Dear Santa . . .

Suppose Kris Kringle were a kind of Super Lorenzo de Medici--the ultimate arts patron who could green light any project. Money’s no object. Hire anybody. Forget the marketplace. Times writers asked some of the men and women who shape Los Angeles’ cultural scene what they’d ask Santa to put under the tree.

Tim Reid,actor, producer of “Frank’s Place”:

“I would do a feature about the Renaissiance of Harlem. I would cast it with every major black artist--the Lena Hornes, the James Earl Joneses. And younger actors like Gregory Hines and Denzel Washington, as well as those who performed during that era. I would also think it would attract powerful white actors like Brando and Clint Eastwood, who have shown over the years an interest in outstanding projects. It would cost about $30 million.”

Carmen Zapata,producing director, Bilingual Foundation of the Arts:

“We’ve been in the process of developing an opera based on the work of Garcia Lorca called ‘Lorca, Child of the Moon.” We’ve already done a workshop of it; if I had all the money, I’d do a full production--and maybe build a new opera house in Los Angeles for it. I probably wouldn’t turn down Placido Domingo--if he could act--but I love the cast I had.”

Brendan Mullen,concert booker for Club Lingerie:

“Headlining would be a clean and straight Sly Stone, with Johnny (Guitar) Watson as bandleader and arranger, Bootsy Collins on bass and me on drums, and the Whispers as backup vocalists. The second act would be Robyn Hitchcock with Metallica as his backup band, and opening the show Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders with Frank Sinatra Jr. as guest vocalist. Your emcee for the evening would be Rudy Ray Moore. Sounds like a good night on the town even if it cost $500 a ticket to put it on.

Alan Spencer,producer of “Sledge Hammer!” and the upcoming TV comedy “Ghost Writer”:

“I want to do ‘Battle of the Network Executives.’ Executives from all three networks compete using real weapons. There are no survivors, which means the viewers win. I want to air it on Fox Broadcasting. I hope everyone knows I’m just kidding. . . . I really mean Showtime.”

Bill Bushnell,artistic producing director, Los Angeles Theatre Center:

“I’d set up two parallel seasons here--one with completely new works, which I had at least a year to work on. The other would be a classic season, with ‘House of Thebes,’ ‘Hamlet,’ Moliere’s ‘Don Juan,’ ‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ with Danny Glover. And we’d do 10 plays a season, instead of 14.”

Marcia Weisman,art collector:

“ ‘The Red Studio,’ Henri Matisse. That’s what I want. Since I was a little girl I’ve loved it. I was just looking at it in the Museum of Modern Art. You get more pictures for the price of one than in any other painting in the world. It’s his studio with all of his paintings in it.”

Peter Hemmings,general director of Los Angeles Music Center Opera:

“I would like to put on (Benjamin) Britten’s ‘Turn of the Screw,’ with Julie Andrews (as the Governess). But it would have to be in a specially built 1,100-seater in L.A. I think we need an opera theater of that smaller size, and don’t have one. The rest of the cast? I haven’t thought about that.”

Lula Washington,artistic director, L.A. Contemporary Dance Theatre:

“One (idea) would be to obtain some additional choreography (for the company) from some of the pioneer established choreographers: Ulysses Dove, Elio Pomare, Rudy Perez. How about a dance festival--a whole week--bringing together artists of color from all over the world. I’d like to take some of these projects right into the heart of the balck areas-Pomona, Compton, Carson, South Central L.A.-where other companies won’t go.”

Garth Ancier,president of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Co.:

“A science-fiction series with full special effects; I think the new ‘Star Trek’ comes the closest yet to doing that. The second thing is to do a series which combines live action with animation, in sort of the spirit of ‘Roger Rabbit,’ which I think would be tremendously appealing to kids and, if well-written, quite appealing to adults. . . . It is certainly very difficult, financially.

Brian Murphy,president of Avalon Attractions:

“I want to see the Eagles get together and do a stage production of ‘Desperado.’ I always look at that album and wonder why there was never a stage production done. And I’d like to do it where we started with them, at the Santa Monica Civic--the first time I promoted an Eagles concert was there in around 1972.”

