LATC WATCH: Should L.A.’s municipal theater center...

LATC WATCH: Should L.A.’s municipal theater center be a professional mecca, a large community hall or a hybrid? Is a strong leader required at the helm? Or should the city disperse the money that might be spent on Spring Street to other arts centers throughout the city?

These were among the questions discussed for nearly three hours Monday at a meeting of the City Council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee, chaired by Councilman Joel Wachs. Among those attempting to provide answers were the building’s landlord, Cultural Affairs Department General Manager Adolfo Nodal, plus a lineup of interested observers.

Bill Bushnell, who ran Los Angeles Theatre Center from 1985 until last October, expressed some doubts about Nodal’s current plan--a cooperative of nine arts organizations forming a board to run the building and paying membership fees. So did Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Gordon Davidson, whose group would be one of the nine.

They warned that Nodal’s “hybrid” could send mixed signals to audiences and create confusion in the building’s administration. They cautioned the committee to understand that the proposed $750,000 annual city subsidy for maintenance of the building couldn’t be reduced, that it might have to rise.

Bilingual Foundation for the Arts artistic director Carmen Zapata enthusiastically endorsed the Nodal plan: “One producer’s failure should not be used as a stick against others . . . who have been forced to produce on budgets because they didn’t have (the Community Redevelopment Agency) to fall back on.”