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Paul Birchall’s Got It Covered:

Sacred Fools Theater Company Packs its Bags for Hollywood

By Paul Birchall

Sacred Fools’ Heliotrope Ave. stage

In a development that bucks the recent trend of landlord-gouged itinerancy among Los Angeles’ intimate-stage theater companies, East Hollywood’s award-winning Sacred Fools Theater Company revealed today that it is leaving its Heliotrope Avenue home of 19 years after acquiring the Hollywood stages formerly known Elephant/Asylum Complex at 1076 Lillian Way on Santa Monica Boulevard’s Theater Row. 

The five-theater complex, which includes the Lillian, Asylum and Elephant theaters, had closed in September after the building’s owner completed a deal to sell the property that subsequently fell through.

A press release cited a combination of rising rent and the production limitations at the Heliotrope stage, which the company will vacate by the end of this month.

The future Hollywood home of Sacred Fools at the Lillian.

Sacred Fools managing director Padraic Duffy explained to Stage Raw that the move was only partly due to rent increases.

“Part of it was that the rent was just going up and up,” Duffy said. “But we had also slowly become more and more aware that we’ve been limited in terms of space and scope for the type of shows we’ve wanted to do. We’d been doing a soft search for a new space for a while. [The Hollywood complex] will allow us to double down in the area.”

Sacred Fools board president Bruno Oliver added that the company had long wanted to be closer to Hollywood, but exorbitant rents seemed to put the district out of its financial reach. When the Elephant/Asylum suddenly became available in November, however, Duffy’s parents, the actor Patrick Duffy and his wife Carlyn offered to acquire the property and serve as the theater’s landlords.

“We needed an angel, and they said if you find the right place at the right price, come to us and let us know,” Oliver said. “We want to make it clear, Patrick and Carlyn Duffy are the owners of the theater.”   

Oliver added that the company plans to complete the move in January and has scheduled their inaugural production, Padraic Duffy’s Past Time, for a February opening. “We’ll be out of the Heliotrope space in the end of the month. Then it’s going to be ‘Sacred Fools at the Lillian!’”

As for the other theaters, he said it will take time to renovate them and the plans are as yet not clear as to how they will be used. Options being considered are renting the stages to other theater companies or using the venues for invited productions. 

“There are so many companies in turmoil,” Duffy reflected, “it’s great that we can now say ‘you don’t have a space, come rent here and do your awesome show!”

Oliver also vowed to maintain complex as a venue for the annual Hollywood Fringe Festival.

“Our plans are to have as many spaces as possible for the Fringe,” he offered. “Not all of the spaces may be available right away, but we’ll see. We believe in the Fringe, our intention is to make as much space for the Fringe as possible.”

“We haven’t sat down with the Fringe producers,” interjected Duffy, but we are excited to jump in and are waiting to find out how.”