Of Stage and Screen : An effort to cut the cost of making a television series pilot brings together the worlds of the theater and the tube at the Egyptian Arena

Worlds are colliding. The worlds of theater and television, that is. There have been near-misses before, theater translated to the small tube, and sitcom-flavored scripts presented in theaters.

The current innovation, which opened Friday at Hollywood’s newest 99-seat plan venue, the Egyptian Arena Theatre, is called “Cheap Talk.” It’s a step in the development of a television pilot, testing its effectiveness before theater audiences without the prohibitive expense of making a series pilot in the usual way.

The idea is not as new as it sounds. “I Love Lucy” was developed by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on stage before it ever saw the bright lights of a television studio. That’s only one of several precedents mentioned by executive producer Brett A. Liebman, who also created the idea and co-wrote the script with Lyle R. Weldon.

Liebman, whose background is in theater, says, “I just finished producing a pilot for ABC, but my background is in theater, and I thought, ‘Why not try to bring the two together?’ I’ve spent a lot of time at Fox, which is a big, big influence on some of the things I’ve done.

“Fox is really trying to cut money, because pilots cost a million bucks. And a million dollars to do a pilot that might never be seen nowadays is a little absurd. In the ‘90s it’s too much. You can develop 10 pilots on stage this way, of which hopefully a couple will get picked up. It just makes sense.”

“Cheap Talk,” the first episode of which is on view at the Egyptian Arena, is a script about relationships. The age range of the characters is wide and the ambience is realistic. There are grandparents as well as teen-agers, couples as well as best friends, and it’s not, as Liebman says, another “Melrose Place,” where out-of-work twentysomethings always seem to have enough money to live well. Liebman’s out-of-work friends struggle for their next meal and their next job.

The pilot script contains a rounded story about only two of the characters. Other plot lines indicate what might happen in future episodes if the pilot sells. A tentative cliffhanger at the finale is intended to build interest.

“We’re not necessarily doing a play here,” Liebman explains. “We’re merging aspects of theater and aspects of television. It’s very hybrid. It’s a different kind of thing.”

One of the advantages of operating this way, Liebman thinks, is that network executives will be sitting next to Jane and John Doe of Woodland Hills. They can talk together and say, “I like this. I don’t like that.”

Will the audience suggestions translate into the script’s development?

“You listen to all that,” Liebman says, “but I trust my instincts impeccably. For a 25-year-old kid I’m really in touch, not only with people my age, but definitely with a lot of people much younger than myself. I spend a lot of time with younger people. Also people older than me. You listen, you watch and you observe, all the time. Then you go with your instincts, and what your heart tells you.”

The director of “Cheap Talk,” Anthony Barnao, has been involved in stage, film and television as an actor, as a director and in casting. He was director of casting for movies and miniseries for CBS until 1990, and head of casting for Empire Pictures.

This summer he will direct the feature film “Annie’s Garden,” which is currently in pre-production.

Barnao minimizes the usual series cliffhanger aspect of the script of “Cheap Talk.”

He explains: “If you’re going to ask an audience to invest an hour and a half of their time to watch a story, you want them to leave with some kind of a resolution. This story has a temporary resolution, enough for an audience member, be it for the TV or theater experience, to enjoy it and feel satisfied.”

The biggest things about it for the large cast are explained by two of its members.

Cameron Thor, well known to Los Angeles theater audiences and appearing in Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park,” has done a lot of pilots.

“You know what you’re getting into,” Thor says about those pilots. “The network is always very loving and excited, and they have nothing to lose. And then nothing happens because it’s just part of the mill. This is not part of the mill. These guys are going out on a limb, spending their own money to try and make something happen. That was the immediate appeal to me, that if they make something happen with it, then something will really happen.”

Rachel True, a New York actress who left the Big Apple after a run of appearances in experimental environmental productions, says: “This seemed interesting, the concept of this being a pilot, but being on stage. I’ve worked on sitcoms and that’s fun, but basically you have four days to put it together, and it’s gone. If this does get picked up for a pilot, these actors have worked on their characters and will come to it with a very full sense of themselves and what they’re doing with it.”

And, says True, “I’m not an aerobics instructor in this one.”

“Cheap Talk” plays at 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and 8 and 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at the Egyptian Arena Theatre, 1625 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood. Tickets: $12. Call (213) 871-8526.