Bemoaning the Lack of Cohesion in L.A.

Los Angeles’ “desert ecology” is reflected in its theaters, said L.A. Festival director Peter Sellars at a playwrights’ conference last Sunday. “The organizations that survive are starved and take the form of cacti--very prickly little clusters at great distances from each other.”

Sellars was addressing the public symposium that concluded the event, sponsored by the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre and held at UCLA. And he wasn’t the only one at the conference who bemoaned the lack of cohesion in L.A.’s theater scene.

Several participants in an earlier session spoke romantically of how everyone in Chicago’s theaters goes to see everyone else’s work, implying that this kind of cozy mutual support made everyone feel swell. This prompted Sellars to remark that he often has wished that “enemies” of L.A. playwrights could see “their second acts--so that someone could tell them (what was wrong). . . . Learning to speak with your enemies” should be a priority for local theater artists and Los Angelenos in general, said Sellars.

Not that a playwright should “take a poll,” cautioned Sellars. Nor does he have much patience for “plays about our impotence” or “kitchen sink” works. “I’m looking for a generation of playwrights who are willing to write plays about the hardest choices this country has to make.”

Sellars challenged writers to ask themselves: “Does the world actually need your play? If you’re not doing something that counts, you are the problem. Just stop it.”

Yet even as Sellars spoke, the conference itself offered some indication that the components of L.A.’s theater scene may try to come together more often, on a more supportive basis.

After observing a session in which Center Theatre Group boss Gordon Davidson sat around a table with a couple dozen stalwarts of the local theater scene, including a number of young cutting-edge playwrights, New York-based playwright Mac Wellman remarked that this sort of encounter “could never happen in New York.”

Not that the discussion was a mutual admiration society. Taper-bashers voiced their complaints, and the theatrical climax of the session occurred after playwright/director/Malibu Stage Company founder Charles Marowitz repeated his oft-heard charge that Davidson has “a monopoly.”

An exasperated Davidson, vowing to “square off” against Marowitz, gave a detailed response (“I’ve tried my best to help other institutions find their legs. I cannot crack the nut. There’s something about the geography, something about Hollywood . . . “) that concluded with his charge to Marowitz to “make your theater in Malibu. Fine. I bless it.” Whereupon Davidson pulled a dollar out of his wallet and brandished it on the table as a sign of his support.

The playwrights agreed to meet again and also voiced support for the idea of a coalition of theaters that would make real commitments, beyond the reading/workshop level, to playwrights of their choice. However, this point of view vied with producer-director Bill Bushnell’s admonition to “take the power”--that is, self-produce, creating indigenous artistic ferment in individual communities.

DEAF WEST POWER: One of those small theaters that’s self-producing for its own community has taken a giant step forward. The Deaf West Theatre Co., based at the Fountain Theatre, has won a $375,000 grant, to be parceled out over three years, from the U.S. Department of Education.

It’s an especially extraordinary achievement, considering the age of Deaf West. Founded in 1991, the group has produced only two shows, “The Gin Game” and “Shirley Valentine.” Its most ambitious production yet, of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” opens Oct. 15. Deaf West production are signed in American Sign Language, with a simultaneous vocal interpretation spoken over headsets.

CANCEL THE LUAU: “The Real Live Brady Bunch” was about to present three weeks of Hawaiian episodes (“Hawaii Bound,” “Pass the Tabu,” “The Tiki Caves”) at the Westwood Playhouse when Hurricane Iniki struck. “Considering the tremendous hardships now being faced in Hawaii, it would not be appropriate to do these episodes at this time,” according to a statement from executive producer Ron Delsener. So other episodes were substituted, including this week’s “The Subject Was Noses,” a re-run from the opening week last April.

“Is that nuts?” asked a caller to Stage Watch who had hoped to see the “Hawaii Series.” “It’s a travesty, it’s silly.”