ACTORS TUNING IN TO A REBIRTH OF RADIO : Theater Group’s New Venture to Air Live

Put 34 famous actors--including Ed Asner, Richard Dreyfuss, Harry Hamlin, Amy Irving, Stacy Keach, John Lithgow, Marsha Mason, JoBeth Williams and Michael York--together in one room and what’ve you got? Talent, of course. Egos, sure. A devotion to theater? In this case, yes.

They’ve formed L.A. Classic Theatre Works, a group of locally based, very visible performers who plan to produce and star in their own stage and radio-drama productions. Its first effort will be a fund-raising performance Sunday of Kaufman and Hart’s “Once in a Lifetime” at Culver Studios, to be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on KCRW-FM (89.9).

“It started 1 1/2 years ago when Judith Auberjonois told me about this idea she’d been ruminating in her small but mighty brain,” said Susan Albert Loewenberg, producing director of the company’s parent group, L.A. Theatre Works.

The premise: that Los Angeles was home and workplace to some of the world’s best-known, often stage-trained actors--who’d probably relish the chance to stay in town, choose their own productions and tread the boards with other established professionals.

“It sounded like a long shot,” Loewenberg admitted. All those people with their high-profile careers and ever-busy schedules: Would they have the time, the energy, the inclination ? Still, she was intrigued. “Why don’t you pursue this,” she told Auberjonois, “and see how far you get.”

Auberjonois promptly enlisted the services of her actor-husband Rene and began making a lot of phone calls. “I’ve talked to a couple of actors recently,” noted the former ACT member, “who’ve said, ‘Why didn’t you come to me a year and a half ago?’ I tell them, ‘You just weren’t in my Rolodex.’ ”

She smiled. “I really just started with that. Not that people we know are the only ones in this company. Yes, recognition is a factor. But major stardom is not. I’ve heard some people say, ‘Oh, a bunch of elitist actors’--well, you have to start with a certain criterion.

“Also, I knew that actors would like knowing who they were getting into bed with, having that known quotient. And sure, we want to attract audiences. These actors have reached a level of achievement--so they have recognizability, reputation, stardom, celebrity status. It’s just cream rising to the top. Anyway, why shouldn’t we start with the best, reach for that?”

Also fervent is the idea of company--and equality.

“I like to think I have an egalitarian attitude,” nodded Auberjonois, “that no one is better, or more important, than anyone else. But sure, some are not as able to approach, say, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ as Bob Foxworth (who’s currently playing Antony at the Old Globe in San Diego). . . . What I’d like to establish is some sort of persona of an American classic theater company, having a style that’s informed by this city of light we live in: dynamic, spread-out, on the edge of the continent--a pioneer spirit.”

Not everyone they approached shared that spirit. In fact, established actors in the 50- to 60-year-old age group proved a particularly tough sell: people obviously looking towards retirement, not this kind of artistic and economic commitment. Those who have joined understand well the balancing act that may be required in their professional lives as they juggle stage work with film and TV.

“We have to respect their need to making a living in television and film,” Loewenberg said firmly. “Because when they’re working for us, it’s at a nonprofit salary--$400 to 600 a week, where they could be making $5,000 to 20,000 in commercial theater. So one idea is that people will be double-cast or (will) replace each other in (mid) run, or switch large/small roles--if it’s appropriate.”

Multiple roles may also be the way to go. On Thanksgiving Day, L.A. Classic Theatre Works will present an 11-hour radio broadcast on KCRW of Sinclair Lewis’ “Babbitt” (with the company sharing narration and 90 roles). And planned for 1988: a full staging of the Brecht/Weill “Threepenny Opera”--which, stressed Loewenberg, “has a lot to do with what’s going on now in the Iran- contra hearings: the level of corruption in our sacred institutions vis-a-vis corruption in the criminal world.

“My greatest terror is boring people,” Loewenberg continued. “Unfortunately, one often associates the word ‘classic’ with boredom, sometimes with good reason. But we want to rekindle audience interest in the great plays, whether it be Shakespeare, Moliere, Sophocles, Ibsen, Albee, Pinter, Sam Shepard--stuff with shelf life: enduring, landmark work. And always done with a sense of surprise, which you can only get doing what I call highly modern work.

“I remember when I saw the Suzuki Company do ‘Trojan Women’ during the Olympic Arts Festival, realizing that everyone in that production had lived through Hiroshima. It was quite different from the Royal Shakespeare Company doing ‘Much Ado’: highly polished, beautiful sets, competent acting--but I thought to myself, ‘This is a museum piece. It doesn’t resonate with anything in the 20th Century.’ And ultimately, it bored me.

“I don’t do that kind of work. I think if you want people to leave their VCRs and come to the theater, you’ve got to give them something they’re not going to see on television or movies. So that’s what we have to offer: this notion of how to do the work--and this spectacular group of actors.”

But don’t expect any vanity showcases.

“We’ve all seen productions like that,” Loewenberg said. “But this is not that; the actors are very clear about it. They’re doing this so they can learn something new, surround themselves with a creative team. It’s very much an artistic commitment--and a financial one. We’ve asked each member to make a two-year commitment of $6,000 to seed the company. That’s important in both a symbolic and a real sense: They’ve really put their money where their mouths are.”

Tickets for Sunday’s event are $50 for attendance at the broadcast, $250 for “a supper dance with music, stars and yummy food.” For information: (213) 658-5765.