Price Is Right for Six-Show Sampler

Some people like to play the field, theatrically speaking. They appreciate the cost benefits of subscriptions, as opposed to single ticket purchases, yet they hesitate to commit themselves to just one theater.

So Theatre LA has devised a new Sampler Series, offering a total of six shows at different theaters--three of them 99-seaters, three of them larger. The price is $66, plus a $3 handling charge--$11.50 per show.

That compares with an average per-ticket price of $19.42 for the regular subscribers at the six participating theaters.

Sampler Series subscribers will receive vouchers, to be exchanged for tickets at the respective box offices--so they need not commit to specific dates at the beginning of the season.

The shows:

* “Closer Than Ever,” a musical revue by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire, at International City Theatre in Long Beach, Jan. 14-Feb. 23.

* “Prelude to a Kiss,” by Craig Lucas, starring Tom Poston, at La Mirada Theatre, Feb. 18-March 8.

* Harold Pinter’s “Old Times,” at West Coast Ensemble in Hollywood, March 6-April 26.

* “El Eclipse,” the U.S. premiere of a contemporary Mexico City hit by Carlos Olmos, in English, at the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts in Lincoln Heights, May 5-June 14.

* “Little Shop of Horrors,” with Dom DeLuise, at Long Beach Civic Light Opera, July 9-26.

* “Fire in the Rain . . . Singer in the Storm,” an autobiographical musical docudrama written and performed by Holly Near, at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles, Aug. 2-Sept. 27.

Each theater has agreed to hold 2,000 tickets for Sampler Series subscribers. Seat locations cannot be guaranteed. This shouldn’t be a problem at the smaller theaters, where there aren’t many bad seats. But it might be at the 3,054-seat Long Beach Terrace Theatre. At the Taper, Sampler Series seats will be on the sides.

As a bonus, each subscriber will also receive a voucher good for a discount on a regular 1992-93 subscription at any one of the theaters.

Information: (213) 614-0556.

McKELLEN AS RICHARD III: The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain will bring its “Richard III,” starring Sir Ian McKellen, to Royce Hall at UCLA as the final stop on a six-city tour, arriving in mid-September, 1992.

UCLA is presenting the show “in cooperation with Center Theatre Group,” but exact details of that cooperation remain to be worked out. The show probably will be offered as a bonus to CTG/Ahmanson subscribers.

The production, staged by Richard Eyre, was introduced in London in the summer of 1990.

A TAPER REP COMPANY?: A group called the Antaeus Project is waiting in the wings at the Mark Taper Forum, hoping to become a permanent acting ensemble there.

By January, leaders of the 50-actor group hope to present “a workable plan for incorporating a resident classical ensemble into the theater’s future,” said Dakin Matthews, who co-founded the group with Lillian Garrett.

Matthews is currently on stage at the Taper in “Henceforward . . .” and doubles as a regular on the TV series “Drexell’s Class.” It is precisely that kind of career--one foot in screen projects, the other on stage--that the Antaeus Project is trying to foster.

“We’re looking for ways of rehearsing plays in which every role is double or triple cast, as in ballet,” said Matthews. “That’s something that hasn’t been tried seriously in this town.” He believes this kind of flexibility would allow actors to thrive in screen and stage careers simultaneously.

Of course it could also cost a lot of money. But Matthews suggests that two actors who share one role, permitting them to shoot movies during their off-hours, would cost no more than the lead actor and understudy who are hired now.

Admission to Antaeus is by invitation of the group; only actors who have worked on stage with current members are considered. The Taper provides space for Monday night meetings, where classical texts are explored, and money for minor office expenses.

The name? “Antaeus was a titan who drew his strength from touching the Earth,” said Matthews. “Hercules finally conquered him by holding him aloft in the air and squeezing the life out of him.”

Translation: Antaeus is the actor, the Earth is the stage, and Hercules is Hollywood.

Antaeus also is an acronym for “Actors Nourish Their Artistic Energies Upon Stages.”

IT DIDN’T HAPPEN IN A VACUUM: One of the most menacing scenes in Harold Pinter’s “The Caretaker” has a young man pursuing an old vagrant around a dark room with a humming vacuum cleaner. Yet on critics’ night at South Coast Repertory’s revival, the appliance was silent while Tom Harrison, as the young man, imitated its noise--without any apparent hesitation.

This writer called it “an odd choice.”

In fact, it was a technical glitch. The Electrolux has now learned its lines.