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Skylight Theatre and Playwrights’ Arena Join Forces
As the pandemic lingers, small L.A. theaters soldier on
By Deborah Klugman
Jon Lawrence Rivera directs Cheri-VandenHeuvel and Donna Simone Johnson in A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER, Ben Altman in seating bank behind Rivera; photo at top: Gary Grossman and Rivera. (All photos by Jenny Graham)
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Meanwhile Skylight Theatre, under Grossman’s direction, has concentrated on showcasing socially relevant drama — what Grossman likes to refer to as “newspaper” theater.
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It’s a Monday morning, not yet post-pandemic, at the Skylight Theatre on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. In the cramped, cluttered office backstage, the company’s artistic director of 38 years, Gary Grossman, sits with his new partner, Jon Lawrence Rivera, artistic director, since 1992, of another of L.A.s pioneering theater entities, Playwrights Arena. We’re discussing the whys and wherefores of the recent collaboration between these two passionate veterans of the L.A. theater community, along with talk about their upcoming production of African-American playwright Inda Craig-Galván new drama, A Hit Dog Will Holler, which Rivera is directing.
Holler centers on two Black women and their reaction to the tidal wave of racist violence and unrest that has swept this nation and shows no signs of abating. The decision to make Craig-Galván’s play their inaugural production falls readily in line with the mission of each company to date. With Rivera at the helm, Playwrights Arena has been committed to the discovery and nurturing of new local playwrights and the promoting of a diversity of original voices. Meanwhile Skylight Theatre, under Grossman’s direction, has concentrated on showcasing socially relevant drama — what Grossman likes to refer to as “newspaper” theater. Since 2011, Skylight also has been actively developing new plays through its own workshop program.
This year, a new chapter begins. Why have Grossman and Rivera come together now?
Playwright Inda Craig Galvan
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A number of factors helped prompt this collaboration, not least of which is AB5, the 2019 California law mandating the reclassification of millions of independent contractors to employee status.
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“The pandemic has affected everyone,” says Grossman without hesitation. “I don’t think any company or business is the same. And we gotta find a whole new model in order to work in our industry… The idea of small companies, small 99-seat theater companies surviving in this climate, it’s going to be very difficult.”
A number of factors helped prompt this collaboration, not least of which is AB5, the 2019 California law mandating the reclassification of millions of independent contractors to employee status. Aimed at curbing the abuses of deep-pocket companies like Lyft and Uber, the law has been a crushing boondoggle for struggling non-Equity theater, exponentially increasing the production costs of small companies by requiring that they pay actors and staff minimum wage. There are other rising expenditures that must be dealt with —the tripling price of lumber and other materials and the anticipated rise in rent, which landlords have kept in abeyance since the beginning of the pandemic, but which is sure to change. Considering all this, “what we’re doing seems to be the best and viable source to keep true viable companies surviving,” Grossman says.
Rivera agrees. “I think the pandemic certainly was a pause, to reflect, and to really plan, what is ahead of us.” He believes the collaboration is a natural step.
“This is an easy in my mind…I’m very much invested in diversity and making sure that we are a multicultural company,” says Rivera, who is Filipino-American. “And Gary feels the same way. I think if Skylight Theater was only a whitetheatre company, it would be a great challenge…. I don’t think we have that challenge…. we are really simpatico in the way that we are moving forward…We are in tune with what stories we want to tell.”
“Our challenge,” Rivera continues,” is money.” Funding has always been challenging for Playwrights Arena — as it has for most 99-seat theaters —but AB5’s passage made meeting that challenge nearly impossible. “All of a sudden, you don’t have all of the resources. And the only way that you could continue producing is to partner with somebody who does.”
Expediency, however, does not reflect the whole picture. Both Grossman and Rivera see an opportunity to build something that’s far more visionary and inclusive than what either has done in the past.
As Grossman puts it: “This idea of expanding our story, telling the whole story, not just the white story, not just the black story, not just black and white, but disabled and Native American and gender identity — gender fluid and all of this kind of thing. —then we’re talking about what America is, and what Los Angeles looks like.”
The pandemic and events like the murder of George Floyd have intensified this focus on diversity and social justice, translating into a commitment of at least 50% BIPOC casting in each production.
