S.D. Repertory Theatre Receives Major Boost in NEA Grant

The controversy surrounding the National Endowment for the Arts since last year has led some observers to fear that only the safest arts organizations would be in the endowment’s good graces--a fear that was apparent in the announcement Thursday that the New York Shakespeare Festival is rejecting its second round of NEA grants this year. (Related story on F1.)

But judging from the latest endowment grants to professional theaters in Southern California, the fear may not yet be warranted.

Two Southland theaters with reputations for adventurous work won major increases in endowment funding, according to an endowment list of 214 professional theaters, nationwide, receiving $7.8 million for the 1990-91 season.

San Diego Repertory Theatre’s NEA grant increased from $35,000 to $60,000, while Los Angeles Theatre Center’s rose from last year’s $40,000 to $65,000.

These grants were issued with the NEA’s anti-obscenity certification requirement intact, though it was recently struck from legislation that applies to next year’s grants. Many of the recipients--including San Diego Rep and LATC--filed friend-of-the-court briefs in lawsuits challenging the clause.

Another recent change in NEA legislation would completely prohibit conflict of interest among the panel members who adjudicate the applicants. One of this year’s panel members who might not be able to serve in the future is San Diego Rep’s producing director Sam Woodhouse. This year, he followed current NEA procedures and left the room during discussion and voting on his theater’s application, according to an endowment spokesman.

Among other local theaters, South Coast Repertory did best this year--its NEA grant will rise from $95,000 to $112,500. David Chambers, an SCR associate artist, was chairman of the NEA theater panel; he left the room during discussion and voting on the SCR application, said the NEA.

All of the other Southern California theaters that are NEA recipients will receive either the same amount as last year, or less.

The San Diego Old Globe’s grant stayed at the level of last year’s--$180,000. La Jolla Playhouse received $76,500, down $8500 from last year.

The Mark Taper Forum won $260,000, down $20,000 from last year. Its amount was nevertheless the third largest on the list, surpassed only by grants to the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

The Odyssey Theatre got $31,500--$3,500 less than last year. East West Players, L.A. Theatre Works and Stages each garnered $7,500--the same amount as last year.

The endowment theater program began its apportionment of money this year by cutting the allotments to last year’s recipients--at least those that received more than the minimum $7,500--by 10%. The pool of money derived from these cuts was then used to reward groups that were considered to have been underfunded in past years, an NEA spokeswoman said. Some of the money was also restored on a discretionary basis to some of the other theaters.

LATC artistic director Bill Bushnell pointed out that both his theater and San Diego Repertory came of age in the ‘80s, when the Reagan Administration pulled the reins on previous increases in endowment funding. “We suffered certain inequities because the endowment itself wasn’t growing.”

Bushnell said he believes the endowment boost also reflects “a sense that (LATC is) going to survive . . . We’re a year older, and our overall (budgetary) numbers have improved considerably.” Recent tough talk by some City Council members, who advocate ending or reducing city support for LATC, occurred after the endowment theater panel deliberations.

San Diego Rep managing director Adrian Stewart agreed that “we’ve historically been underfunded.” But he sounded grimmer about the future than Bushnell, noting that the theater must still raise $350,000 in private contributions by the end of the year “to keep our doors open.” He said he was heartened by the endowment endorsement of the “high risk” programming taken by San Diego Rep last year--risks that he acknowledged helped plunge the theater into its current fiscal crisis.

La Jolla is another theater that emerged in the ‘80s, and the Odyssey attained much of its reputation during the ‘80s, yet funding for these theaters was not supplemented after the initial 10% cut.

Alan Levey, La Jolla’s managing director, acknowledged that “given our relative youth, we were being funded more (in previous years) than other organizations” such as LATC--which has a budget almost twice as large as La Jolla’s.

The Odyssey’s Ron Sossi said his theater’s NEA funding probably won’t rise above its current level “until we’re under an Equity contract”--which won’t happen unless the Odyssey expands into quarters larger than its current 99-seat theaters.

The New York Shakespeare Festival, which rejected another endowment grant earlier this year because of the endowment’s controversial anti-obscenity clause, was listed as a recipient of $243,000 in this latest round of grants.

Separately, the NEA has confirmed that Jessica Andrews, who took over as director of the endowment’s theater program just 10 months ago, has resigned to become managing director at Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger. Andrews was one of two acting program directors elevated to permanent director by NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer in his first personnel moves after taking over the agency in October of 1990.

The NEA said Andrews would leave the endowment next month. She first joined the NEA in 1987.

LATC SINGS: “The Joni Mitchell Project,” opening tonight at LATC, was born from an idea by Barry Krost, the business partner of Mitchell’s manager Peter Asher. Krost is also a board member at LATC.

Could the project have been approved because Krost is on the theater board?

“Absolutely not,” said LATC artistic director Bushnell. “I’ve turned down other projects Barry has presented. I’ve turned down dozens of projects presented to me by the trustees.” The project was approved strictly on its artistic merits, he said.

Bushnell declined to discuss the show’s contractual details. Krost, while acknowledging that Mitchell “will be well and appropriately remunerated” for her material (she is not performing in the show), added that if the show is commercially successful in a later life after its LATC run, LATC could earn “a considerable income” from it, as could Mitchell. “I’m assuming LATC would be a substantial participant.”

Starting next week, “The Joni Mitchell Project” will be joined by another musical revue, “Blues in the Night,” at LATC. Bushnell said no subscribers have complained about two revues in a row; instead, “my guess is they’ll be overjoyed.”

The overlap wasn’t intentional, said Bushnell; “the timing just happened to work out that way because of the schedules” of the two directors.

From the two shows, he added, “The astute observer will see that you can start from the same position”--songs, singers and instrumentalists--”and end up with something completely different.”

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Tony Franciosa and the original cast’s Liliane Montevecchi will star in the national tour of “Grand Hotel,” scheduled to arrive in Costa Mesa April 2, in Hollywood May 28 and in San Diego Aug. 20 . . . Sheri Glaser’s “Family Secrets” will re-open at the Heliotrope Nov. 24 after a successful run at the Hahn Theatre in San Diego. Earlier this year the show ran six months at the Heliotrope. An additional character has been added during the San Diego run: a trance channeler who is married to the older daughter of the family.

The local premiere of a new film version of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” starring Gerard Depardieu, will benefit Pasadena Playhouse, Tuesday at the Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles. Information: (818) 792-8672 x208.