letter, following the posting of ads for his company’s next round of auditions at the breakdown website Actors Access for his company’s next drama Hotel Play.  The show, commissioned by both Playwright’s Arena and Center Theatre Group, is going to be an immersive production, by several playwrights, set within several rooms at the Radisson Midtown Hotel near USC. 

A few days after the ad was posted, Rivera’s casting director Raul Clayton Staggs and Rivera received a letter from a mysterious address Equityworksla@yahoo.com, which, at the bottom of the letter and in small font, stated, “We are in no way authorized to represent AEA and this notification has not been approved or authorized by AEA.  We are concerned, professional members of the L.A. Theatre community and we are in support of their efforts.” 

However, the note then proceeded to list a series of seemingly regulatory rules:  “Please be advised that a series of complaints have been filed with AEA and SAG-AFTRA against your theatre company (Playwrights Arena), your production of The Hotel Play and your casting director (Raul Clayton Staggs) because of the casting notice that appeared this week on Actors’ Access:  While you have the right to produce a non-Union production, it is not OK for you to engage members of any of the other 4As (such as SAG-AFTRA) or other unions/guilds that have agreed to reciprocal arrangements with AEA and the other 4As.

“You are being be advised of the following:

• Under the reciprocal arrangements, members of SAG-AFTRA, SDC, WGA, DGA, etc. may not accept any kind of work (paid or unpaid) in any theatrical production that is not working under an officially approved contract, code, or agreement sanctioned by AEA. 

• Under federal and state laws, your company may not refuse to hire union members.  This means you are either completely a union shop or you’re not. 

• Now that a complaint has been filed with AEA by current members, AEA will have the right to add Playwrights’ Arena and its affiliated producers and casting directors to the Do Not Work List.

“Your production is now on our radar and we will be keeping a careful watch.  If we see any members of SAG-AFTRA, SDC, WGA, DGA, etc. accepting roles or work of any kind with this production without the actors receiving the benefit of a sanctioned agreement with AEA, we will file official complaints with their unions/guilds against those members.  As many of us are members of those unions/guilds we can and will insist on disciplinary action to be taken against anyone who violates these rules.”

According to Rivera, this note came a few days after he received a phone call from an actual representative at AEA, who had called to see if the production would be signing on with AEA’s new Agreement. Rivera says he responded that he had no choice but to take the show non-union, since “the cost of 16 actors surpasses our budget.”  Two days later, the note from “EquityworksLA” arrived. 

The letter acknowledges that Playwrights’ Arena might have the right to not utilize AEA actors, but should also not employ actors from any of the other unions. (The number of AEA actors in the region is under 8,000, while an estimated count of SAG-AFTRA actors in the area is around 160,000. While there is in theory a reciprocity among all unions who have agreed to reciprocity, it is extremely unlikely that any SAG-AFTRA member would be expected to stay away from a non-union stage production, since they aren’t members of AEA. That’s the very question that the NLRB is now considering, i.e. whether such an AEA “policy” constitutes an unfair labor practice, essentially sidelining tens of thousands of local actors from performing on any stage that isn’t sanctioned by an AEA contract.

What, then, is the purpose of the letter?  A request for more information was sent to the EquityworksLA address, but no response has been received. One theory is that “EquityworksLA” represents some individuals who are very close to AEA leadership, but may not be officers or officials within it, a group of self-appointed vigilantes following info on shows, on behalf of AEA.

When informed of the letter, Pro-99 Plaintiff Gary Grossman said “(The letter) is not from Equity and carries no teeth.  There is no penalty or sanction that they can throw at you.  Equity can say that SAG-AFTRA cannot participate in non-AEA shows, but that means nothing until SAG-AFTRA says that, and they haven’t.”  

However, I do find the anonymous nature — dovetailing, as it does, with the more formal call from Equity — to be disturbing, trafficking as it does in nebulously legal “information.”

Our advice is to ignore such notices unless they are clearly from, and authorized by, any of the unions.

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Paul Birchall’s Got It Covered:

The year of despair; WSJ covers local theater’s battle with AEA; Theatre Asylum reboots; upcoming memorial for Gordon Davidson open to the public

2016: The Year of Despair

Well, AEA-members who labor in the trenches of Los Angeles intimate theater must now come to grips with the new reality of opportunities for work being constricted by their own union’s new Agreement, which replaces the 99-Seat Theater Plan. It is no wonder that many of these folks are now either deeply depressed or furious:  With the court’s dismissal of the Plaintiffs’ case against Actors’ Equity Association, the only remaining attempt to preserve the city’s fecund 99-seat theater scene lies in the promise of an appeal, which Plaintiff Gary Grossman has said “remains on the table.”
California went Democratic hugely in the last election – but we are still forced to live under the assumed authoritarian control of a nation dictated by Donald Trump and his minions, who will offer this State no love in the years ahead. Meanwhile, this decision as to which actors will be allowed to perform on small LA stages was unilaterally made in New York, over the loud and pronounced opposition of the actual practitioners on the local scene.  Thus, in both a large and small scale, we are finding ourselves in a uniquely powerless situation, at least politically, out here in the Big Orange. Our frustration and fury is palpable county-wide.

