The Continuing Saga of the Odyssey : After an eviction, Ron Sossi’s group builds a new theater on a shoestring and hopes to build its audiences

Ron Sossi is scampering over piles of lumber, looking for just the right man-of-vision pose to appease a photographer. “This one is definitely a ‘Bush’ picture,” he says with a grin, referring to Bill Bushnell, his friendly rival and the producing artistic director of Los Angeles Theatre Center, as he proudly surveys the new Odyssey Theatre.

The past several months have been spent turning a former welding supply house into the Odyssey’s temporary new home, a municipally owned building and site leased from Los Angeles for one year for $1. Volunteers have been busy transforming the 10,000-foot “cave” at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. into a theater complex for the nonprofit organization. Three stages are housed under a single roof, duplicating the configuration of the building that the Odyssey has vacated at Ohio Avenue and Bundy Drive, its headquarters since 1973.

On Aug. 23--on the heels of the theater’s 20th anniversary--the new space officially opens with the transfers of two long-running Odyssey hits: Steven Berkoff’s “Kvetch” and the Gina Wendkos-Ellen Ratner-Richard Press “Personality.” Brian Friel’s “The Faith Healer” is scheduled to follow on Sept. 2, with Dario Fo’s “The Accidental Death of an Anarchist” on Sept. 23, directed by Sossi and starring Orson Bean.

The move was prompted by an eviction from the former space when the building was sold, and Sossi is grateful to Los Angeles City Council member Zev Yaroslavsky’s office for its help in obtaining the property for the temporary site. (Officially, the contract is for one year, but that may be extended).

Yaroslavsky, whose district encompasses both the old and new Odyssey sites, downplays his personal efforts. “It was no sweat off the city’s back to make this happen,” said the councilman, who knows the Odyssey by reputation only and was alerted to its plight by a staffer in his office. The property was purchased several years ago by the city for an adjunct space for its parking ticket bureau; that has since been expanded in another location.

“We’ll eventually dispose of the property,” Yaroslavsky pointed out, “but it will be at least a year before any decision is made. And after all, one of the city’s jobs is to help people who do good things, whether in the arts or not.”

Sossi is well aware that this represents a lateral move, a largely stop-gap effort: “This is not a move we would’ve made if our building didn’t get sold; we would’ve just waited till we built a bigger facility.” Plans to go Equity (working under union contracts, in a house larger than 99 seats) have been on the agenda for a long while--and now, the artistic director says, an affiliation with the National Endowment for the Arts is speeding up the process.

“We’re talking about a three-year plan,” he said, sitting in what will be one of the dressing rooms. “The NEA has a program called Advancement. They pick a number of smaller or mid-sized organizations that they think are ready to make the leap to a large organization, and for one year they send consultants, and you work together, evolve a three-year plan. If (what we’re doing now) is successful, we can then apply to the NEA for the next step, money-matching funds.”

Sossi jokes that a policy of “begging, borrowing and stealing” (actually, 80% bank loans, the rest private and corporate donations) is financing the move. “We’re trying to do this on a shoestring,” he said. “But a shoestring is still a lot of money. We were told that to professionally convert this building, it’d cost between $200,000 and $300,000. We’re doing it with all volunteer labor for $50,000. . . . Somehow when you believe and put all your energy in, it comes together.”

In addition, Sossi, 49, is gearing up to attract the theatergoers who will support that dream. “We’ve got an audience,” he allows, “but there’s always a certain amount of having to go out and dig them up. For our major stage, we’re talking about quintupling our (current 2,050) subscription.” (Bill Bushnell made such a leap in 1985--backed by major grants from the Community Redevelopment Agency and others--moving his tiny Los Angeles Actors’ Theatre to the renovated downtown fourplex that became LATC.)

From modest beginnings 20 years ago in an 80-seat space in Hollywood, the Odyssey has developed a secure niche in the theatrical community--and an equally distinct personality. Specifically, it is Sossi’s. “I think my approach is a little different than most people’s,” he said, “in that I’m attracted to metaphysical ideas and philosophical ideas, but not to a lot of sociological and political stuff.”

