THEATER : Putting Hollywood on Trial Once Again : A revival of ‘Are You Now or Have You Ever Been . . . ‘ is the third blacklist-related play to open in Los Angeles this summer.

Americans today may be in ured to stories of politicians’ excesses, but the hysteria of the McCarthy era still retains its power to shock. It looms, even in the wake of Watergate, Iran-Contra and other scandals, as a symbol of government gone haywire.

One of the first real-life political dramas of its kind to be played out before the public eye, the activities of the House Committee on Un-American Activities were captured for the record in hearings transcripts.

Those transcripts, in turn, provided the raw material for dramatist Eric Bentley’s “Are YouNow or Have You Ever Been . . . .”

The well-traveled docudrama about the Red Scare proceedings opened at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble just over a week ago and is set to run through Oct. 29.

The production, directed by veteran actor Allan Miller, marks the 20th anniversary of this play’s Los Angeles premiere. And the intervening time has made a difference in the attitude of the L.A. theater and entertainment industry toward Hollywood blacklisting.

Back in the ‘70s, when New York transplant Miller attempted to produce the Bentley drama, theater owners and others were reluctant to help him out. “We couldn’t get a theater willing to put this in its house,” he recalls. “Even my own agent warned me not to do it.”

At the time, the blacklisting was still a tough topic for many. “In 1975, the attitude toward this whole awful time in the film and theater industry [was that] people were still suffering from the effects of the blacklist,” Miller says. “There were not that many people who wanted to open this [issue] up.”

But today, the attitude couldn’t be more different. The theater community is eager to revisit the era, mindful of the specter of the abuse of power. “So many people are clamoring about government influence in everyone’s lives now,” says Miller, who has been involved with four previous productions of “Are You Now” in addition to this one.

“By reflecting on the past, there’s a possibility to suggest or to warn,” he continues. “What was going on in our congressional committees then was just as foul and despotic as what goes on today. That McCarthy giggling at the expense of witnesses is just as prevalent in the committees now as it was then. I don’t think that has changed one whit.”

Despite the initial resistance, Miller was eventually able to co-produce “Are You Now” at the small Cast Theatre in a 1975 staging that was well received by the audience and the critical community alike.

“It was like we had opened up the consciousness of the community,” he says. “People flocked to the theater and everyone in the [acting] company started getting jobs.”

The L.A. production was taken to Ford’s Theater in Washington in 1976. While there, cast members took advantage of the opportunity to watch the government in action, attending Senate hearings in the capital.

They went away discouraged by what they saw, Miller says--and their disenchantment then was not unlike what many Americans are feeling now, as voter disaffection continues to rise. All the more reason, Miller says, for this anniversary production of “Are You Now.”

The play, which is based on transcripts from the hearings, includes excerpts from the testimony of Lillian Hellman, Elia Kazan, Jerome Robbins and others.

“The structure is the growth of the committee from a reasonable investigation to, at the end, where they become ravagers, doing whatever their power suggests they are able to do,” Miller says.

Though documentary in nature, the piece clearly has broader implications. “This is a microcosm of the general abuses of power, where people’s lives are at stake,” says Miller, who also plays the role of Abe Burrows in the production.

Yet when Miller and Odyssey artistic director Ron Sossi first began discussing their current production of “Are You Now” last January, finalizing their plans in April, they had no idea just how in sync with others their instincts would prove to be.

I ndeed, “Are You Now” is the third Red Scare-related play to open in an L.A. theater since late July. Mark Kemble’s “Names,” a fictional account of a meeting between members of the Group Theatre during the McCarthy era, closed at the Matrix Theatre last week. Ellen Geer’s autobiographical “ . . . and the Dark Cloud Came,” a play about the blacklisting of her actor-father, Will, and the effect it had on her family, opened Aug. 12 and will close tonight at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.

Also, in Betty Garrett’s autobiographical show “No Dogs or Actors Allowed,” closing today at Theatre West, she recalls an encounter she and her late, blacklisted husband Larry Parks had with McCarthy. Parks is one of the characters in “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been . . . . “

The McCarthy era has also cropped up recently in other mediums. Griffin Fariello’s book “Red Scare,” containing the memories of 70 people who were affected by McCarthyism, was published in April. Over Labor Day weekend, local radio station KCRW carried the National Public Radio broadcast of Tony Kahn’s “Blacklisted,” a three-hour drama inspired by theauthor’s experiences as the child of blacklisted screenwriter Gordon Kahn. And coming in December, American Movie Classics will present the documentary “Blacklist: Hollywood on Trial.”

Yet nowhere has the timing been as striking as in L.A. theater’s triple-play. While all three of the dramas were actually written, or at least begun, years ago, it is only within the past year that each finalized its production plans for this season.

The timing may indeed be accidental, but it’s not, say those involved, entirely coincidental. “It’s my response to the tenor of the times,” Miller says. “It’s amazing. I haven’t a doubt in my mind that there’s a connection in all of this.”

“The climate of the times makes the people who have been through such a time feel compelled to speak out about it,” concurs Geer, who, like Kahn, recalls the isolation and estrangement she knew as the child of a blacklisted artist. “They’re fighting a repetition.”

Kemble, who began writing “Names” more than 12 years ago, finalized his production plans for this year over the past nine months. “I wasn’t aware of [the other projects] when I brought my project forward,” he says. “The synchronicity had to have the hand of God involved in it.”

Like Miller and Geer, he also feels that the time was particularly ripe for the topic. “A lot of times when I was developing this, [the feeling of McCarthy-like tensions] wasn’t as strong in the air,” says Kemble.

Recently, however, he has sensed an increase in interest in the period. “I feel it now in the past year or two more,” Kemble says. “There’s a big pull in this country toward the right and that reminds us of our foibles in the past.”

Whatever the reasons, the pieces just seemed to fall into place this year. “Everything came together,” Kemble says. “Maybe people are just ready to hear about this now.”