Future of LATC Put in Hands of Study Group : Theater: Mayor Bradley appoints an 11-member group to review “all aspects of LATC purpose, management and operation.”

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley has appointed 11 members to a study group that will examine the future of Los Angeles Theatre Center, asking that members “devise the best solutions for the permanent survival of theater on Spring Street.”

William Wingate, former executive managing director of the Center Theatre Group, has been hired as a consultant on the study. Co-chairing the panel will be CalArts President Steven Lavine and Jerry Yoshitomi, executive director of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

“Study group members will be given unfettered opportunity,” wrote Bradley in a letter to LATC Chairman E. Kent Damon Jr. and Community Redevelopment Agency Chairman James Wood. The CRA has spent more than $19 million on the theater center since 1978--most of it for the construction and maintenance of the building.

“All aspects of LATC purpose, management and operation must be open to review,” Bradley added.

“He wants everything to be on the table,” said Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani. Asked whether this might encompass a future without the Los Angeles Theatre Center as it’s now constituted, Fabiani replied, “That would be one option.” But he cautioned that it’s “certainly not” the only conclusion that the panel might reach.

Bradley asked the group to deliver its study within 90 days and asked for “consensus. It will not be sufficient to provide a recitation of opposing views.”

“Our single goal is to agree upon a long-term program that harmonizes the needs for theater and a healthy facility on Spring Street with the needs of the Los Angeles arts and redevelopment communities,” Bradley wrote.

Besides Chairmen Lavine and Yoshitomi, LATC’s Damon and the CRA’s Wood, the study group will consist of Sheldon Ausman, (Marvin) Davis Cos. executive and KCET chairman; Sandra Kimberling, Music Center Operating Co. president; Al Nodal, the city’s Cultural Affairs Department general manager; Richard Weinstein, UCLA School of Architecture dean; Jim Rosser, Cal State Los Angeles president; Bob Harris, USC School of Architecture dean, and Ira Yellin, Grand Central Market owner and downtown developer.

Wingate, the consultant brought in for the study, left his job as executive director of the New York City Ballet in February.