He recalls some long-ago dinner gatherings with other directors. “There was a strong feeling that you were only doing serious theater if you were doing political theater--and everything else was escapist entertainment. I remember saying, ‘Wait a minute! What about theater that deals with the great philosophical questions--you know, the meaning of it all. What’s it all about? What’s life? What’s death? What’s time? What’s space?’ They kind of pooh-poohed me, like ‘Come on, grow up.’ ”

Sossi shook his head. “In our culture, political activism is a form of religion for many people; they look for answers in better government, fairer treatment of citizenry--thinking it will create an ultimate happiness for mankind. The kind of belief I’m talking is more internal. It won’t necessarily give you more content or knowledge, but somehow it will shake the whole basis of what you believe in. You can’t do that in every production, but I try as often as possible.”

A favorite example is “The Adolf Hitler Show” (1976). “Evil has always fascinated me, particularly when the evil-doer doesn’t feel that he’s doing evil,” Sossi said. “How did Hitler ever come to these horrible beliefs, and how did he justify them to himself? That kind of theater shakes our smugness--that we are rational and in control of ourselves, that we’re going to live forever.”

Sossi’s colleagues admit that his theatrical vantage often differs from the main.

“The Odyssey provides something very important for that region of Los Angeles,” said the Back Alley’s Laura Zucker. “The kind of theater Ron does is unique and good and important--because he chooses to deal with difficult, East European material.”

The Cast’s Ted Schmitt--who with Sossi and Zucker represented an alliance of local theater owners in their recent negotiations with Actors Equity--is also a fan.

“For 20 years, Ron has been what I consider the guru of developmental theater in L.A.,” he said. “Ron took the risks small theater is supposed to take; he’s brought in plays and playwrights that otherwise would not have been seen here. The only criticism I have is that he was totally unpredictable in negotiations.”

Sossi admits that his high-minded experiments haven’t always fallen on appreciative ears, yet denies that the frequently non-commercial fare serves only as a vanity showcase for his erudite musings. “Wait a minute,” he said sternly. “A lot of the philosophical stuff I’ve done, like ‘A Voyage to Arcturus,’ we knew was not going to appeal to a great many people. “It’s like doing a concert of the music of Hindemith; a vast percentage of the community is not going to be interested. That’s not a reason not to do it.”

The only responsibility to an audience, Sossi says, “is to do the best art you can do--and survive.” Beyond that, he refuses to play the game of expectation: “I know there’s an idea of me that’s really in a Grotowski realm, a pristine kind of work that I want to do--and have occasionally done when I found people who also want to do it: ‘Voyage,’ ‘Hitler,’ ‘Peer Gynt,’ ‘Woyzeck.’ That’s my most idealistic side. But there’s also a side of me that likes musicals. I don’t mean standard musicals, but something like ‘Nightclub Cantata.’ ”

“Every year or two, we want to do one of those shows where we don’t take ourselves so seriously,” he said. “Years ago we did a production of ‘Little Mary Sunshine’ because we thought it was a kick--a really delightful piece. (The rock comedy) ‘Angry Housewives’ was crazy; it had no depth at all. But there was an anachronistic quality to it that was really fun. We also did a silly production of Aristophanes’ ‘The Frogs’; we had an inch of water flooding the whole Odyssey 1 stage. I think you’ve got to be wacky sometimes. It’s all about balance.”

In 1973 Sissu walked away from a lucrative career in TV programming and development to devote himself to theater full-time.

Of the Odyssey’s 119 productions (and co-productions), Sossi’s personal favorites include “Mary Barnes,” “Peer Gynt,” “The Chicago Conspiracy Trial,” “Woyzeck,” “Caucasian Chalk Circle,” “Rap Master Ronnie,” “Tracers,” “White Marriage,” “Edmond,” “Johnny Johnson,” “Mother Courage,” “Master Class,” “The Serpent,” “The Bacchae,” “Threepenny Opera,” “Nightclub Cantata” and “Kvetch.” (From time to time, he has worked with an ongoing in-house theater ensemble, but he usually casts from open calls.)