“We’re very aware of the world that we’re in, our obligation in response to George Floyd,” Rivera comments. “Those unfortunate moments in our time, we need to make sure that we reflect that not only on our stage, but in everything that we do.”
That means applying the principle of diversity not just to the cast, but to the playwrights, the designers and support staff. “If we have a diverse cast, and then we have all white men designers, then we’re not really responding…” The goal is to make sure that “you have all the voices together in the room.”
“Socially conscious casting” is in the Skylight Theatre’s mission statement. But how is this different from color-blind casting, like when you cast people of color in traditionally white roles?
VandenHeuval and Rogers, in rehearsal
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Some playwrights, Rivera notes, designate ethnicity or gender in their script but others do not. “A lot of playwrights just list ‘mother, daughter, nurse, boss’, whatever, right? But automatically, the default is that they’re all going to be white.” Then it becomes up to the director to choose.
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“Color blind casting is something that’s being put away,” Rivera answers. He defines the term as casting a person of color for the sake of it, rather than for any specific reason related to the material. Color conscious casting, by contrast, is when the choosing of an actor of specific ethnicity or gender adds complexity to the character and, by extension, the play. “…you’re actually saying, I want an African American woman for this role. I want a Filipina Actress for this other role, because this is what culturally will elevate this character.”
Some playwrights, Rivera notes, designate ethnicity or gender in their script but others do not. “A lot of playwrights just list ‘mother, daughter, nurse, boss’, whatever, right? But automatically, the default is that they’re all going to be white.” Then it becomes up to the director to choose.
Grossman’s view as producer is a shade different: his perspective is the big picture — “the optics,” he calls it. This means making sure that whatever project he’s overseeing is inclusive and reflects the real world. “Are we using as many females as we should? How many directors of color? How many women writers?” These are the kinds of ongoing questions, he maintains, that ensure that the commitment to diversity will be met.
Have been any conflicts or adjustments that needed to be made now that they’ve partnered?
Not really, indicates Grossman. “This is not a round peg in a square hole —this is two round pegs.”
Rivera agrees but says: “We both have strong personalities. We both have run our own companies for 30 years or so. With Playwrights Arena, I’m a one-man operation. I’m the marketing, I’m the web design, like everything, right? And so, the learning curve for me is that Gary has set up infrastructure with Skylight. And there are other people in that world. And so, it’s me discovering, oh, there is a marketing person oh, there is a social media person.” There are people doing things “that I would just normally just do by myself.”
Why A Hit Dog Will Holler as the opening production?
Skylight Theatre’s 2021-2022 season playwrights: Roger Q. Mason, Sigrid Gilmer, Inda Craig-Galván, Boni Alvarez.
“When Gary and I were trying to sort out the season, we each had four plays,” recalls Rivera. “But we can’t do an eight-play season because money is hard. And some of these plays have six to eight characters. But this one is a two-character play.
“[At Playwrights Arena] We were going to do it last year. We were just getting ready to rehearse it and then came March 15, the pandemic shutdown, so we never got into rehearsals or anything like that. But I made a commitment to the shows that we were going to do, that we do them whenever we resurface.”
Holler is about “how black women have been feeling about the racism that is out there, and how overwhelmingly it affects them… It’s reflected in several beautiful surreal moments in the play where [one of the characters] cannot leave the house because the racism outside is too much for a black woman… And so that was already a powerful statement in 2020…”
The play was written prior to the pandemic, but Craig-Galván rewrote it to take place in the middle of the pandemic.
“And here we are in November of 2021: It has a much deeper meaning right now, because we have all been at home, feeling the injustice to black people, the racism that was out there, the horrible moments and images that we had witnessed…
“So, it’s really an amazing play that truly reflects where we are today.”
A Hit Dog Will Holler, written by Inda Craig-Galvan, opens at the Skylight Theatre on Nov. 6 and plays through December 12. 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz; Fri.-Sat., 8:30 pm; Sun., 3 pm; Mon., 7:30 p.m.; through December 12. Co-presented by The Skylight Theatre and Playwrights’ Arena: skylighttheatrecompany.com