Wall Street Journal Reports Again on the L.A. Theater Scene

An article about AEA’s new Agreement in L.A. came out in the Wall Street Journal earlier this Tuesday, peppered with quotes from both defenders of the 99-Seat Plan — such as Veronica Brady  (“You can go play Hamlet and have a day job working in television or doing voiceover”) and John Lacey (“You’re probably going to see a lot more one-person shows.”) —  as well as AEA’s Executive Director Mary McColl, who defends the union’s actions, noting, amongst other things, that “At the end of the day, this is work… It’s not an unpaid internship.”

It’s probably best not to linger over the gaping hole in Ms. McColl’s argument – that if there are fewer productions and fewer roles for union actors, there will be less money and artistic validation for them – but the particularly intriguing aspect of the article are the comments, some of which are really quite disturbing to read and proof that opinions are indeed like sphincters:  Everyone has at least one.  

The Wall Street Journal is, of course, a periodical that leans right, but there is still some distress to be gleaned by the East Coast Shadenfreude of conservatives ridiculing liberals like Ed Asner for bucking their Union and elements such as the minimum wage.  We have not heard much of this particular irony yet.  And going over the comments is a little like when you have an ache on the roof of your mouth and you rub your tongue over it again and again just to make sure the pain is still there.

But at least some of the vitriol in the comments section, lauding the karmic revenge against Asner, Ed Harris and other “left-wing progressives who support minimum wage agendas” was answered succinctly by William Salyers:

“There’s an amazing amount of ignorance in many of these comments. There is no Big Money in these theaters. There are no ‘deep pockets’ hoarding cash. There are small venues doing mostly new and experimental work while desperately trying to keep afloat. There is nothing inconsistent about ‘commie’ Asner trying to help these organizations survive while arguing that actual laborers deserve minimum wage.”

Added Robert Camm with back-handed praise: “Even Ed Asner seems to understand the problem.”

But the attempts of Pro99 to differentiate between the support of unions and their fury at AEA got muddied in a comment by William Hobbs:

“Earlier this year, union members voted on eliminating the 99-seat-theater waiver, and roughly two thirds of about 3,000 votes opposed the union’s plan. The vote was advisory, and the union leaders chose to move forward with the change anyway. . . When you join a union, you have to keep in mind that your interests are secondary to the interests of the union bosses.  Tough luck folks.”

And James Babin’s “curse on both your houses” comment offered a rare example of thoughtful moderation:

“This is an unfortunate example of the people most affected by a situation – the members – being adversely affected by uncompromising positions of leaders on both sides. One is the Review Committee who did not modernize the original agreement. Then Actors’ Equity Association dismissed members’ suggestions of a Tier System to allow companies more time to develop and better foster long-term job growth. Leadership disenfranchised their membership by promulgating a proposal rejected by a 2-1 margin. People like Mr. Asner and Mr. Harris were most likely responding to those types of concerns. Lastly, this contract offers no health insurance.

“Los Angeles intimate theatre is a thriving incubator with a track record of critically acclaimed productions. Many have gone on to other venues, creating jobs along the way. It needs to be treated with the same care as any other small business community.”

Quinn Reboots The Asylum

Matthew Quinn with Paul Birchall

We can stand a little bit of pleasant news, and I was happy to hear that Matthew Quinn, former Artistic Director of the Asylum Theatre, is back and rebooting his former company, which will be re-launched as a production entity with Bertha Rodriguez’s “Combined Artform” shingle.
 
The two companies, melded together into Theatre Asylum/Combined Artform, will be headquartered a mere few doors down from the former Asylum Theater complex on Santa Monica Boulevard’s Theatre Row.  
 
In their press release, the company notes, “Theater Asylum/Combined Artform is a venue management and live performance production company, specializing in working with artists and venues in live performances and festivals.  We offer rental spaces and offer PR and production support.  As producers, we develop our own works as well as co-produce and present top talent from the Hollywood Fringe Festival.”
 
I suspect that the new company, headquartered at 6448 Santa Monica Boulevard and contactable via its website at https://theaterasylum.com, will have its most active days during and after the Hollywood Fringe Festival, which Quinn helps produce.  Quinn’s also known for providing venues for extensions of the more successful and innovative Fringe shows, will likely utilize the space and production skills for such a purpose again.
 