Among the massive turnover of people and projects over the years, reports of friction within Sossi’s operation have occasionally surfaced. Director Ron Link, who staged the John Godber-Jane Thornton piece “Shakers” at the Odyssey last year, agrees that things haven’t been hassle-free.

“Not only don’t they have money to pay actors, but they don’t have money to pay a tech crew,” he said, alluding to the untrained personnel who are often rotated in and out on a weekly basis. (These are people performing community service by working off misdemeanor sentences for such violations as drunk driving, parking tickets, prostitution and shoplifting.)

Yet Link doesn’t blame Sossi: “He’s a genuine character, larger-than-life, Brechtian in stature. Ron is one of those people who puts his art where his mouth is. He’s probably close to where theater would be in a perfect society. I just hope he’s not bulldozed by all the changes in the theatrical community.”

Actor Lev Mailer, who has appeared in a handful of Odyssey productions, calls Sossi “the most talented, innovative artistic director in town. Working with him was always a good experience creatively. At the beginning of ‘Chicago Conspiracy Trial,’ he wasn’t paying the actors anything--and the show was a hit. So we negotiated every six weeks, and at the end of the run we were splitting the grosses 50/50 with Ron. He was a tough negotiator, sure. But his word was always his bond.”

Although they have been on opposite sides of the Equity Waiver issue--Mailer was one of the authors of the current 99-Seat Plan--the actor bears no grudges. “Ron was the most vocal on the other side,” he admitted. “But our differences were ideological (not personal).” (The producers resisted the new plan, which called for limited rehearsal and run lengths and a specific pay-per-performance fee for the actors.)

Actress Marcia Mohr, a member of the Western Advisory Board (local governing body of Actors Equity) and former “Kvetch” actor (she put in 19 months), also has mixed feelings: “I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Ron--as an artist. I think he has the truest artistic vision in L.A. I love his thinking about the theater, the way he puts it into expression.”

But when it comes to evaluating Sossi as negotiating opponent, Mohr demurs. “Let’s leave that alone, OK? He was doing what he had to do to keep his theater alive.”

Although he’s not a one-man shop (Sossi depends on his 14-person board of directors, plus right-hand production manager Lucy Pollak), he acknowledges that the “everyday nitty-gritty” of overseeing a theater--coupled with the current move and the now-settled Equity flap--can be emotionally and artistically wearing.

“I do it out of necessity,” Sossi said of his long-ranging duties. “Sometimes to my detriment, sometimes to the detriment of the theater. I think it’s a problem with all of the artistic directors in this country. Sometimes I’d like to not come to the office, disappear, read a lot of plays, mix with different stratas of society, look for theatrical ideas, then come back to the theater with this bag of gold.

“The idealistic side of me would like to just be the artist. But there’s also side of me that’s a pretty good businessman,” he said, referring to the years when he single-handedly ran all of the theater’s business. “So I try to do that halfway--and also do the art. There’s an approach I’ve always been attracted to: Sufism (the concept of being both spiritual and functional in the world). You know, you can become too refined, too pedigreed only doing the art. At the same time, my biggest frustration is that I can’t give enough time to the art.”

One thing Sossi always finds time for is a spiritual shoring-up. “I certainly don’t consider myself a paragon of virtue,” he said with a chuckle. “But there’s a very strong spiritual element in my life, away from the theater. And a big part of what we do at the theater is (try to) to evolve ourselves and our audiences. As the Zen Buddhists say, ‘This is what I do.’ Other people chop wood, dig ditches. I make shows. This is what I do with my life, my body, while I’m waiting to wake up, to know more. This is what I do while I’m waiting to get smart.”