Director O’Brien Steps Out on Center Stage for ‘Letters’

Meanwhile, as “Love Letters” continues to rotate weekly casts at the Old Globe’s main stage (Harold Gould and Barbara Rush fill in next week, and three more couples are in the process of being signed for the next three weeks), another show is being readied to open at the Old Globe’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage.

But this one’s not an Old Globe production. It’s a Sledgehammer Theatre show: Georg Buchner’s “Leonce and Lena,” which runs through Dec. 16.

Sledgehammer Theatre at the Old Globe? The group that produced a five-hour, sexually explosive “Hamlet” so wildly different from the Old Globe’s subtle “Hamlet” that one could describe the two companies as theatrical opposites?

That’s right. And the Globe is giving them the space rent-free.

It’s part of what Thomas Hall, managing director of the Old Globe, describes as his company’s commitment “to benefit other organizations.”

Hall has no illusion that Sledgehammer, now that it’s in the Carter, is going to turn around and produce Globe-like fare.

“They’re on the opposite end of the spectrum (from us) and that’s what interests me. There was a lot in their ‘Hamlet’ that I didn’t think was valid, and I took issue with, but it was very provocative.

“I think they provide a good complement to the work that the Old Globe and the (La Jolla) Playhouse and others do.”

The Globe has been providing Sledgehammer with support ever since Hall recommended it, along with the Bowery Theatre, for three-year $15,000 grants from Southwestern Bell Foundation’s Arts Partnership program last year. The Globe provided technical help for Sledgehammer’s “Hamlet.” And, by offering the company space to perform, it bailed the company out of the jam it found itself in when its originally scheduled space, the Progressive Stage Company at 433 G St., was closed by the Fire Department for failing to comply with zoning regulations.

For at least one Sledgehammer artist, the road to the Cassius Carter will be a familiar one. Sledgehammer co-founder and resident designer, Robert Brill, has designed two successful shows for the Old Globe Theatre this year--”Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” and “The Granny.” Both were presented in the Cassius Carter, where he will design the set for “Leonce and Lena.”

But, for the rest of the company, the move to the Old Globe’s theater in the round is a giant step. Scott Feldsher, the artistic director who is directing this piece, will have to adjust to working with 100 lights rather than the usual 20 to 30. The company also will have its first experience with a computer board. And it will have to pay union electrician and carpenter salaries--and work within their hours--rather than the low-budget, round-the-clock schedule its non-union company is used to.

The Sledgehammer audience may also be a bit different this time around. Ethan Feerst, the executive director, has mailed out information about the show to 6,000 Old Globe subscribers. The show, which features puppets and humans in an intergalactic setting, should provide some surprises to the average Globe subscriber. The trip to Balboa Park should also provide a new look at Sledgehammer for their loyal fans.

The last time Sledghammer did Buchner, it was a production of “Blow Out the Sun” at the Carnation Factory next to the crack dealers, Feerst said. Since then, the company has built a reputation on its skill in transforming warehouses into viable theatrical venues--if only for a single run.

“I think that what this context will do is that it will make it OK for people who were hesitant about seeing our work to come give it a look-see, and they’ll either run from Balboa Park screaming in terror or they’ll simply find out that it’s good theater,” Feerst said.