THEATER NOTES : A New (Old) Venue for Los Angeles

A year ago the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre, a prestigious L.A.-based group that promotes play development, presented a conference at UCLA about the dearth of productions in mid-sized theaters in Los Angeles. Attended by more than 1,000, the gathering set the agenda for many subsequent discussions of Los Angeles theater.

Oddly enough, hardly anyone at the conference appeared to notice at the time that they were sitting in a mid-sized theater--UCLA’s Freud Hall. Or perhaps they just assumed that the 497-seat Freud was off-limits for non-UCLA productions.

They were wrong: On July 1, following two previews, a lavish commercial production of a new musical, “Florinda,” will open at the Freud and run through July 23.

The Freud’s relatively large stage is what attracted the “Florinda” producers, according to managing producer Michael Seel. “It’s wide, it’s deep,” he said. “It has wonderful trapdoors”--all of which come in handy for what he calls “an 8th-Century romance novel come to life.”

“Florinda” features a large battle scene, a ship that moves across the stage, a cast of 23 (working under Actors Equity’s Hollywood Area Theatre contract) and a 14-piece orchestra (on a Musicians’ Union contract) that will be in a pit with an elevator. The director, choreographer and lighting designer also are on union contracts.

Seel declined to say how much it all costs. But he acknowledged it will be “an expensive tryout” and said Off Broadway may be its eventual destination. It’s being financed by the husband-wife producing team of Albert “Cubby” Broccoli (best known for James Bond movies) and Dana Broccoli, who wrote the book based on her own 1977 novel.

Actually, most of the stage time at the Freud is reserved for student productions and shows sponsored by UCLA Center for the Performing Arts. But “Florinda” won’t be the hall’s first non-UCLA tenant. Let’s not forget that Zsa Zsa Gabor appeared there, in a British panto version of “Cinderella” during the 1993-94 holidays.

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COMMON GROUND: Meanwhile, Skirball-Kenis Theatre, whose conference launched the wave of thinking about mid-sized theaters, is moving on. Its latest project, “Common Ground”--billed as “a festival of new writing for the theater”--starts next Sunday, at UCLA’s 185-seat Little Theatre.

Skirball-Kenis has presented many readings and workshops of new plays, but this event is different, maintains Skirball-Kenis program manager Laural Meade. While most of the projects have focused on providing dramaturgical assistance to playwrights, about half of “Common Ground” focuses on “ensembles who are reformulating the roles of writer, director and performer.”

Two offshoots of the late Los Angeles Theatre Center--the Platform political cabaret and the Classical Theatre Lab--will participate. So will Art Options, Butane Group (which Meade herself co-directs), Cornerstone Theatre and Kadmus Theatre Studio. Two performances from these groups will be held each night, next Sunday through June 21.

But lest playwrights fear they’ve been forgotten, the last half of “Common Ground” will consist of workshops of two new plays: Michael Sargent’s “Washington Confidential,” directed by David Schweizer, and Luis Alfaro’s “Straight as a Line,” directed by Peter Brosius. Each will receive three performances, June 22-25.

Admission is free.

Information: (310) 284-9027.

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THE MUSICAL’S THE THING: With all the recent talk about the tough competition among plays and the lack of competition among musicals for this year’s Tony Awards, it might be easy to forget that musicals still rule the Broadway roost. The League of American Theatres and Producers reports that in the 1994-95 Broadway season, 82% of all the tickets sold were for musicals.*