Pasadena Playhouse, Directors Embark on a Collision Course

“We’re not trying to make war,” declared David Houk, president of Theatre Corp. of America and operator of the Pasadena Playhouse.

But the battle has begun between the Playhouse and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, which is on strike against the Playhouse.

“Our objective is to bring (the Theatre Corp.) into the professional family of producers and theaters,” said David Rosenak, executive director of the Society.

At issue is the Theatre Corp.’s departure from the standard contract between the directors’ union and the League of Resident Theatres (LORT). Though the Playhouse isn’t a member of LORT, 23 of the 36 productions mounted there since the mainstage was revived in 1986 were directed by Society members, using contracts based on the LORT model.

“The system worked OK when we were one theater,” Houk said. But now the Playhouse operations have expanded to satellite theaters in Poway and Santa Barbara. And “economically it doesn’t work,” Houk said.

Playhouse productions are “extending” in the other cities, not “touring,” Houk said, and they require no further re-staging. He is willing to pay directors bonuses based on box-office success in the other cities, but not royalties.

The union objects not only on this issue, Rosenak said, but also to what he said was a lack of consultation with the union when the satellite network was planned.

Several months ago, after the union raised objections over the royalties issue--and after rehearsals had begun for the next Playhouse show in line, “David’s Mother”--the contract for “David’s” director and union member Josephine Abady became another bone of contention.

Rosenak said it eliminated nearly all references to the union. Abady, whose attorney brother Sam Abady drew it up, said the problem wasn’t in the contract itself but in the failure of the Theatre Corp. to sign the union’s standard agreement to provide pension and welfare payments.

“We showed good faith in allowing ‘David’s Mother’ to continue,” Rosenak said. But then the union alerted its member Charles Nelson Reilly that he shouldn’t direct the next Playhouse show, “The Twilight of the Golds.” He withdrew and was replaced by non-union director Tom Alderman. Another director who doesn’t belong to the union, Jules Aaron, has been set to direct “Isn’t It Romantic?” opening in March.

Playhouse officials sound confident that they can weather any storms stirred up by the directors. “There is a bunch of directors in this industry town who have no interest in joining” the union, said Deborah Dixon, the Theatre Corp. senior vice president of creative services, who is primarily responsible for finding those directors. “They’ve made their fame and fortune in film and TV”--and presumably won’t mind any trouble that might result if they ignore the stage union.

(Any union member who defies the strike and works at the Playhouse will be fined 12.5% of his or her potential earnings under the LORT contract and will face possible suspension, said Rosenak. He wouldn’t comment on whether non-members who work there would face retribution if they later seek to join the union.)

Others say Playhouse shows will suffer. Excluding the 1,100 Society members from Playhouse jobs “has got to affect the product,” said Stephen Rothman, the first artistic director of the Playhouse under Houk’s management and now the co-chair of the Western branch of the union. He pointed to “projects that come with an attached director” who’s a union member; these projects presumably will be off limits to the Playhouse.

The expansion of Playhouse productions to other cities intensifies a larger issue Rosenak raises: Is the for-profit Theatre Corp. exploiting the Playhouse’s nonprofit status?

Union contracts give nonprofit producers a break, compared with commercial producers, but the Theatre Corp. “wouldn’t be doing (the expansion) if they didn’t contemplate a profit. We want to be a part of it.” A commercial production contract--perhaps one based on the Off Broadway model--might be appropriate at the other venues, Rosenak said.

Houk acknowledged that “we’re some strange mix of nonprofit and for-profit--which we’re not trying to hide.” But he added that attorneys and the IRS “quadruple-checked” the arrangement. “It’s not our intent to play games.”

The Corp. has earned a profit “on paper,” said Houk, “but we have selected not to take it,” instead returning profits to Playhouse operations. “I’ve never taken personal dollars out,” he said. “But I don’t expect to do that forever.”

CELTICS SEEK NEW HOME: On the brink of a court appearance, the Celtic Arts Center and its landlord, who sought to evict the group, reached an agreement last Monday: The Celts must vacate their Hollywood Blvd. storefront by April 1, four months before the lease expires, in exchange for forgiveness of four months of back rent. The group is now looking for another home, preferably in Hollywood.