Theatre/LA Breaks Even on Awards; Reading to Benefit Shakespeare Festival/LA

Well, it was the first one and it was fun and well attended (though not a sell-out) and it went on too long and was chock full of production numbers (mostly terrific, but much too numerous) and now the proceeds are in and tabulated.

The event was Theatre/LA’s first-time Governors’ Awards, held Nov. 20 as a black-tie event at the Pasadena Playhouse. Bottom line: No harm done, and some good will promoted--a result fitting the function of Theatre/LA, a service organization for the theatrical community of greater Los Angeles.

According to Theatre/LA president Stephen Albert, ticket sales generated about $48,000. American Express contributed $10,000, while another $15,000 came from “miscellaneous donors,” with some of those donations made in kind.

Total proceeds from the four-hour evening, followed by a champagne-and-dessert reception in the Playhouse patio that ended in the wee small hours: About $73,000. This more or less coincides with the evening’s budget of $75,000.

So all’s well that ends well. But, while Theatre/LA members got in for a reasonable $30 and $50, tickets for the general public at $150 and $500 were pricey--particularly since, as Albert said, “This event was never designed to be a fund-raiser. It was designed to bring the theater community together and begin a tradition of celebration.”

(A person close to the event rationalized that the high ticket, of which few were sold, was a way of showing support for the idea and the organization behind it--a one-time kick-off semi-contribution.)

“We had a number of start-up costs,” Albert said, listing the services of a publicist and of an organization called Events Unlimited that helped put it all together. “We now have developed the know-how to do much of the project in-house, and we hope this year’s event will carry some momentum (into next year).”

In time, the hope is that the event will become a tradition and be televised and generate its own money. Immediate improvements?

Frank Levy, the evening’s producer, acknowledged that the awards need to move faster and suggested the possibility of cutting down on recipients (there were 15 this year). He resists the notion of cutting back production numbers.

“The combination that will make this event more exciting,” Albert said, “will be more underwriting and more ticket sales.”

And a cheaper ticket?

“Absolutely.”

“TWELFTH” ON TWELFTH: Why are Ed Asner, Mark Linn Baker, Sally Field, Peter Horton, Rue McClanahan, Bronson Pinchot, David Ogden Stiers and Rita Wilson reading Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” at the Pasadena Playhouse Jan. 6?

Not just because they like the symmetry of “Twelfth Night” on Twelfth Night, but to put their mouths where the money isn’t.

Proceeds from the reading at $100 per tax-deductible ticket will go to Shakespeare Festival/LA. The 5-year-old professional theater company provides educational outreach programs in the schools and free public theater, accepting non-perishable food items and clothing for the needy in lieu of admission.

Included in the $100 is a post-performance dessert reception. Information: (213) 489-1121.

AN AMERICANO IN OSLO: Jose Luis Valenzuela, director of the LATC’s Latino Lab, is going to Oslo to direct a production of Manuel Puig’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at Norway’s National Theatre.

“I’ve been working with (director) Stein Winge for a long time,” Valenzuela said. “We worked together on ‘Pantaglieze’ at the Noske Theater in Oslo and ‘Die Walkure’ in Geneva, and I just returned from doing (Tankred Dorst’s) ‘Merlin’ in Oslo with him in September.

“There’s a lot of interest in the Scandinavian countries in Latin American literature. I had brought up (the idea of doing “Spider Woman”) to the Noske Theatre about two or three years ago, but now that Stein is the new artistic director of the National, I’m finally going to get to do it there.”

Valenzuela leaves for Oslo Jan. 6. Rehearsals begin Jan. 8 with a Norwegian company for an opening March 15. On his return, Valenzuela resumes work on an original piece about writer and Times reporter Ruben Salazar, who died in 1970 in the line of duty. (He was killed by a stray sheriff deputy’s bullet-like tear-gas shell in East Los Angeles’ Silver Dollar Cafe during a riot.)

“It’s been 20 years,” Valenzuela said. “It’s time we do something.”

ANOTHER “MERLIN”: Anyone who didn’t make the six-hour production of “Merlin” in Norway will be able to catch one staged by Pavel Cerny at the Ventura Court Theatre beginning Jan. 14.

It will play Sundays, 2-9 p.m., with an hour break for dinner. And for $10 La Perla, the Italian restaurant next door, will serve you a glass of wine and either Pollo a la Merlin or Farfalle a la Guinevere. It’s cheaper than flying to Oslo.

Cerny, who fled Prague at the height of the repressive movements there, tells us that he’ll be going back this spring to stage, he hopes, Richard Nelson’s “Between East and West.” He had mounted this play about Czech emigres in America at the Callboard Theatre in 1987 and claims it is based partially on his experiences and those of emigre directors Liviu Ciulei and Ivan Passer.

THE RUMOR MILL: “The deal is still being put together,” said Pasadena Playhouse artistic director Susan Dietz. But you can probably count on A.R. Gurney’s two-person concert-reading, “Love Letters,” to surface at the Pasadena Playhouse sometime this spring. The twist to this production is that it employs different pairs of actors each week--usually with a recognizable name--to read the epistolary exchange.

Q&A;: Of all the major theaters in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Theatre Center is the only one that doesn’t traditionally turn in its weekly box-office figures to the trade journal, Daily Variety, which compiles a chart. Why not?

“I’ve always felt that’s a commercial theater weekly chart,” answered LATC artistic director Bill Bushnell, “that has nothing to do with the nonprofit theater, with its student and senior discounts and other variables. A lot of nonprofit theaters do, but I think it’s a mistake, because it puts an undue emphasis on individual productions numberswise and takes the focus off the totality of the institution.

“Besides which,” he added, “people lie. Variety doesn’t send in an accountant to find out if you’re telling the truth.”