Bernie Brillstein, producer

“I want to remake ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner’ with Bette Midler as Sheridan Whiteside.”

Bette Davis,actress

“I have an ambition to play Helena Rubinstein. There is a great book on her. But I cannot sell the idea to anybody because all the men say, ‘Who is interested in a woman who made cosmetics?’ A million women, that’s who. And she is fascinating.”

Robert Gore Rifkind,collector of German Expressionist art:

“ ‘Fate of Animals,’ by Franz Marc. He is one of the fathers of German Expressionism, and this is one of the masterpieces of all times. It makes me really want to have it every time I see it in the Kunstmuseum (Basel, Switzerland). I can view it for a couple of hours at a time and still see new things. The painting depicts diagonals shooting across the canvas, trees bleed, and descend into cosmic cataclysm, two boars root in the earth to hide, a horse runs into a red danger. Marc originally called it, ‘And all being became flaming suffering.’ ”

MaryAnn Bonino,Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College:

“The (English-based) Taverner Consort Choir and Players, with (solo singers) Emma Kirkeby, Ian Partridge and David Thomas. I would ask them to perform Monteverdi’s Vespers in the Rotunda of City Hall. I would schedule daily performances for two weeks, with some of them given free to the public. This is a magnificent work for double choir, and would sound resplendent in the Rotunda, where our (Chamber Music in Historic Sites) series has already put on some memorable concerts. The point? To bliss out the entire city. . . .”

Jordan Charney,artistic director, Actors Alley:

“I’d love to do Sartre’s ‘The Condemned of Altona’ with Dustin Hoffman. I’m sure he’d work for scale. I worked with him in stock; the world hasn’t begun to see what he can do. And it would be fantastic to pay everyone--not overindulge, but to do it right .”

Barbara Bosson,actress. “Hooperman”:

“I couldn’t come up with anything serious. De Niro’s next film in which I would have a nude scene so I could really be motivated on this diet I have to go on.”

Al Williams,drummer and owner of Birdland West:

“This is Christmas and I can have anyone I want? On drums, Art Blakey and Max Roach; on horns, Jackie McLean, Phil Woods and George Coleman; let’s have Buster Williams and Rufus Reid on bass, Freddie Hubbard, Oscar Brashear and Woody Shaw on trumpets, and Tommy Flanagan, Kirk Lightsey and that cat from Europe, Mal Waldron, on piano. The singers would have to include Bill Henderson and Ernie Andrews. Now that would be a band!”

Gordon Davidson,artistic director, Mark Taper Forum:

“My dream is to make non-traditional casting a reality, both for the Taper and Los Angeles . . . to give it real meaning, not tokenism . . . and to begin with all 37 Shakespeare plays.”

Susan Dietz,artistic director, Pasadena Playhouse:

“I’d bring ‘Mail’ back to Los Angeles--either at the Playhouse or at the Doolittle, and let it run for a year. Why aren’t I doing it now? It’d cost $800,000.”

Lynn Dally,artistic director, Jazz Tap Ensemble:

“Let’s start with my need for permanent studio space with a good wood floor, a good piano and good acoustics. Or how about my apprentice program? Or the tap festival that I would like to produce? Tap festivals are blooming everywhere. In the last two years there have been festivals in Denver, Boston, San Francisco. There’s going to be one in Houston in September and one in Portland in July. I would love to produce one in L.A. with soloists and companies.”

Ernest Fleischmann,managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic:

“I would love to put on Peter Sellars’ productions of the three Mozart-Da Ponte operas, conducted by Simon Rattle, and cast with singers chosen by Simon, Peter and myself. I think Los Angeles needs these productions.”

Raiford Rogers,co-artistic director, Los Angeles Chamber Ballet:

“I would prepay all our bills now for our Spring (‘89) season, and enjoy the season as an artistic director and choreographer. The dancers would see a smile on my face throughout all the rehearsals. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we didn’t have to worry about the bills for the season and could think only of artistic matters?”

