A Burst of Activity for Black Theater

The black theater scene in Los Angeles is buzzing.

A flock of major productions are opening or reopening soon. These aren’t prestigious August Wilson plays at nonprofit theaters. Nor are most of them gospel musicals. Most are commercially intended entertainments, playing houses large enough for producers to make profits, if the shows take off. They’re advertised primarily on black radio stations.

“It’s going through the roof,” said Stanley Bennett Clay, whose long-running “Ritual” will reopen at the 300-seat Ebony Showcase for five performances, June 15-17 (before a possible tour beginning in August). “It’s a new industry.”

Clay and others credit producer Shelly Garrett for starting the boom with his touring productions of “Beauty Shop” and “The Living Room,” which have played the Wilshire Ebell and the Coronet and are tentatively slated to play two larger theaters, the Wilshire (“Living Room”) and the Pantages (“Beauty Shop”), in August.

With his raucous comedies and his “pumping” of black radio stations, Garrett “created a new format for the average black consumer,” said Clay. “He created theater-like-a-concert.” (His business practices also created enough resentment among “Beauty Shop” investors to instigate an ongoing, previously reported lawsuit against him.)

Many of these shows are competing for the same audience, acknowledged one of the producers. But Clay contended that’s not a problem--because that audience will gladly support several of these shows: “Some people see one play on Friday and another on Saturday.”

Among the other black productions coming up in mid-size or large theaters:

* “Roommates,” written and directed by “Living Room” author Charles Michael Moore, opening Tuesday at the 728-seat Four Star Theatre, 5112 Wilshire Blvd., and slated to play through July 22, starring former TV star Bern Nadette Stanis. The Four Star is a movie theater and will continue to show movies. But the “Roommates” producer, Fontana Entertainment, has rebuilt the stage.

* “Glasshouse,” a comedy about “America’s richest black family,” by Kenneth B. Davis, opening June 15 at the 1,600-seat Embassy Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, playing through July 1.

* “De Obeah Mon,” a Caribbean musical based on Moliere’s “The Doctor in Spite of Himself,” written by Charles Douglass with music by Douglass and Jimmy Justice, who will co-star with Tony winner Delores Hall. It opens June 23 at the 498-seat Westwood Playhouse, and plans at least a four-week run.

Meanwhile, “The African American” continues a long run at the 624-seat Inglewood Civic Theater, at least through July 1. And “Inquest,” with former TV star La Wanda Page, closed at the Ebony Showcase but is scheduled to re-open soon at the 340-seat Assistance League Playhouse.

At least three of these shows plan to use actors from Equity or the screen unions--which have agreements with Equity--but have not yet come to terms with local Equity officials. The senior business representative for Equity, George Ives, said the union will take action if these shows use union members without contracts.

Asked about Equity, “De Obeah Mon” producer Major replied, “You deal with bridges when you come to them.”

Ives remarked that some of these shows “are coming out of a desire to do a show, rather than a business decision. It’s Mickey and Judy again, going into the barn.