Burbank Officers Get Into the Act : Police, Guns Add Realism to Terrorism Drama

The point of the staging at the little theater in Burbank was to draw the audience into a play about terrorism and make them feel they were part of the action. The realism succeeded all too well for the Burbank Police.

For a few tense minutes Saturday night, police with drawn guns surrounded the Burbank Theater Guild in George Izay Park, where a dozen actors brandishing what looked like machine guns and wearing guerrilla garb were holding 100 theatergoers “hostage” during the intermission of a play about the hijacking of an airliner.

The actors’ machine guns, automatic rifles and grenades were plastic toys, but the officers who rolled up to the scene in darkened squad cars did not know that, producers of the play said.

With their real weapons drawn, about four officers stepped from the shadows shortly after 9:30 p.m., said assistant producer Joan Nelson, who was standing with patrons on a patio outside the theater at intermission. The light from a police helicopter circling overhead illuminated the confrontation.

‘Feared for My Actors’

“At first, I feared for my actors,” Nelson said. “In their battle fatigues and camouflage, they look real, very real. It is almost impossible to tell whether they are actors or terrorists. Thank God, nobody was hurt.”

Nelson said she spent the next hour trying to convince police that the simulated hostage scene was part of the play, titled, “Gate 11.”

Police dismissed the incident as a misunderstanding. Burbank Police Lt. J. Ferrand said officers left within minutes of their arrival. He added, however, that calls from neighbors of the theater who witnessed the actors appearing to hold guns on a group of captives made it sound “like a heavyweight deal.”

The drama is about the hijacking of a U.S. passenger jet bound from Los Angeles to Athens. Customers enter the theater, which has been made to look like the interior of a jetliner, under a sign that reads, “Gate 11,” then pass through a metal detector before reaching their seats, which are equipped with seat belts.

Portrays Hijacking

As the play unfolds, the flight is “hijacked” and members of the audience become hostages as it “flies” to a fictitious Arab country called “Lyranon.”

At the end of the first act, the actors playing terrorists tell the audience that they have just landed at Lyranon’s only airport and that they will have 15 minutes “for exercise and to use the washrooms.” As the patrons leave the theater, the actors portraying terrorists keep close tabs on the theatergoers movements, standing guard over them as they mill about during intermission on the patio, and even escorting them to and from the rest rooms, Nelson said.

“When the police arrived, all of the customers loved it,” Nelson said. “They thought they were part of the act. Some told me it was the most realistic drama they had ever seen.”

The play has been running every Friday and Saturday night at the 99-seat theater since Sept. 20, but until Saturday night, police had not received any calls about the unusual intermission.

Nelson believes that nearby residents probably had not noticed the intermission before, because until last weekend the park had been used at night by city softball leagues. When the softball diamonds are lighted, she said, it is difficult to see the theater’s patio from the surrounding residential area.

Police Got Calls

“The police told us they received about two dozen calls warning of gunmen and hostages,” Nelson said.

However, Ferrand said police received only one call from a woman who had been alerted about the “men carrying weapons” by two teen-agers who went to her home near the park and asked her to call authorities after the youths had walked past the theater at intermission and saw the simulated hostage scene.

When asked if an over-eager member of the production might have called police to generate pub licity, Nelson said: “Not a chance. But if I had thought of it, I would have done it long ago.”

A host of city officials knew about the play, but nobody forewarned police, Ferrand said. Because the City of Burbank owns the theater, all plays must be reviewed and approved by city officials. Nelson said special attention was paid to this script because of highly publicized terrorist acts abroad in recent months. Nearly two dozen Burbank officials, including Mayor Mary Lou Howard, sat in on rehearsals before approving the play, Nelson said.

“The subject cuts close to the heart for a lot of Americans,” said Nelson, who described it as a “rousing patriotic drama” which ends with a U.S. president issuing an order to drop a nuclear bomb on the hijacked plane rather than negotiate with the terrorists.

Written by Pilot

“Some city officials just wanted to make sure it (the play) was appropriate,” she said.

The play was written by a U.S. pilot, who does not want to be publicly identified, she said, adding that a jetliner he was piloting was the target of an unsuccessful hijacking attempt several years ago.

“It is very real, and that’s what makes it so strong and gripping,” Nelson said. “But last night it almost got too real--even for me.”