Susan Loewenberg,producing director, L.A. Theatre Works:

“The cast would be L.A. Classic Theatre Works, of course, doing ‘Threepenny Opera’ at the Doolittle, with Steven Berkoff directing--and a $500,000 budget.”

Ron Sossi,artistic director, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble:

“I’d do the complete ‘Faust’--it would run four to five hours--in a multi-environmental setting, probably set in some old building that would have multiple rooms: a large arena with a number of playing areas. I’d also have a lot of technical resources--so we could have flying people; work with earth, fire and water, and a company that would be able to get together and work on it for months. Maybe Klaus Maria Brandauer would be nice.”

Tracy Buie,director of booking for the Wiltern Theatre:

“U2 at the Wiltern doing a show of only Beatles songs. I’d especially like to hear them do ‘Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey’ and ‘Dear Prudence.’ Those are my two favorite bands on the Earth. U2 is my favorite live band, the the Beatles my favorite all-time band. And, yes, I’m 30 years old.

Ted Schmitt,producing artistic director, Cast Theatre:

“A first-class production of Bill C. Davis’ ‘Spine’ with Glenn Close and a first-class production of (Suzanne Lummis’) ‘Oct. 22, 4004 B.C., Saturday’ with Amanda Plummer. Sure, we already did it, but we didn’t do it first-class . And perhaps I’d do the musical ‘KLOP the Bedbug,’ which we saw in Moscow last March.”

Judy Chaikin,producer-director of One Step Productions and of “Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist”:

“I would finance the film that I am trying to do over Christmas in New Mexico, called ‘The Hispanic Traditions of Christmas.’ We’re trying to document the last remaining performances of the ancient Spanish Christmas performances of ‘Los Pastores’--a play which came over from Spain 400 years ago and has been performed continuously in this country. It’s a dying tradition, and now there are only two places left where the play is performed.”

Jerry Willis,longtime impresario of Beckman and Ramo Auditoriums at Caltech:

“First, I’d like to return to what we used to be able to do at Caltech, and present recitals, lots of recitals, but concentrating on the vocal ones. I’d like to go back and present again the great voices of the world. Maybe a series in which we offer both the established singers, along with the younger ones who haven’t been discovered yet. Young recitalists such as we have recently presented, such as Kaaren Erickson and Ruth Golden. My other project, and one we are talking about a lot these days, is community outreach and family programming, bringing concerts and other musical events to the community and to young people.”

Rudy Perez,artistic director, Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble:

“Considering my current circumstances, I just can’t think beyond being subsidized--being able to make my rent, car payments, health insurance. The problem is my work pays for itself but doesn’t pay me . It’s an endless situation and it’s hard to think beyond it.”

C. Bernard Jackson,artistic director, Inner City Cultural Center:

“I’d use the money to get our elevator repaired. It hasn’t been working for over a year and it’s a pain.”

Missy Worth,publicity and booking manager for the Universal Amphitheatre:

“To see the Velvet Underground and the New York Dolls play together at the Universal, the Dolls opening for the Velvets. Of course I’d have only seven people who would pay to be there with me, but those are my two favorite bands of all time. I saw the Dolls when I was 13, my third rock show and my favorite of all time, and I never got to see the Velvet Underground. Those are the two bands that changed my life, got me into music.

Frank Cruz,general manager of Spanish-language KVEA-TV Channel 52:

“A new ratings service that would adequately and correctly measure the Hispanic market. We don’t have one that does that now. Second, I’d go on a spending spree to buy the best possible programming for Hispanics. What’s available now is so limited. There aren’t the ‘Fight Backs’ and ‘Wheel of Fortunes’ and U.S.-made soaps. . . . ABC, CBS and NBC just have to pick up the phone and Lorimar or Disney or one of the other studios starts churning out shows for them. We don’t have that for Hispanic television in the United States.”

Pebbles Wadsworth,executive director of UCLA Center for the Performing Arts:

“A check to have us put on the Pacific Rim Festival in the fall of 1989. This will be a festival bringing together things traditional as well as contemporary. And also bringing them to the local communities. We want to relate the festival to the public schools, where the students will be able to prepare for the festival by studying the Pacific Rim cultures, and by projects like making masks and costumes. Santa’s check--and it will take only between $6- and $7 million--would underwrite the school curriculum dealing with the festival.”

