Padua Hills Finds a Home at Woodbury

Padua Hills, L.A.’s most famous new-play festival, is back in action. After an absence of two years because of money woes, the festival will resume July 21-Aug. 14 at a new location, Woodbury University, on the border between northern Burbank and Sun Valley.

Since the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre jump-started the moribund festival with a $25,000 challenge grant last summer, plans were underway to return Padua Hills to its most recent home on the campus of Cal State Northridge. Those plans were changed by the Jan. 17 earthquake.

Although the previous Padua Hills facilities were not badly damaged, extensive damage elsewhere on the campus made the prospect of hosting Padua “daunting” to university officials, said Padua artistic director Murray Mednick. So a search began.

One of the most distinctive features of Padua Hills is that its productions are heavily site-specific, designed for outdoor environments rather than conventional theaters. The Woodbury campus, a former convent, has no conventional theater; it’s a business and design school. But it does offer a variety of interesting alfresco sites, Mednick said. He hopes to use a switchbacked walkway down the side of a hill for his own play.

The campus is near the Burbank airport, but Mednick said airplane noise didn’t bother him on his visits to the campus--and he added that he’s “very sensitive” to such noise. Noise from the nearby Golden State Freeway was more of a problem, but Padua playwrights will just have to incorporate any such noises into the ambience of the plays, he said.

Besides Mednick, playwrights whose works will be presented this summer are John Steppling, Maria Irene Fornes, John O’Keefe, Shem Bitterman, Neena Beber and Susan Mosakowski, all familiar Padua names from previous years. These and other writers also will teach daytime classes and workshops.

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WEEKLY WATCH: “Distant Fires” won three awards--more than any other show--at the L.A. Weekly’s annual awards ceremony for sub-100-seat theater, held at Los Angeles Theatre Center last Monday.

As usual at the Weekly ceremony, the honors for outstanding productions went to shows that won no other awards. “Washington Square Moves” was named production of the year, “The Boys in the Band” revival of the year, and “Patty! Patty! Bang! Bang!” musical of the year.

Besides “Distant Fires,” the only other shows to win more than one award were “Psycho Beach Party” and “Neva’s Tale,” with two each.

This year, for the first time, one of the Weekly awards brought cash as well as glory. Anthony Embeck won $3,000 for writing “Ray-Ka-Pay.” The money was courtesy of the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre (see the above item for another example of Skirball-Kenis beneficence). The sum is equal to the amount that Skirball-Kenis gives the annual winner of the city’s other major playwriting award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Ted Schmitt Award, which will be presented today to Roger Rueff at the LADCC ceremony in Studio City.

The thank-yous and other commentaries weren’t as provocative as they have been at some previous Weekly ceremonies, despite able emceeing by the “Ruthless!” cast and a succession of cross-dressed awards bearers.

But don’t blame Corey Beth Madden, associate producing director of the Mark Taper Forum. She presented the revival award dressed as her boss, Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson, complete with gray hair and bushy eyebrows. “Has anyone noticed how hard it is for a woman to make it as an artistic director in this town?,” Madden asked.

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LERNER TRIBUTE: “Salon at the Taper,” an annual fund-raiser for Center Theatre Group, will salute the songs of Alan Jay Lerner on April 25. Michael Feinstein will host Tim Curry, Joanna Gleason, James Earl Jones and others. Information: (213) 972-7627.