Directors Strike at Pasadena Playhouse

The stage directors’ union has gone on strike against the Pasadena Playhouse.

Citing problems in the experiences of the directors of two recent Playhouse productions, the executive board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers announced late Friday that it has directed its members not to work there.

The union action triggered a change in directors of the Playhouse’s next production, Jonathan Tolins’ “The Twilight of the Golds,” scheduled to begin previews Jan. 8. Society member Charles Nelson Reilly withdrew and was replaced by Tom Alderman, a non-union director.

Union executive director David Rosenak said the dispute began when the Theatre Corp. of America, the company that runs the Playhouse, didn’t adequately compensate director Kenneth Frankel for moving his staging of “Solitary Confinement” from the Playhouse to the Spreckels Theatre in San Diego last January.

Another problem arose in the contract for Josephine Abady, director of “David’s Mother” at the Playhouse in the fall. According to Rosenak, her contract departed too far from previous ones that were modeled on the union’s contract with the League of Resident Theatres (LORT). The Playhouse is not a member of LORT, but Playhouse officials had agreed to use the LORT contract when hiring union members, said Rosenak.

Through a spokesman, Playhouse officials declined comment.

After a fruitless discussion a week ago between Rosenak and the Theatre Corp.’s president, David Houk, a meeting of “around 25 or 30” local members of the union unanimously endorsed the union’s stand, according to one of the members who was present. This director said he had been told by the corporation’s executive vice president, Lars Hansen, that Playhouse shows would no longer employ union directors.

Alderman, the show’s new director, has worked primarily in television in recent years. His only prominent L.A. stage credit was “Standing On My Knees,” at the sub-100-seat Zephyr Theatre in 1987. However, he said he has directed larger productions in Chicago, where he was artistic director of the Pheasant Run Theatre for four years, and more recently at the Tiffany Theatre in Kansas City.

He has never joined the stage directors’ union, he said, because “I had too many unions in my life.” He cited five unions to which he belonged, including the Directors Guild, which negotiates directors’ contracts in film and television.

Whether he could continue directing “Twilight of the Golds,” should it move to other venues that would honor the union contract, is “too hypothetical,” he said.

“Suddenly I’m Sally Field in a labor picture,” quipped Reilly, the production’s first director, who said union officials told him he would be penalized if he continued directing “Golds.” Reilly said that he supports the union’s action but that it surprised him because “I assumed (the Playhouse) was a first-class theater.”

Nevertheless, he added that “Golds” is such a good play, “the usher could direct it.”