Quinn appears to position the new iteration of Asylum, which, as part of casting entity Studio C, will be part of an entertainment synergy that includes stage, screen, casting, and producing.  If it just allows Quinn to continue the good work he has done with the Fringe, that is good enough for me.
 
“Having over 10 years of fringe experience combined in San Francisco and Los Angeles, I hope with Asylum Consulting to help new producers with their productions in the Hollywood Fringe and beyond,” optimistically noted Quinn in an e-mail to Stage Raw.  “Having our office and solo venue on Theatre Row gives Theater Asylum a presence without a large theater complex to run.  We no longer have to find shows to fill our space – but instead find the right space for the shows we want to produce!”


Davidson Memorial Set for January 9

 
A special memorial celebration honoring the late Center Theatre Group director and founding producer Gordon Davidson will be held at the Ahmanson Theatre downtown on Monday, January 9, right after we have managed to put dreadful 2016 to bed for once and for all.  Davidson, known for his decades of leadership in the Los Angeles theater scene, ran the Ahmanson and Mark Taper for decades, passed away in October.  He was a huge figure locally and nationally, as we reported at the time.  

From our October article, I recalled a few of his career highlights, noting, “ the majority of Angelinos will remember him for his years of glittering prizes, in particular the early ‘90s, when, as Taper Artistic Director, he helped develop and oversaw early productions of Angels in America, Anna Devere Smith’s Twilight, and Robert Schenkkan’s The Kentucky Cycle.”     

The memorial is open to the public, but an RSVP is required and may be made here.  Center Theatre Group publicist Jason Martin noted, “I don’t have a list of participants but it will include the actors, playwrights, directors and staff who worked with Gordon over the years remembering him and the shows they created with him.  The emphasis will be on the passion, love and laughter that Gordon invested in the theater and all of the shows.”     

[ssba]

Paul Birchall’s Got It Covered:

Ed Asner, et al Vs. Actors’ Equity Association, et al dismissed without prejudice.

By Paul Birchall

In news that just broke on Thursday, December 8, U.S. District Court Judge Hatter has dismissed, without prejudice, the complaint brought against Equity by the Pro 99 Plaintiffs.  Each of the four complaints filed against Equity by the Pro99 plaintiffs – that Equity breached the Agreement, breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, breached the duty of fair representation, and violated the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act’s equal rights guarantee – have now been dismissed. The decision, posted earlier today by Footlights, may be found here. 

As far as the complaint on the breach of contract claim is concerned, Hatter suggests that the Plaintiff’s “do not sufficiently allege” that Equity’s actions are not inconsistent with the original agreement with the 99-seat Producers.

He notes that the obligation for Equity to consider changes to their proposal was met by their holding the referendum (which was ignored) and by meeting with the 99-Seat Review Committee on February 18, 20, and 21 of 2015.  

In the discussion of breach of implied covenant, Hatter believes that “no express provision of the Agreement has been breached.”  “The court finds (no facts) that demonstrate the alleged actions, such as Equity’s alleged lack of neutrality through the proposal process, constitute a frustration of Asner’s expectations under the express covenants of the Agreement.”  

 As far as dismissing the third complaint, that of the breach of the duty of fair representation, Hatter notes, “The majority of Equity’s alleged actions, such as not remaining neutral and refusing to meet with the Review Committee… can be characterized as not cooperative, deceitful, or dishonest.  To the extent that certain alleged statements… may be probative of deceit or dishonesty (and this Order does not decide whether the statements are)… these facts cannot satisfy the requirement that the Complaint allege “substantial evidence of bad faith.”  

 In the matter of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act claim, Hatter notes that the 2015 referendum, which suggested overwhelming local member approval for the maintaining of the 99-seat scene, was “merely advisory, as opposed to binding on the ultimate decision maker.”  “Thus, whether there were irregularities in the voting has no bearing on the validity of the Council’s decision to abolish the 99-Seat Theater Plan and does not give rise to a cognizable claim.”

 This is, obviously, quite bad news for the local theater scene and we will need to take some time to absorb just what all this means and how we will react to it.  Already, we are seeing several  Facebook posts from Equity actors who are vowing to go rogue and act secretly (and, yes, illegally) on 99 seat stages.  Others are seriously discussing the notion of going FiCore, a topic discussed at length in journalist Myron Meisel’s excellent earlier Stage Raw article. 

 We do note that the complaints were dismissed “without prejudice,” which generally means it can be re-filed, but whether the Plaintiffs have the energy or the funding to continue this battle may be worth considering.