Dramatists Guild, Theaters Are on a Collision Course

It’s writers versus producers in a resident theater squabble that looks as if it may come to a head in San Diego.

The dispute isn’t new. It was four years ago when the Dramatists Guild first tried to obtain a standard minimum contract from the League of Resident Theaters (LORT), the organization of 68 nonprofit resident theaters, including four Southern California members: the Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Now the Guild has renewed its demand for a contract, adding an avowal by 48 playwrights--including A.R. Gurney, Stephen Sondheim, Wendy Wasserstein, Terrence McNally and Lanford Wilson--to withhold their plays, “both new and old,” from LORT theaters until “a satisfactory resolution of the current contractual situation” is reached.

The dramatists’ stance may not be as tough as it looks at first glance, for the writers’ statement added they would continue to work at theaters “whose contracts with all Dramatists Guild members, in substance, meet the minimum terms” contained in the proposed Guild contract.

In other words, LORT theaters may still win Guild approval of individual contracts that the Guild rules are at least the equivalent of its own proposed Guild contract. Officials of several LORT theaters said they are confident their contracts will pass the Guild tests.

But, as a group, LORT is in no mood to meet the Guild’s demands.

LORT president Thomas Hall, who doubles as the Old Globe’s managing director, reiterated LORT’s unanimous refusal to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the Guild in an Oct. 11 letter to the Guild. While LORT has such agreements with actors, directors, choreographers and designers, Hall maintained that the difference is that playwrights are not employees of the theaters.

Hall wrote: “It would be virtually impossible to construct a workable standardized contract which would encompass those broad diversities and the unique working relationships which playwrights and each LORT theater must develop in response to each play and, indeed, to each production.”

Peter Stone, the president of the Dramatists Guild, said the guild’s goal is to “standardize terms so that a first-time author can get the same terms as a well established author.”

The first potential test of the Guild’s strength now heads to the Old Globe. Gurney, secretary of the Guild and a signatory of its letter to LORT, is negotiating with the Old Globe for the premiere of his “The Snow Ball” at the Hartford Stage Company Feb. 9 and at the Old Globe May 4. Old Globe artistic director Jack O’Brien is set to direct. Hall hopes to finalize “The Snow Ball” contract before the end of this week.

Except for Gurney, added Hall, the theater has assurances from each playwright involved in the Globe’s six-play winter season that he or she will sign contracts with the Old Globe. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, whose play “Two Trains Running” will make its Southern California premiere at the Old Globe, is not a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Reached by phone at his Connecticut home, Gurney sounded torn about the matter.

“Between you and me I’m not completely sure of what the issue is,” he said. “I am not in favor of this situation. I am not in favor of this boycott. I was forced to go along with it.

“I feel tremendously connected to the Old Globe. They’ve given a boost to my career with ‘The Cocktail Hour’ and ‘Another Antigone.’ I always got good treatment at the Old Globe and I’d be heartbroken if this play were to be cancelled.”

Gurney said he fears what he describes as “two possible bad scenarios: One is that the Old Globe suddenly decides to make its contract so different that I can’t sign it. The other scenario is that the Old Globe and I reach an agreement which both parties find equitable and equivalent and the Dramatists Guild finds is not equivalent and says you cannot sign it because it would break rank.

“It would be a terrible decision. But if it were what I perceived to be a fair and equitable contract and the Guild would not allow me to sign it then I would have serious reservations about my membership in the Guild.” (Gurney’s “Love Letters” which opens at the Old Globe Monday, won’t be affected because its contracts are already signed.)

Stone, in turn, questioned Gurney’s judgment as to what might be a substandard contract. He added that if Gurney does sign a contract which the Guild deems as substandard, then Gurney “would tacitly be giving his resignation” to the organization.

“Pete has always been loyal,” said Stone. “He has received many terms that are better than in our standard contract. But frankly, there are areas where he has not received minimum standards. They may not be important to Pete, but he can’t very well be a member of a group whose minimum standards he doesn’t adhere to.”

Hall said his policy will be to “always have a play of comparable worth” as he enters into negotiations with Guild members. “If we are unable to reach agreement with the playwright because of the Guild issue, we will simply go ahead to the second play. I believe there is absolute consensus in LORT about this.”

La Jolla Playhouse managing director Alan Levey agreed. He won’t have any contracts pending with new playwrights until after Thanksgiving, and “I’m not losing any sleep over it,” he said.

PROGRAM NOTES: It’s official. As reported here some months ago, Starlight will present its first world premiere next summer as the fourth production in its 1991 season. The as-yet-untitled show is a romantic musical comedy about a performing group that entertains troops during World War II. Music is by Peter Eckstrom, and book and lyrics by Steve Hays and Anthony Stimac. The show was commissioned by Starlight and developed out of its new staged reading series. The rest of the theater’s 46th season includes a new stage adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz,” as well as “Big River,” “Kiss Me Kate” and “Man of La Mancha.” . . . The San Diego Repertory Theatre waited for weeks to assemble its original cast of “Burn This” before announcing that it would remount its successful production. They got the cast nailed down Oct. 2 only to lose actor Jeffrey Meek on Oct. 5 to a lead in a new late-night CBS T.V. series, “Metal,” which is now filming in Paris. Robert Duncan will replace Meek as Pale; he was understudy to John Malkovich for the part at the play’s world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. . . .

The Attis Theatre of Athens, Greece, will present “Persians,” a contemporary adaptation of the play by Aeschylus, in Greek at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Recital Hall Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. only. “Persians” was first performed in Athens in 472 and tells the story of Persia’s final, painful defeat by the Greek army. . . .

BITS AND PIECES: The Old Globe production of Amanda McBroom’s “Heartbeats” at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage has been extended through Nov. 11 . . . “Nunsense” has been extended at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse through Oct. 28 . . . The La Jolla Playhouse will present a special of matinee of “Twelfth Night” Wednesday and Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. for high school students and their teachers. Tickets are $5.

Times staff writer Don Shirley also contributed to this report.