Mary Jane Jacob,chief curator, Museum of Contemporary Art:

“A sculpture installation by Rebecca Horn. She’s a German artist I first found in about ’83. She just won the prize for the best artist at the Carnegie International last month. She creates from machine-like mechanized sculptures a human quality that makes these machines into personages with a life of their own. This humanistic quality is something that’s wonderful to live with. It’s like having another member of the family in your house. For the museum, a room installation by Mario Mertz from the work he’s going to make about the Western United States and about MOCA’s space for his exhibition that opens on Feb. 26.”

Joy Silverman,director, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions:

“On one hand, I’d like to set up a fund for fellowships for artists and grants for organizations that do really difficult work, work that’s not easily fundable and more experimental and research oriented rather than product oriented. I’d also want to set up an ongoing project that deals with getting artists to do their work with people in certain communities, like with the homeless, abused kids, skid row, with people with AIDS.”

Joel Wachs,L.A. city councilman and crusader for Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts:

“A Marcel Duchamp ready-made and a Jackson Pollock drip painting and give them to MOCA. I think amassing large private collections is selfish; museums are being deprived of the art and in the end it’s the public that suffers. But I’d love to keep them (the art) around for a little while before (donating it).”

Dale Jaffe,co-owner of the Room Upstairs at LeCafe:

“I’d have Herbie Hancock on piano, Harvey Mason on drums, bassist Ray Brown, Stanley Turrentine on sax, Paulinho da Costa playing percussion and Lee Ritenour playing some guitar. That would be sort of Straight Ahead meets Brazilian and I know these guys can all play in a little space like ours and make great music.”

Bella Lewitzky,artistic director of the Lewitzky Dance Company and the planned Dance Gallery facility on Bunker Hill:

“I would like enough money to guarantee that the Dance Gallery could be up and contain a lifetime endowment.”

Margo Leavin,Margo Leavin Gallery:

“It would have to be either a Brancusi sculpture or a Cezanne painting and that’s that. I would love to live with works of either of these artists. They are among two of the greatest artists who have ever worked. Every painter and sculptor in this century has had to come to grips with them. Who’s more fabulous?”

Douglas S. Cramer,producer, vice chairman of Aaron Spelling Productions and major local art collector:

“I would ask (wealthy media magnate and art collector) Si Newhouse what figure to fill in on the check to obtain all his Jasper Johns masterpieces for MOCA.”

,14 Frederick M. Nicholas, cf,tm,10 chairman of the Walt Disney concert hall committee and chairman of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art:

“I would endow MOCA forever, so that we wouldn’t have to raise funds from the public ever again.”

Frederick M. Nicholas, chairman of the Walt Disney concert hall committee and chairman of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art:

“I would endow MOCA forever so that we wouldn’t have to raise funds from the public ever again.” Wayne Shilkret,executive director of the Pasadena-based Ambassador Foundation:

“On one single day: In Shrine Auditorium, a matinee performance by the New York City Ballet, with Gelsey Kirkland dancing the leading role. Then, in the evening, the Bolshoi Ballet, dancing ‘Spartacus.’ At Ambassador Auditorium, in the evening, on the first half, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, with (soprano) Kathleen Battle as soloist. On the second half, the Philadelphia Orchestra, playing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. The soloists would be Mstislav Rostropovich on cello, Vladimir Horowitz at the piano, and Isaac Stern the violinist.

“Earlier in the day, at Ambassador Auditorium, let’s say starting at midnight and going on until late afternoon, I would commission and present a new opera by Robert Wilson, on a subject of his own choosing, written with three or four composers, also of his choosing. In the small, 250-seat auditorium at Ambassador College, I would have the Juilliard Quartet playing the best of their Beethoven (quartet) cycle. That might go on all day.

