Actors Hope Stage Will Help Bridge Ethnic Gap : Cultures: The Armenian group, founded in 1979, is presenting its first plays in English. It hopes to ‘create an atmosphere of cooperation.’

Whatever happened to the melting pot that America used to be? Lately, many ethnic cultures have become ghettoized and insular. The strong stew of blended cultures has separated.

One group doesn’t think that’s a very good idea, and they’re trying to do something about it through the medium of theater. The Ardavazt Theater Company, an offshoot of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, has been producing plays since 1979.

“We’re pioneers, actually,” says Ardavazt artistic director and actor Krikor Satamian. He founded the group 13 years ago.

“At the time, I was living in New York, and I used to come here and direct a play, then go back to New York. Although we were doing plays by Armenian authors, there were plays by non-Armenian authors as well, but they were performed in Armenian.”

A group of one-act plays, under the umbrella title “Three Acts of Love,” opening this weekend at Sherman Oaks’ Whitefire Theatre, is the group’s first production in English. The plays are Murray Schisgal’s “The Pushcart Peddlars,” Georges Feydeau’s French farce “Wooed and Viewed,” and “Man’s Best Friend, “ by Edward Eric Ash.

“With this new English-speaking theater,” Satamian continues, “we’re serving a dual purpose. We’re introducing the younger generation into the profession by using the group as a stepping-stone. In this way, we work together; the give and take of culture between ethnic groups adds to the overall American culture. By doing this, we can get together as part of this multicultural society in Los Angeles.”

Satamian’s professional Armenian-American actors and Armenian director, Peter Manoogian, feel as strongly as he does about the group’s goals.

This is Manoogian’s first full theater production, though he has worked in theater before. He is a film director first of all, the son of Haig Manoogian, who founded and headed the film department at New York University and counts among his graduates Martin Scorsese.

Satamian appears in the production, along with Buck Kartalian, Magda Harout and Melissa Sagerian. Kartalian, who was once a runner-up for the Mr. America title, is an easy face to recognize, having been seen in such films as “The Outlaw Josie Wales,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “Planet of the Apes.” He has guest-starred on many television series, and was a regular on NBC’s “Monster Squad.”

Harout represents the third generation of a theatrical family. Her parents founded the famous Har-Omar Restaurant (now Spago’s), and built Hollywood’s Ivar Theatre.

The youngest member of the cast, Sagerian, found out about the production through a casting notice. “This is the first time I’ve ever performed with other Armenian actors,” she says. “Actually, I didn’t know they existed, to tell you the truth, except for some of the stars I’m aware of.”

She’s referring to Mike Connors, Tony Bennett and, yes, Cher.

“The idea,” says director Manoogian, “is to reach out beyond the community itself. The earlier productions were performed for a rather small number of theatergoers.

Satamian, who has been working toward this goal since the beginning, continues, “There’s also a faction of Los Angeles Armenians who haven’t been able to come and see our production, because they can’t speak the language. They were born here: first-, second- and third-generation Armenians.

“We’re serving several purposes with this group. As we expand and vary the programs, we can invite actors from the American theater to come and perform with us, and hopefully we’ll go and perform with them.” We’ll create an atmosphere of cooperation.

Harout was one of the first artists invited to what used to be the Soviet Union on a cultural exchange program, in the early ‘70s. She traveled and worked throughout the U.S.S.R., but remembers her experience in Armenia most.

“Their hope,” she says, “was that we would start a theater here. But they thought that it would be in Armenian. The reason for inviting people over there was to keep the culture alive, so we could bring it back here, and keep the language alive, and so on. But in this instance, I think it’s much more valuable for the younger generation coming up here, having a place to work. That’s what this organization is doing, that’s why I’m a part of it.”

Kartalian remembers what it was like in New York City, when his parents arrived and settled in between 25th and 31st streets on the East Side. It was an Armenian ghetto. “It was like a little haven for them; there was safety, and knowing each other. They were dedicated to wanting to be good Americans. None of them had anything, but they had that one thing in common, a bond among them all.”

They began to blend in. But it’s a process that’s still going on, the making of something that’s greater than its parts. Krikor Satamian and his company want to be an operative part of that process.

“Three Acts of Love” plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays through July 12 at Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Tickets, $15. Call (213) 660-8587, (213) 467-2428.

T.H. McCulloh writes regularly about theater for Calendar.