Topics / THEATER : Actors Co-Op Has a Passion for the Positive

Right away, there are some things you should know about the Actors Co-op: It is a company composed of Christian actors. It is based at a Hollywood church. But it doesn’t focus on “Christian” material.

“It is a fact that we are the first and only Christian company that’s sanctioned under Actors Equity,” said Co-op producing director David Schall. The group’s Christianity is “not something that we hide, or that we’re ashamed of. It’s where we get our sense of peace, focus and direction. There’s a strength and unity when people of like minds come together.”

But in the same breath, the actor continued: “We don’t have a (political) agenda, and we don’t need to clobber audiences with a message. Our passion is to produce high-quality theater that celebrates positive aspects of humanity--and explore themes of sacrifice, redemption, hope and healing.”

In that spirit, the company is undertaking its largest challenge yet, a 16-member revival of Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s 1986 musical, “Into the Woods,” which opened Friday at the Crossley Theatre on the grounds of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

“The piece pulls together a group of fairy tales: ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood,’ ” explained “Woods” director and Actors Co-op artistic director Robin Strand (“Becoming Memories,” “Gifts of the Magi,” “Edith Stein”). “The baker and his wife--that’s a story made up by Sondheim--have to overcome a spell that’s been put on them. To do that, they need Jack’s cow, Little Red Riding Hood’s cape, the golden slipper of Cinderella . . .

“ ‘Into the Woods’ is a metaphor for going for adventure,” Strand said. “It starts with Cinderella’s words, ‘I wish.’ She wants to go to the ball, Jack wants the gold, the baker and his wife want a child. At the end of the first act, they have attained all these things, but in the second act we find that they’re not happy--and they’re back into the woods for a deeper, darker learning experience. It’s finding reality, rather than living happily ever after. The story is resolved with a new sense of community and tolerance.”

Not your typical church group theater fare. But then, this is not your typical church group.

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In five years, the Actors Co-op has built a solid reputation with such well-received productions as “The Traveling Lady,” “1918,” “See How They Run” and the recent “Pack of Lies”--material with little or no religious content.

On the other hand, they stage annual Christmas shows, and their first two productions, “Svoboda” and “A Peculiar People,” dealt heavily with Christian themes. Now into its second subscription season, “we got to a place,” Schall said, “where we had to ask, ‘Who are we?’ ‘What is our contract with the audience?’ ”

Working out of the church, however, which offers the group free rent and electricity, means certain limitations.

“Because of where we’re located, we’re very conscious of content and language. So, no, you won’t see us doing a (David) Mamet play.”

Schall, who is also producing “Woods,” is on the church’s eight-member Drama Committee, which can reject play choices.

The group also runs Co-op, Too!, an in-house workshop arena for more experimental theater. The company’s ministry, Heart to Heart, performs at local juvenile facilities and convalescent homes. And a new year-round acting academy provides classes for junior high and high school-age students.

The group, now 60 dues-paying members strong, started out with 12 professional actors in 1987 “to create a support group--professionally, emotionally and spiritually,” said Schall, who had recently relocated from New York. “Since the business can be devastating, it was our aim to provide a safe place for actors. A few of us knew each other. The point of reference was Hollywood Presbyterian Church, which has (for a) long time been a place for industry people who are Christians.”

As the group’s membership began to grow, the church offered it a 550-seat space, but that was too large. Eventually, they found a home in the church’s Crossley Room, a 120-seat area that was being used for weekly Bible study classes. The theater was remodeled, with 95 seats reupholstered and reconfigured.

“We did all the physical labor,” Schall said proudly. “And finally, in the last couple of years, we’ve been breaking even--and making a tiny, tiny profit.”

“Into the Woods” plays Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through June 19 at the Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood. Parking is free. For ticket information: (213) 964-3586.