MUCH ADO ABOUT THE DOOLITTLE

Well, the waiting is over. Color the first three shows that will kick off the inaugural season of the Doolittle Theatre (formerly the Huntington Hartford) eclectic.

Martha Clarke’s exotic “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” which launches the renovated house Oct. 9-27, is the only real surprise. It will be followed by the previously scheduled pair of Stratford Theatre Festival productions from Canada (“King Lear” and “Twelfth Night,” to be brought in Nov. 8-16 by the UCLA Committee on Fine Arts Productions). And last comes the much-talked-about Bob Telson/Lee Breuer “Gospel at Colonus” (Nov. 27-Dec. 15), a musical megashow hitherto promised but not pinned down.

“It’s been an interesting problem,” said Gordon Davidson, artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum and in charge of coordinating the programming for Theatre Group Inc., a joint venture of UCLA and the Center Theatre Group that owns and operates the Doolittle.

“We’re creating another theater, a new identity, and it involves a lot more people, but for the first time I haven’t minded doing things by committee. Interesting things have been brought to the table.”

The choices made are exciting because they’re not just esoteric but artistically accomplished. “Earthly Delights,” inspired by the Hieronymus Bosch triptych of the same name, was a sleeper that began at New York’s St. Clements in March, 1984. It ran 15 performances to enough acclaim that it reopened in November, toured Spain and North Carolina and comes to delight us on its way to Massachusetts.

With composer Richard Peaslee, Clarke has created a performance piece that, like the triptych itself, blends ecstasy, innocence, sensuality and terror. Clarke’s background as a dancer--she was a member of the Anna Sokolow Dance Company and of Pilobolus (1972-78)--strongly influenced the production. The company is described as flying from the stage and sailing over the heads of its audience--literally, not figuratively. No wonder it won a Drama Desk award for “unique theatrical experience.”

“Colonus,” in development since 1981, also has had a snowball evolution. It was performed “in progress” in Europe (Avignon, 1981; Edinburgh, 1982) and at various festivals here (including Denver’s World Theatre Festival of 1982). When the Brooklyn Academy of Music picked it up for full production as part of its “next wave” festival that year, it became the hit of the event--with an Obie to prove it.

“The biggest missing link is the Broadway show, of which there aren’t any,” Davidson said, acknowledging that the group has a commitment to those too.

“Plays like ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and ‘Hurlyburly’ don’t automatically pick up and travel any more. They have to be financed, and it takes from $500,000 to $1 million to produce a show. The Doolittle’s main uses will be to bring things in, transfer hit shows and occasionally produce. Our ability to produce will be hampered by funding.”

If these are the hard realities, they’re not lowering artistic goals. After “Earthly Delights,” UCLA and the newly formed American Cinematheque expect to do a tribute to New York’s Museum of Modern Art for its contributions to film (“I believe in crossover audiences”). And look at what’s being discussed for 1986:

Aside from becoming the new home of the Taper rep, the Doolittle may host Robert Wilson’s “Golden Windows,” a piece developed in Munich before “the CIVIL WarS” (“The problem again is finances”) and--ready for this?--Broadway’s “Sunday in the Park With George.”

“Expensive,” Davidson stressed, “but it’s the right house for it.”

As for “As Is,” rumored earlier as a possible season opener: “We’re working on it. The producers backed off because they didn’t want to put it together so fast.”

Will the Doolittle then be a year-round operation?

“There’s a certain obligation to try to do that,” Davidson said.

The Theatre Group Inc., looking to create an artistic identity for itself, is on a welcome track. It bears a name that reaches back to halcyon days in the early ‘60s when Davidson ran a creative company of nearly the same name on the UCLA campus that was later invited to become the Taper.

At worst, this latter-day Theatre Group’s first selections are loaded with potential. Added to the city’s heady fall lineup--which includes the Los Angeles Playgoers Series at the Fonda and Wilshire theaters (“Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Old Times” with Liv Ullmann and Harold Pinter and “Aren’t We All?” with Claudette Colbert and Rex Harrison) and the new Los Angeles Theatre Center’s battery of new shows--they merely crowd an already exciting field.

Is there danger in too much competition? Never. The crowded calendar of last year’s Olympic Arts Festival found audiences it never knew it had. If they’ve been waiting for something to whet their appetites again, it could be just around the corner. There are no guarantees, but, as Davidson put it, “This is as intense a period as we’ve ever had. You don’t have to fly to London to see a lot of theater.”

CALLBOARD: Opening night for Georg Buchner’s “Leonce and Lena” at Stages is Monday. To celebrate the centennial of the comedy’s first staging outdoors in Munich, director Paul Verdier is also placing his production outdoors--in Hollywood.

--Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s “Letters Home,” a play based on Sylvia Plath’s letters to her mother, launches the new alumni CalArts Theatre Company Friday through Sunday only in the campus Coffee House Theatre. It’s a modest three-performance/two-character beginning to an ambitious project. There’s no admission, but call for reservations, (805) 255-1050, ext. 2503. Valencia is a drive.

CREATIVE FUND-RAISERS: A spate of them this week.

Want auction action? Wander over to 13242 Magnolia Blvd. in Van Nuys (a cultural heritage landmark) Saturday at 5:30 p.m., where one-of-a-kind celebrity doodles will be going-going-gone. There will be cocktails and canapes and the cash will benefit the Back Alley Theatre, (818) 781-2240.

That night at 8, bring out the Brylcreem and poodle skirts and swing back to the ‘50s with the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Jailhouse Rock Casino. You may place your bets on the prison set of GMT studios, Culver City. The dealers will collect, but the theater benefits,(213) 851-3771.

And for something really upscale, join the equestrian crowd in Griffith Park at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 21 for box dinners and a celebrity pregame polo match between the cast of “Knots Landing” (Bill Devane, captain) and the cast of “Airwolf” (Alex Cord, captain).

The pro-match kicks off at 8:30 p.m. Tickets cover the works. Beneficiary is Room for Theatre, (818) 509-0459.