A New Theater Has Directors and Students in Mind; ‘Into the Woods’ but Not Into L.A.; Memorial for James Coco

A new theater is in the birthing. Its name is ADT at the LEX, which stands for A Director’s Theatre at 6760 LEX-ington Ave. in Hollywood. More significantly, its artistic director is Dorothy Lyman, who comes armed with specific ideas and solid credits (among them, the New York and touring production of “A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking,” “Loving Reno” in New York and, in Los Angeles, “Vicious” and “Livin’ on Salvation Street”).

What does Lyman want ADT to be? What the name says--a place where directors get to flex their muscles, something she claims is not so easy to find. Plans also include the creation of a directors’ unit and a playwriting competition to be started with the help of the California secondary schools.

“It was a warehouse where the Los Angeles Times used to bundle its papers for home delivery,” Lyman said of her new theater, next to the existing McCadden Place Theatre. “We’re renting and we’re going to keep it as a flexible performance space, with the audience seated on movable risers.”

Lyman plans six productions in the inaugural season: three to be directed by established stage, film and television professionals (herself included)--and three by directing graduates from various schools and colleges.

“We need opportunities and people willing to take chances on student directors. Certainly no one particularly encouraged my directing career,” Lyman said.

“A member of the board of our theater, Steven Book, is on the faculty at UCLA and will spearhead the search,” she explained. “We’ll go to California schools first. I intend to go on the recommendation of professors. Once we zero in and pick these kids, we’ll ask questions. We’ll read and discuss and select (plays) with them, but I’d like to give these young directors carte blanche with material.”

To kick off the first season, Lyman will stage “A Quality of Mercy,” a new work by Roma Greth that begins previews April 9 and opens April 23.

“It’s about forgiveness. That’s what attracted me,” she said. “It’s a family play, but the argument is political--about a family in the Midwest trying to deal with the return of their politically radical daughter. It’s also set in a period of time that interests me--the ‘60s and early ‘70s.” Karin Argoud, Marie Cheatham, Natasha Kautsky, Allan Kayser, Herb Mitchell and Adam R. Nelson constitute the cast.

Joining Lyman in the ADT’s first season are directors Bill Duke and Penelope Spheeris. Duke, who works primarily in television, will be staging “Some Sweet Day,” a drama by Nancy Fales Garrett about a black family’s troubled decision to surrender the family farm, expected to open in July.

Spheeris (whose films, “Suburbia” and “The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization,” aroused their share of attention) will make her directorial stage debut in October with a property that’s still being negotiated. “All three plays,” Lyman said, “have the family as their underlying theme.”

As to why she decided to start her own theater, Lyman said, “The first play I did in Los Angeles (“Vicious”) cost me $30,000 and the second (“Salvation Street”) $25,000. I’ve learned since then that you don’t have to spend that kind of money. I’m sharing this space and splitting the $1,100-a-month rent. To rent an equivalent (existing) theater would cost about $1,800 a weekend-- Thursday to Sunday. You can see it’s landlords who’re in the catbird seat.”

Old story. Budget for ADT’s first year of operation is a relatively modest $100,000. Is it in place?

“So far we have enough to do the renovation and mount the first production in April,” Lyman said. “We’re going to have to count on private contributions this first year. You can’t get grants until you’ve established yourself. But we have a strong board and I think we’ll make it. We also may be able to persuade the colleges to contribute to the emerging directors’ program, in terms of transportation, perhaps, and room and board.”

THE RUMOR MILL: All hope of “Into the Woods” coming to the Ahmanson this summer is, to quote a spokesman for the theater, “dead in the water--something to do with the kind of financial deal the producers were looking for.”

Too bad, because this sly Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical-in-the-works, which had its opening at the San Diego Old Globe in December, is a send-up of an assortment of Grimm fairy tales that’s just playful enough to constitute lighthearted summer fare.

The loss cuts all the more deeply since the Ahmanson risks remaining dark all summer--the latest casualty of dwindling Big House product and mounting costs. . . .

REMEMBRANCES: A celebration of the life of actor James Coco, who died Feb. 25, will be held March 20, 11:30 a.m., at the Mark Taper Forum. Paying tribute will be friends and colleagues, including playwright Neil Simon, Eileen Brennan, Joan Rivers, John Ritter, Doris Roberts and Renee Taylor.

A memorial gathering for Daily Variety theater columnist and critic Bill Edwards will take place Tuesday , 7:30 p.m., at the Variety Arts Center. Edwards, 57, died last Thursday from complications of heart trouble. He had covered Los Angeles theater for the last 20 years and was known by the abbreviated Variety byline Edwa .