COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : Actors Can’t Get Hollywood to Look In On Local Theater

As an actor, I would like to comment on “Why L.A.’s Theater Isn’t World-Class” (Calendar, Nov. 27). I am currently working in a production of “Macbeth” at the Hollywood United Methodist Church. It is a unique production in that the audience follows the action from room-to-room (think “Tamara”) and is treated with a banquet at intermission.

On the strength of terrific reviews, response from the general public has been incredible. We have been consistently sold-out nearly every night for the past seven weeks. Our original closing date of Dec. 10 has been extended to Feb. 25.

The “industry” couldn’t care less. Of the roughly 1,500 people who have seen the show so far, “industry” attendance stands at a disturbing eight. Yes, eight. Despite mailing campaigns, follow-up phone calls and complimentary ticket offers, Hollywood simply won’t come.

It is shocking and quite sad that professionals whose very job it is to seek out new talent, to recognize ability where perhaps others cannot, have no desire to see a quality production of one of the greatest tragedies ever written . . . for free. The vocal, linguistic and physical demands of performing Shakespeare is one of the greatest challenges an actor can accept. What better way to discover new, untapped talent than to watch a performer bring the words of Shakespeare to life?

The fact is, actors do live theater in Los Angeles with the singular hope that an agent or casting director will see their work and like it. Actors don’t do live theater here to make money. Equity Waiver productions pay $5 per show. When agents and casting directors don’t do their job, budding careers languish and die or actors just move away, making room for the next batch of hopefuls who will never be seen.

CHRISTOPHER OTTO

Torrance

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Although I concede we don’t see enough good plays in this city, it’s not the fault of the writers here. Los Angeles, this seething caldron of cultural fusion of the exquisite and the awful, is ripe for our new generation of Southland dramatists. The stories not yet told, the lives of heroism and ignominy we see every day on the pages of The Times and on our own streets and even on our freeways--our world is as rich and fraught and worthy as anything one might find in New York or London. Our writers--Jose Rivera, John Steppling, Robbie Baitz, Lisa Loomer, Kelly Stuart, Chay Yew, Luis Alfaro, Han Ong, Alice Tuan, Robert Schenkkan, Milcha Sanchez Scott, Lynn Manning and too many more to mention--will be remembered and read and produced for years to come. Dare I say we have begun a golden age here in the City of the Angels?

OLIVER MAYER

Los Angeles

Oliver Mayer, associate literary manager of the Mark Taper Forum, is the author of “Blade to the Heat,” which will open March 28 at the Taper. It was previously a part of the Taper Lab ’91 New Work Festival and opened in 1994 in a New York Shakespeare Festival production.