Matrix Theater Expands Production Schedule; Second City’s Second Show in Santa Monica

The Matrix Theatre is about to come to life, seven days a week.

The Melrose Avenue theater’s award-winning resident company, Actors for Themselves, is greatly expanding its overall production schedule, while cutting back on the length of run for each show, design costs and ticket prices.

Last year, the company presented nothing at all after a scheduled production of “Self Defense” collapsed amid creative differences between artistic producing director Joe Stern and Joe Cacaci, the play’s writer-director. Although rentals sometimes occupied the Matrix, it seemed as if Actors for Themselves were performing only for themselves.

But now Stern--with a new set of “priorities”--plans to present four plays from July through November with only 25 performances each. Two of the four will share the Matrix from July 28 through Sept. 10, one play running Tuesdays through Fridays and the other running Saturdays through Mondays with Sunday matinees as well as Sunday evening performances. Then two more plays will be mounted from September to November, using the same schedule.

From February through June, Stern hopes to stage four more productions.

Stern announced three of the first four plays this week. All three are West Coast premieres.

First up will be “Wenceslas Square,” an autobiographical play about a trip to Czechoslovakia that was taken by the late Larry Shue, author of “The Foreigner” and “The Nerd,” and one of his college professors. Lee Shallat will direct the comedy, which was first produced in Chicago in 1984 and was “almost done” by Actors for Themselves at the Olympic Arts Festival in 1984 (Stern finally chose “Homesteaders” as his festival presentation).

Shue’s play will run in tandem with “A Man With Connections,” a 1984 Soviet play about a modern marriage by Alexander Gelman, directed by Kristoffer Tabori. The Royal Court Theatre in London staged the English-language premiere of “A Man” earlier this year.

The September set of plays will begin with “Better Living,” by Canadian playwright George Walker, whose “Nothing Sacred” was seen at the Mark Taper Forum last year. Stern described “Better Living” as a contemporary comedy “about a father who returns to his beleaguered family and creates a new world order of consumer socialism.” Walker has made revisions since the play’s initial production last year at the Whole Theatre in Montclair, N.J.

The new associate artistic director of Actors for Themselves, Peggy Shannon, will direct “Better Living.” She staged “The Grace of Mary Traverse” for L.A. Theatre Works last year.

Stern is still negotiating for the rights to the fourth play. Michael Arabian is slated to direct it.

The rush of activity at the 99-seat Matrix is partially attributable to the controversy last year over new Actors’ Equity rules governing smaller theaters, said Stern, who was an ardent opponent of Equity’s new 99-seat plan (especially in its initial form, before revisions) and the manner of its adoption.

During the dispute, Equity officials often pointed to smaller-theater producers who charged big-theater ticket prices and then spent too much money on sets or other production values instead of actors. Stern said the dispute “made me re-think my priorities. I was obsessed with doing the big show each year, spending a lot of money on the set and making it a gem.” He had not taken advantage, he said, of the opportunity offered under the former Waiver rules “to do good work inexpensively. Some of it was my own ego.”

Under his new policy, “I will be prevented from doing plays that require complicated sets,” said Stern. He is reducing his scenic budgets--from $15,000 for his last show, “No Place to Be Somebody” (1987) and $20,000 for “The Common Pursuit” (1986)--to approximately $5,000 each. The sets will be designed by Deborah Raymond and Dorian Vernacchio, who “are very clever,” said Stern.

He is also steering clear of shows that require “12 or 15” actors. The most actors in any of the scheduled shows is seven (in “Better Living”).

Ticket prices are dropping, from $15 for “No Place” to $12 for the new shows. “I know I’m doing it at a deficit,” said Stern, “but my hope is that now I will get more grants” from such sources as the new Los Angeles Arts Endowment.

Stern’s no-more-gems policy was further reflected in his comments about the plays he has selected. “None of them is perfect in any sense,” he said. “But they can challenge an audience.”

SECOND CITY has announced its second show at its new Santa Monica location: “Santa Monica Pier Pressure” will open July 6, replacing “For a Good Time Call . . . 461-3126.” Peter Torokvei will replace Jeff Michalski as director. Richard Kind and Ryan Stiles will join the four continuing members of the cast; John Hemphill, Bonnie Hunt and Don Lake are departing.

Andrew Alexander, president of the group, said that the new show will attempt to take greater advantage of the proscenium arch at the old Mayfair Theatre: “We had sort of covered it up, which was in retrospect a mistake.” The Santa Monica operation has been in the black every month since its Feb. 28 opening, despite “a slight dip” in April, said Alexander.

TAPER PROMOTIONS: The Mark Taper Forum’s resident director, Robert Egan, has been promoted to associate artistic director, a title that had been unoccupied since the departure of Kenneth Brecher in 1986. . . . Meanwhile, former Taper managing director William Wingate has been named executive director of the New York City Ballet.

DIRECTORS TO VOTE: Local members of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers will vote on the latest contract offer from the League of Resident Theatres tonight at 6 p.m. at a meeting at the Directors Guild. Earlier, the meeting had been announced as informational only; the society’s leaders changed their plans in response to inquiries from union members who couldn’t travel to New York to vote. The results won’t be known until Monday.

TWOFER coupons for Los Angeles Theatre Center productions are available free of charge at the “Summer Nights at MOCA” programs, each Thursday through Oct. 19, at the Museum of Contemporary Art from 5-8 p.m.