East West Players Takes a Multicultural Direction

East West Players has reached “a turning point,” said the group’s new board president, Jeff Smith.

Smith himself is an indication of the multicultural direction in which Los Angeles’ primary Asian-American theater company is turning. He is the group’s first non-Asian board president.

Which is not to say that East West is about to become West West. The upcoming season will include three plays by Asian-Americans, plus the musical “Into the Woods,” directed by two Asian-Americans.

But the group does look more multicultural. In its “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” only four out of 15 cast members are Asian, according to administrative director Lissa Lee. The show’s casting “strongly reflects the direction the theater is taking,” said Smith. It was staged by the group’s general producer Tom Donaldson, himself non-Asian.

Agent Guy Lee, a co-founder of East West, protested the trend in a letter to Artistic Director Nobu McCarthy. “I don’t believe this is the time to open (East West) up to being a rainbow coalition,” said Lee. “I don’t think Asian actors have enough access to other theaters at this time.”

Yet economic imperatives require the group to broaden its audience and its fund-raising, say the theater’s leaders. The group’s “financial position is precarious,” according to McCarthy. It’s necessary to raise $20,000 just to pay operating expenses in the next two months, said Lee.

Although officials wouldn’t say how large the standing debt is, outgoing Board President Robert Kawahara said he didn’t think it exceeded $50,000. “We are not an endangered species,” emphasized McCarthy. But the crisis is severe enough that Lee and McCarthy have deferred their salaries.

So, under the leadership of Smith--who is corporate manager and assistant to the CEO of Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.--the board is taking action:

- The board itself has doubled in size--up to 18--in recent weeks, with the emphasis placed on members who have ties to corporate or other private support. Smith wants to expand the board to 30.

- The group has abandoned its long-held goal of moving into the old Union Church facility in Little Tokyo, a move that could have cost as much as $3 million because of earthquake renovation, and which would have required the use of more expensive Equity contracts because of the hall’s larger size. The group still wants to move from Santa Monica Boulevard, said Smith, but it’s not the top priority.

- East West plans a major fund-raiser in Torrance this summer. Smith wants to involve the large Asian-American community in the South Bay, plus foreign companies like his own, with offices there.

Meanwhile, despite its financial woes, East West will briefly move beyond the 99-seat arena next fall. With UCLA, the company will co-produce Wakako Yamauchi’s “12-1-A,” at UCLA’s 487-seat Freud Playhouse, in eight performances between Nov. 10-15. It’s a play first seen at East West in 1982. UCLA will pay the bills and provide student actors for minor roles, but East West will cast three Equity members in leading roles and furnish the artistic direction.

“AND” IN HOLLYWOOD: One of the least-used mid-sized theaters in Los Angeles has been the Comedy Store Playhouse, a 238-seat hall on Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood, just south of Sunset Blvd.

Although still owned by the Comedy Store, the theater has now returned to one of its former names, the Hollywood Playhouse. Too many people confused it with the Comedy Store itself, said a Comedy Store official.

Now, the first production (other than brief workshops) to play the theater since the fall of 1990 is on tap for early June: “And,” a monologue about a journalist who wants to write fiction, by Life magazine writer Roger Rosenblatt.

Ron Silver will be the performer in “And,” as he was in a recent New York production. Producer Deborah Thomas said she wasn’t intimidated by the prospect of employing the president of Actors’ Equity as her only cast member. Her director/husband, D. Paul Thomas, and Silver are friends, she said. The show will use Equity’s Hollywood Area Theatre contract.

“And” is a rental, but the theater’s new bookers, Artistic Director T Michael and Manager Greg Monaghan, hope to do co-productions there, with the focus on one-person shows, said Michael. The theater now has self-parking across Las Palmas with security officers on site.

DUELING AYCKBOURNS: Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy “Woman in Mind” is about to open in two concurrent productions. First up is South Coast Repertory’s version, opening on May 29 in Costa Mesa, starring Kandis Chappell and directed by David Emmes. Then it’s another opening, same show, on June 5 at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood, this time starring Helen Mirren and directed by Dennis Erdman.

How did the double booking happen?

Tiffany producers Paula Holt and Perla Karney obtained the rights to do the show through Ayckbourn’s London agent. South Coast went through Samuel French, the company that regularly licenses the show for resident theater productions.

When the traffic jam became apparent, the players decided that they didn’t really mind if both productions continued, and playwright Ayckbourn agreed. However, South Coast did request the Tiffany to postpone its opening until after the Costa Mesa production was reviewed, and the Tiffany producers agreed.

Both parties said they don’t feel their potential audiences overlap very much--and South Coast’s larger house is heavily pre-sold to subscribers anyway. However, Emmes said he was slightly concerned about confusion in the minds of inattentive theatergoers--hence his request to open first. Holt said she thought the publicity generated by two productions might even be a plus.

At least one Orange County resident, however, will make repeated trips to the Tiffany production. Paxton Whitehead, who lives in Irvine and appeared at South Coast in “Heartbreak House” last year, is cast in the West Hollywood production. “He’ll probably drive right by us on the way to work,” said Emmes.