Everything’s in Place at Theatre LA; A Three-Play Season for the Taper, Too

Theatre LA, an abbreviation of Theater League Alliance, reflects the now fully official merger of the Los Angeles Theatre Alliance and the League of Los Angeles Producers into a single service organization for theater in Los Angeles.

And not a moment too soon.

The only other such support system--the California Theatre Council--recently vacated its local offices, opting to reorganize without headquarters, because, explained council president Stephen Albert (who is also managing director of the Mark Taper Forum and co-chair of the board of governors for Theatre LA), “we concluded, after sending out a statewide questionnaire, that the council’s advocacy job was essentially done and that smaller, local service organizations (such as Theatre LA) could do more.”

At an inaugural press conference Monday, Theatre LA’s executive director, Karen Rushfield, outlined some of the new organization’s goals: a local advocacy program (which supports Councilman Joel Wachs’ current efforts to create a city endowment for the arts), an information pool (including data on performance and rehearsal space rentals), a non-traditional casting project, a job bank and workshops on all aspects of theater. (The first of these is Monday, 1 p.m., at the Tiffany Theatre on “Advertising Your Production.” For more information, call (213) 614-0556.)

Also on the list: audience development (featuring a half-price ticketing plan), problem-solving roundtable discussions, cooperative services (joint medical and liability insurance and advertising programs) and annual awards.

But it’s the organization’s promise of stability that impresses. Modeled on the lines of the highly effective League of Chicago Theatres, Theatre LA receives about $70,000 a year in funding that stems from dues (there are 68 member theaters), advertising services and a lease-back arrangement at its headquarters in the old firehouse at 644 S. Figueroa St.

“We bought the firehouse from the city and restored it,” explained developer Linda Griego, a partner in Engine Co. 28 Ltd., which owns the historical landmark. “But the city wanted some nonprofit involvement. Theatre LA has the second floor free for the next 55 years in exchange for being there.”

Peter Mullin (another partner in Engine Co. 28 Ltd.) needed more space for his Management Compensation Group, housed in the building, and offered to lease back half of the same floor.

“This provides us with a positive cash flow,” said Tom Ormeny, artistic director of Burbank’s Victory Theatre, former president of the Los Angeles Theatre Alliance and now co-chair with Albert of Theatre LA. “It’s the perfect example of how the corporate and the art worlds can work together.”

TAPER, TOO: When the 1989 season at the Taper, Too is launched Jan. 6, South America, England and France will share billing. America will have to wait another year.

The three-play season includes Jose Ignacio Cabrujas’ “The Day You’ll Love Me,” (Jan. 6-29), a comedy set in Caracas that examines the changes wrought in a family when legendary singer Carlos Gardel comes visiting; British playwright Robert Holman’s “Making Noise Quietly” (Feb. 10-March 5), a collection of interrelated vignettes, and Pierre Corneille’s 17th-Century classic, “L’Illusion Comique” (March 17-April 9), a fantasy based on a father’s rueful search for his wayward son.

(Italy’s Giorgio Strehler, who gave us “The Tempest” and “Servant of Two Masters” during the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, created pure magic at the Paris Odeon with this play a few years ago.)

“The season is a bit of a departure for us in style,” said Taper, Too producer Madeline Puzo. “The Cabrujas play has been in process for about a year (Cuban-American playwright Eduardo Machado was commissioned to do the translation) and Robert Holman is a writer whose work we’ve been reading--and admiring--for about two years. ‘Making Noise’ is a play that shows his strengths as a writer and that we felt we could handle, given the limitations of Taper, Too.”

Staff director Brian Kulick, who did Marivaux’s “Game of Love and Chance” at Taper, Too in 1987, brought “L’Illusion Comique” to Puzo, who has asked him to stage it. No other directors have been set.

Acknowledging that budget improvements this year have permitted a departure from last season’s austerity program of one-person shows, Puzo added: “The thing I’m most pleased with is the exploration of a lyrical style. It’s different from our previous work. Each of these pieces is rich in complicated human behavior. We’ve been considering or moving with these plays for a long time. The fact that the desire stayed fresh means something--or I hope it does.”

Information: (213) 972-7373.

CAST IN “WOODS”: Cleo Laine and Charlotte Rae--two inimitables--headline the national company of “Into the Woods,” which swoops into the Ahmanson Jan. 3.

Laine will play the bewitching Witch, while Rae shoulders the role of Jack’s mother (as in Beanstalk). Chuck Wagner, who was the original Rapunzel’s prince, is now playing Cinderella’s prince (and the wolf), and Mary Gordon Murray continues as the Baker’s Wife (she replaced the memorable Joanna Gleason in that role on Broadway). Balance of the company includes Ray Gill, Kathleen Rowe McAllen, Rex Robbins and Robert Duncan McNeill.

Rehearsals began Monday in New York with James Lapine again directing.

CIRCLE REP WEST?: Many of the actors associated with New York’s Circle Repertory Theater, best known as the home of playwright Lanford Wilson, have migrated to Hollywood. Now a group of them are trying to organize a Circle Rep West. Their first effort is a benefit performance of Tom Isbell’s one-man “Me and JFK, Not Just Another Kennedy Play,” Monday at the Saxon-Lee Gallery.

Information: (213) 655-3795.

PIECES AND BITS: Here’s a fine New York idea: Care-Tix Hotline, a new ticket service that sells pairs of house seats to selected performances of Broadway and Off Broadway shows--including smash hits--at double the ticket price. The hook? Half the proceeds go to Broadway Cares, a not-for-profit organization established by members of New York’s theater community to support nationwide programs that assist people with AIDS. The number: (212) 974-7500. . . .

Women in Theatre’s semi-annual festival of new one-acts kicks off Saturday at noon and 3 p.m. with “Landmarks and Detours,” an afternoon of nine playlets. Information: (213) 465-5567. . . .

And Eric Monte’s “If They Come Back” at the Henry Fonda Theatre has set a new closing date of Dec. 4.