UCLA Discusses Purchase of Westwood Playhouse

UCLA is considering purchasing the Westwood Playhouse.

Gilbert Cates, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, confirmed that discussions are under way with the theater’s owner, Kirsten Combs. Cates would not comment on what UCLA would do with the theater, or where the financing might come from, because talks are “at that very delicate time.” (Rumor has it that the funds might come from a private source.)

Reached in New Jersey, current leaseholder and producer Eric Krebs also wouldn’t say much. But he is aware of the talks between UCLA and Combs and said he is hopeful that he might continue producing there for a while even if the sale goes through, because UCLA probably wouldn’t be able to begin operations immediately.

Krebs’ lease expires Sept. 30, but he has an option to renew it, assuming the theater isn’t sold in the meantime.

Owner Combs could not be reached for comment.

ON TAP AT TAPER: David Mamet is the first recipient of the Timothy Childs playwriting commission at the Mark Taper Forum.

The program, set up last year, provides $25,000 a year to commission work from a major playwright who has not been particularly associated with the Taper in the past. Mamet is expected to visit the Taper at least twice during the coming season. He will work on a brand-new play and also direct “The Old Neighborhood,” a set of three one-acts--only one of them previously produced--which the Taper might stage at the former Los Angeles Theatre Center, should the Taper be able to produce a season there next year.

Mamet’s isn’t the only big commission floating around the Taper these days. Anna Deavere Smith, whose one-woman “Fires in the Mirror” is a New York hit, has been commissioned to do a one-woman piece about the recent Los Angeles civil unrest.

There are 13 mid-level, four-figure Taper commissions out right now. The recipients include Ellen McLaughlin, Tony Kushner and Mel Marvin, Elizabeth Egloff, Quincy Long, Han Ong, Robert Coe, Anthony Clarvoe and Philip Kan Gotanda.

Also on the list are several figures who were associated with the late LATC: David Schweizer (whose commissioned piece, an adaptation of “Peer Gynt,” was one of the shows that had been scheduled for the LATC season prior to the company’s collapse), Marlane Meyer, Milcha Sanchez-Scott and the comedy troupe Culture Clash.

The Culture Clash show is another possibility for the potential Taper season at the LATC building, according to a Taper proposal released by the city. Also mentioned in the Taper’s LATC proposal were “Bondage” by David Henry Hwang, “Mothers” by Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, a Latino Theatre Lab piece and a classic play.

And where will Mamet’s “Neighborhood” be done if the LATC deal doesn’t fly?

It’s not known, said Oskar Eustis, the Taper’s director of play development, but the Taper, Too or a larger rented facility are possibilities.

PCPA CUTBACKS: Theatergoers anticipating their usual summer trip up the coast to the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing ArtsTheaterfest in Solvang and Santa Maria should be aware of budget-driven cutbacks in the programming this year.

You’ll be limited to one show per venue, per weekend. A total of four shows are being presented, down from six last year and a maximum of nine in 1985. And all of them are familiar titles to most Southland theatergoers.

Artistic director Jack Shouse said the funds available for student scholarships and guest artists were cut by nearly 50% from last summer, and there just wasn’t enough money to rotate shows between the two sites. “We’ve cut the number of shows to keep the quality (of the remaining ones) where we want it to be,” he said.

The schedule:

July 2-18: “Noises Off” in Solvang, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” in Santa Maria.

July 23-Aug. 8: “Joseph” in Solvang, “Noises Off” in Santa Maria.”

Aug. 13-29: “Lend Me a Tenor” in Solvang, “Big River” in Santa Maria.

Sept. 3-20: “Big River” in Solvang, “Lend Me a Tenor” in Santa Maria.

Judging from that list, an old Times quote--still used on the PCPA stationery--about how the group’s two theaters “are essential landmarks on the theatrical map” isn’t apt any longer.

DISINGENUOUS: Speaking of Times quotes used in ads, look what happened to the phrase “ingeniously choreographed” lifted from the Times review of “Closer Than Ever.”

In the first Sunday after the review appeared, the ad said “ingenuously choreographed”--not the same thing at all. Then, after a complaint from Stage Watch, the ad was changed to the misspelled “ingeneously choreographed” and remained that way for another two weeks.