The Shows Will Go On, Theaters Say

Operations at South Coast Repertory, the largest theater company in Orange County, have been largely unaffected by the rioting in Los Angeles, an SCR spokesman said Friday, adding that the theater’s two current shows are expected to continue this weekend as scheduled.

“Our main concern was whether the actors who live in the city would be able to get down here with the curfew on,” said spokesman Cristofer Gross. “So we’ve decided to put them up around here overnight.”

Gross said four of the six actors in “Boundary Waters,” on the SCR Mainstage, are from the Los Angeles area. The entire four-man ensemble for “Hospitality Suite,” on the SCR Second Stage, lives in Orange County, he said.

Jill Martin, a clerk in the SCR box office, said a few patrons began calling the theater when the rioting began Wednesday to find out whether any performances would be canceled. None has been. “People were a little nervous, that’s all,” she said. “We did some exchanges.”

SCR policy requires 24 hours’ notice to make ticket exchanges, Gross said, but the theater is accommodating requests on shorter notice.

The Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach and the Grove Shakespeare Festival in Garden Grove, the county’s second- and third-largest theaters, did not have productions scheduled for this weekend.

Thursday night’s performance of “The Tempest” at the 61-seat Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana was canceled because several actors would have had to break the curfew in Los Angeles to travel from and to their homes, ART’s Gary Christenson said.

At press time, ART had no plans to cancel Friday’s performance, and tonight’s and Sunday’s were also expected to go on.

“My guess is that if our actors are uncomfortable breaking the curfew, we’ll tell them to come down and we’ll put them up at a motel,” Christenson said.

“It would really hurt us (financially) if we had to call off those shows.”

Officials at the Way Off Broadway Playhouse in Santa Ana and the Vanguard Theatre Ensemble in Fullerton, both of which have shows scheduled this weekend, did not return phone calls.