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Paul Birchall’s Got It Covered
This Week’s Roundup: L.A. Theatrical Think Tanks; Antaeus Does Kickstarter; Will WeHo Breathe New Life into the Coast Theatre?
By Paul Birchall
Report from the Latest LA Stage Alliance Forum.
Steven Leigh Morris, far right, presides over last week’s LASA forum at Theatre of NOTE (photo by Paul Birchall)
Over the past year or so, we’ve witnessed a rather intriguing phenomenon: the rise of the theatrical think tank.
I don’t think theater folks have ever been reluctant to engage in profound naval gazing, but nowadays the discussion has become codified and sanctioned. If there is one good thing to have come out of the entire AEA/Pro-99 debacle, it’s this: The folks who live and do their art here are now more united than ever before. Last year, the topic “Which way for L.A. Theater” was addressed in a surprising number of venues and settings. During the summer, it took place within the scrappy, practitioner-based Los Angeles theatre network; then, in the fall and through December, it manifested in Stage Raw’s “Visualizing the Invisible” arts coverage symposia.
And over the last couple of weeks LASA executive director Steven Leigh Morris has been conducting a series of talkbacks at various theaters around the city. The purpose of the listening tour is to gain feedback for Morris’s plan for a series of arts districts in different regions of the city. My Stage Raw colleague Vanessa Cate covered the first of these meetings, which was held at the NoHo Arts Center, while I was pleased to attend the second one at Hollywood’s Theatre of NOTE.
From reading Cate’s coverage, it would seem that the mood at the first event was resigned and a little downbeat, with speakers bemoaning theater’s aging audience demographic. By contrast, the second forum appeared to take a more upbeat tone. There were about 20 attendees, including some theatrical high flyers, who offered a surprisingly proactive take on the issues confronting Los Angeles theater artists.
Matt Chait, owner of the Complex Theatres, expressed doubt about Morris’s plan to create several different theatrical hubs around the city. “We already have a hub,” Chait noted. “And it could use some good will and attention — we’re really struggling.” Chait pragmatically noted that his concerns were related to concrete issues such as escalating rents, greedy local developers and parking.
Chil Kong — former co-artistic director of the now-shuttered Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and a member of the LA Stage Alliance’s Ovation committee — commented in like vein, “We have an infrastructure problem. It’s not just the theaters — we have people managing these theaters who simply should not be managing them.”
“We must be careful of an us-against -them mentality,” responded Morris. “If you want to create longstanding relationships with the community, you have to think about the future.”
Los Angeles director Diana Wyenn agreed, “We need people who can think outside of the box.”
Kickstarting Antaeus
Armin Shimerman, right, as William Shakespeare in Antaeus’ Kickstarter video (photo: Kickstarter screen capture)
Enjoying a fine ride on the crowdfunding train is the Antaeus Theater Company, whose Kickstarter campaign video launched last Wednesday with an extremely engaging pitch by co-artistic director Armin Shimerman.
In the video, Shimmerman and a number of Antaeus fellow legends, including Bill Brochtrup, Gregory Itzin and Linda Park, showcase themselves in an attempt to raise money for their newly leased space in Glendale.
I have to confess I was surprised to learn that Antaeus is leaving their longtime digs in North Hollywood to move to Glendale. It seems to me that Antaeus is as much a staple of the North Hollywood scene as Universal Studios, and that their departure to points further east represents a massive sea change.
Still, I adore their fundraising campaign. According to their press release, the company has already raised over a million dollars, much of it in donations from some of the company’s more illustrious celebrity participants.
To reach their final goal of $1.7 million, however, the company has turned to Kickstarter. For a comparatively modest fifty bucks, a veteran Antaeus performer will tweet a bona fide Shakespearean curse to the friend (or more likely enemy) of your choice. While there are material incentives available for bigger donations, it would be hard to pass up an insult from Armin Shimerman or Gregory Itzin. Really, if you could choose between the one hundred-buck tote bag or two fifty-buck insults, I know which I’d go for.
New Life for the Coast?
Photo courtesy of the Coast Playhouse
Big news from West Hollywood, where the City Council is poised to consider purchasing the long vacant Coast Playhouse, which is for sale for $2.4 million.
Wehoville is reporting that consideration of the purchase was on the City Council’s agenda last Tuesday evening. “The Coast Playhouse redevelopment and activation will anchor a potential center city arts district in the City,” Wehoville quotes the staff report.
The Coast is one of the area’s great small theater venues, and I cannot count the number of shows I‘ve seen there — some amazing, some less so. I could not be more excited at the thought of the city coming together to give this venerable spot a new lease on life.
On Wednesday West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran posted on Facebook the City’s official plans regarding the theater: “For years now I have been arguing that the City must subsidize the arts. The performing arts cannot exist on just ticket sales. This means that the City has to step into the market forces and bootstrap the arts in order for them to exist. With the opening of the new automated parking garage behind City Hall, this area could become an arts district with the Coast, the Macha and yes — even Hamburger Mary’s!”
Duran concluded by hinting, “Now to get the Celebration Theater back in WeHo ASAP!” Sharing this Facebook post on his own page, Celebration Theater Co-Artistic Director Michael Shepperd’s response was an understandable “Well, ain’t this something.”