“In the meantime, at (Pasadena) Civic Auditorium, there would be an all-day jazz festival, with, among others, the Basie Band, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Joe Williams, Mel Torme, George Shearing, Bobby McFerrin and Wynton Marsalis. Among others, that is. During the day, I would leave a whole hour just for Bobby McFerrin to do his one-man show, all alone on the stage. That’s fabulous.”

Barry Glass,artistic director, AMAN Folk Ensemble:

“Company tours to such places as Lithuania, Macedonia and the festivals in Western Europe. Besides giving the company more work and giving us more exposure abroad, foreign tours would help us develop new repertoire and attract new performers to the company.”

Jeff Seymour,artistic director, Gnu Theatre:

“I’d do ‘Death of a Salesman,’ with Dan Sullivan playing the father, and of course Sylvie Drake as the mother. Then I guess Bob Koehler would come in as Biff, Don Shirley would be Happy, and Ray Loynd would be Ben, the neighbor. . . . But who would review it?”

Wes Kenney,executive producer of ‘General Hospital’:

“A dramatic TV project exploring the overpopulation of the world, to bring attention to the problem in the same way ‘Live Aid’ and other pop music efforts did to world hunger. I think it would be a miniseries . . . something like ‘The Day After’--the way it treated nuclear holocaust. It would take place in a city: First you have gridlock, where no one would be able to move. Something like this occurs, and it mushrooms--one thing leads to another, a domino effect. The first thing you know, we’ve backed ourselves into a corner. People tend to blind themselves to this. And, ironically, it’s not the little people who have to be told, it’s the big people.”

Peter Goulds,L.A. Louver Gallery:

“I would develop an outdoor sculpture garden and commission artists to do site-specific sculpture. I’d commission works by people like Richard Deacon, Peter Shelton, Mark di Suvero, David Nash, Tony Cragg. It’s something I’ve always coveted doing. There are many artists that one would want to become involved with (but) who don’t have an opportunity to realize works of scale in a site-specific context. There are very few patrons who are willing to provide that kind of opportunity. Those issues are very much a part of our contemporary time in the visual arts.”

Stephen Kulczycki,vice president of programming at KCET-TV Channel 28:

“Two ideas I’d really like to do; both are nightly TV shows. I don’t have titles, but let’s call the first one ‘California Tonight’--Southern California and the state done like ‘MacNeil/Lehrer’ with background field reports and focused conversations with interesting and significant movers and shakers. Half-hour in the early evening. And the other would be ‘California Tonight--Late Night,’ on for an hour--performance and conversation, some of it off the wall, adventurous, very eclectic, very playful, a number of different and interesting talkers and thinkers, all brought together to show off what’s wonderful and crazy about California. If you can help me with $25 million, I’d like to do it.”

Tim Miller,performance artist:

“All I want for Christmas is for my two front teeth to stay in my head so that I can help the new performance space that Linda Burnham and I are creating (in Santa Monica) to prosper and make space for artists to come forward to cure AIDS, foster multicultural connections and triumph over despair . . . You know, just $10- or $15 million. . . .”

Allan Carr,Allan Carr, producer, 61st Academy Awards:

“Having Marlon Brando and Paul Newman appear as presenters together (or separately).”

Earl (Rusty) Powell,director, Los Angeles County Museum of Art:

“A Fauve landscape by Georges Braque that I would donate to the museum. The other part of it would be personal. I would like to get a Range Rover so that I could visit the site of the landscape in France. I suppose one could say it would be professional development.”

Wallace Smith,president of KUSC-FM:

“I’d use it to relocate the KUSC transmitter so that it could serve all of Southern California. And, I’d invest it in resources for our programming staff to make better radio than the good radio they already make.”

Loretta Livingston,artistic director, Loretta Livingston and Dancers:

“My dream would be not having limitations placed on my exploring my own work as an artist. The joy of the daily process is what matters to me and money means the luxury of time: being able to take all the time I need--and to pay my dancers.”

Contributing to this article were: Janice Arkatov, Daniel Cariaga, Zan Stewart, Judith Michaelson, Lewis Segal, Diane Haithman, Elizabeth Venant, Nina Easton, Zan Dubin, Dennis McDougal, Lee Margulies and Steve Hochman.

Tim Reid