Hard Lessons : * Acting: A fire closed the theater bearing Stella Adler’s name. Now the famed teacher is without the stage where she passes along her experiences to a new generation of talent.

In the world of theater, Stella Adler is a living legend, still teaching the craft of acting at the age of 90.

She has figured so prominently as an actress, director and especially as a teacher that her name is renowned throughout the world.

“Almost all filmmakers everywhere in the world have felt the effects of American films, which have been in turn influenced by Stella Adler’s teachings,” said one former student, Marlon Brando, in a preface to Adler’s book on acting.

Students from around the world have been drawn to her classes at the tiny Stella Adler Theatre at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue.

But after a fire damaged the theater on July 24, Adler has been a teacher without a home.

Adler, who no longer drives, has to be taken to theaters throughout Hollywood to teach her master class to 99 students. Plans for a coming session have been postponed, and the theater’s production company has put on hold a number of productions and plays.

And the tiny theater may have more woes in its future. City officials have said they want to build a subway station portal on the corner as part of the planned Metro Rail Red Line that will be built under the famous boulevard. Tentative plans call for the demolition of the theater.

This week, Adler and theater directors said they are frustrated by the two months they have been without a theater and by what they see as unnecessary delays in repairing it by the owner.

“The fire has really crippled activities there,” said Gordon Davidson, artistic director of the Center Theatre Group, which includes the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theater. “There is no reason, no matter what the long-range plans, that the repairs shouldn’t be done. Stella is a national treasure and deserves a place to work and conduct classes and be seen.”

City Fire Department officials say the fire raged through a common attic of the theater, two fast-food restaurants, a shelter for runaways and a tattoo parlor, causing as much as $500,000 damage. But theater board Director Irene Gilbert said that most of the fire damage was confined to the other buildings and that roof damage to the theater could be fixed in three days for less than $12,000.

An official of the company that owns the building said his company must await word from insurance adjusters before it can proceed with work on the theater.

Adler, who has been in many a theater, said this one is special.

“I would like very much to come back here,” she said, sitting in a chair on the stage of the darkened theater.

“I have been all over the world,” sighed Adler, “but this theater has been developed and constructed so that the best of the teacher can be transferred to the audience.” The theater seats about 100.

Adler sat quietly and rigidly, her hands clasped in her lap. At the start of her 10th decade, she has slowed, requiring a wheelchair or the aid of one or two helpers to get around.

Still, Adler’s smile comes easily and her wit and motivation seem as sharp as ever. She says she wants to continue teaching at the theater, which is next door to Adler’s conservatory where other teachers continue to conduct classes.

“As long as your soul, your development as a human being--as long as that inspiration is in you--that’s as long as you teach,” she says. “I have a profession like you have and the plumber has, and so I consider myself a work person like the plumber. And if I can plumb, I plumb.”

And she would like her theater back in which to plumb, even if only for a couple of years.

But Gilbert, who has been a top aide to Adler for 30 years, wonders whether the building’s owner, J. Ned Inc., has a commitment to repairing it. “I think there is a hidden agenda somewhere,” said Gilbert. She suggested that James Nederlander’s company may not want to spend the money if the building is slated for demolition.

In a Sept. 11 letter to Nederlander, Gilbert complained that he has been dragging his feet in making the necessary minor repairs, causing undue harm and disruption.

In her letter, copies of which were sent to Mayor Tom Bradley, Councilman Michael Woo and state Sen. David Roberti (D-Hollywood), Gilbert said, “It would be to everyone’s benefit if the theater were reopened as soon as possible and especially since the damage is so minimal.”

Gilbert noted that Adler is slated to receive her fourth honorary degree, this one from the University of Cincinnati, during an Oct. 28 ceremony at the theater. Publicity surrounding the event will help not only the theater but the fledgling Hollywood theater district as well, she said.

Dozens of actors and theater celebrities, including Peter Bogdanovich, Steve Allen, Gena Rowlands and Davidson, signed the letter.

Stanley Seiden, president of J. Ned Inc. scoffed at allegations of any hidden agenda.

Seiden said the company is only waiting for its insurance adjusters to decide “whether they’re going to tear it down or fix it.”

“That’s what we’ve told the theater company,” Seiden said. “There is nothing more we can do.”

Seiden said his company is not receiving rent for the theater because it cannot be used. “It’s actually costing us money,” he said. “There’s no reason for us to drag our feet.”

Seiden and city officials said no decision has been made on whether the Metro Rail project will require that the theater be razed. Such a demolition would be more than a year away, Seiden said, “and we’d like to derive more income” out of the property in the meantime.