In Search of Artistic Direction : Reorganized Theatre 6470 tries to find a new identity as it offers a diverse slate on stage in ’93

When does a theater company on paper become a theater company that matters?

That, in short, was what the company members of Hollywood-based Theatre 6470 were mulling over as they came together in late 1991 to discuss their future.

“We realized that we were sort of going along from production to production without having a very clear sense of where we were headed in the long run,” says co-executive director Taylor Ashbrook.

Since its founding in February, 1989, the company had been regularly producing, trying to keep outside productions that rented its 6470 Santa Monica Blvd. space to a minimum and its own 30 or more members busy.

But after presenting some striking if flawed plays (“Isolate,” “Cherry Terry/The Rockin’ Robin”) and an equally striking prospectus listing dozens of works in progress, community projects and high ideals (“we share a vision of our theater as a center for diverse, innovative and socially relevant entertainment where all members have the opportunity to produce his or her own individual projects”), Theatre 6470 was not making an indelible mark on the L.A. theater community.

“They began with a very ambitious program, then got diffused,” says L.A. Weekly critic Steven Mikulan. Although occupying a space built from scratch by the defunct Woodshop Theatre next to what is now the multispace Complex, “it got mixed up with all those spaces, without a real identity,” Mikulan adds, referring to rentals.

The 1991 skull session resulted in a reorganization, with multiple coordinating committees handling specific tasks and preserving the group’s dogged attachment to as much democracy as possible without a single artistic director at the helm.

More important, the refreshed 6470 made plans for its first full season of productions, which began Friday with Jonathan Gordon’s staging of Franz Xaver Kroetz’s “Through the Leaves.” The diverse slate continues in March with Peggy Shannon’s staging of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” followed by puppeteer Steven Ritz’s “An Evening With Edgar Poe” (May) and two new plays--James Gilden’s “Usual Causes” (July) and Mat Plendl’s “The Secret Diary of Sondra Woodward” (August).

All this, after a peculiarly quiet 1992, in which the only full, purely in-house production was an evening of one-act plays.

“Last year was a transitional time for us,” says Ashbrook, 31. “As we regrouped, we also put out a call for play proposals so that we would have a set 1993 season far in advance of the new year.” Jill Holden, who plays butcher shop owner Martha in “Leaves” and shares executive director chores with Ashbrook, adds that although the season lineup of new and old plays and traditional and non-traditional concepts appears to show a company trying to cover all of its demographic bases, appearances deceive.

“These were simply the best, most fully developed proposals we received,” she says, adding that the diversity probably is the best indicator that the company is growing up. “We’ve never put a total mess on stage, but some shows had their troubles. You’re going to have that with a group like ours, which is artist-run, where there’s no head, where you have to want to produce your own work.”

The difference in 6470 probably begins with how new members are selected: Unlike most companies primarily taking on actors, it asks candidates what they want to put on stage. “The only negative for potential members is if they have no ideas for shows,” Ashbrook says. “If they’re looking only to be cast in someone else’s show, this isn’t the company for them.”

As Holden, in her 30s, terms it, this can result in “the passion to get a vision in front of an audience.” The risk is that, if the artist has only one show in mind, once it’s realized, he or she may not have a reason to stay with the group. Of 6470’s original 35 members, 14 remain; membership had shrunk to barely 20, but is now 25 and growing.

“We’re doing the things stage companies have to do, like building a base of subscribers, bringing on people who specialize in the technical side of theater-making, and looking ahead to fund-raise seed money for future productions--things we’ve never done before,” notes Ashbrook.

And in Theatre Row Hollywood, centered on Santa Monica Boulevard, 6470 is an important neighbor: The company is the fiscal receiver for the consortium of small theaters, and company founder and Theatre Row liaison John Evans helped arrange for the street banners that made the district visible last year. The latest touch along Theatre Row Hollywood is the December planting of 17 purple plum trees.

But inside the theater is where the big changes appear to be happening. In “Through the Leaves,” Bavarian playwright Kroetz unsparingly observes two middle-aged Germans, a gruff, coarse trucker (played by Holden’s husband, Eric Kohner) and the independent but insecure owner of a butcher shop (Holden). It’s the kind of kitchen-sink drama in extremis that brought Kroetz international regard in the 1970s as a poet of the working class.

Gordon, 51, though a newcomer to 6470, is not a newcomer to Kroetz, having staged “Leaves” in 1985 with his community-based Minimum Security Theatre in Taos, N. M. A former cinema verite filmmaker in New York and commune-dweller in Colorado, Gordon, like Kroetz, learned theater among amateurs. “The actors were chosen from the community,” says Gordon, “and the audience was the kind of unsophisticated, broad mix that I think Kroetz desires--that I desire for L.A.”

Now, Gordon is not only directing professionals, but married professionals. “The Taos actors were very much like the characters--the man had lived a very rough life, an alcoholic, but he had grace and style. With Eric and Jill, the analysis of the text and the need to experiment goes much further. They’re not about to deliver emotions on a plate.”

“This is so hard,” says Holden with a sigh. “ No way could I have done this with anyone other than Eric. It’s much too personal and intense. Martha and Otto in the play just don’t communicate, and doing this with Eric is making us talk about male-female things that we might otherwise avoid--probably like most couples. On one hand, we’re taking on this hopeless pair, and on the other, it’s helping our marriage.”

And perhaps helping Theatre 6470 through its own period of adjustment.

“Through the Leaves” plays at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays at Theatre 6470, 6470 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Continues through Feb. 21. Tickets: $12.50 to $15. Call (213) 466-1767.