East West’s New Home Draws 7,000

East West Players, L.A.’s newest mid-size theater company, is pleased with the box-office performance of the group’s initial production in its new home in Little Tokyo.

“Pacific Overtures” attracted 7,000 customers over eight weeks. Artistic director Tim Dang said that five weeks were largely sold out, with 20 or 30 on the waiting list at a few performances.

The move up to a 240-seat house from the group’s previous 99-seater is surely being watched by a couple of other 99-seat companies that are planning similar moves in the near future, and by others who dream of such a move. East West is the first group to ascend from 99 seats to more than 200 since the Los Angeles Actors’ Theatre became the resident company at Los Angeles Theatre Center in 1985--a move that six years later ended in the company’s collapse. However, the LATC company’s challenges were more severe, for it had three mid-sized theaters to fill instead of East West’s one.

The true test of East West’s viability will be how well the rest of the first season does, for it consists of four premieres, as opposed to the relatively familiar “Pacific Overtures,” which carried the Stephen Sondheim stamp and attracted some of his fans from throughout the country.

Next up is “Heading East” (previously called “Angel Island”), which is slated for a brief May 29-June 7 run. A musical keyed to the 150th anniversary of the Gold Rush, it covers the contributions of Asian-Pacific immigrants to California history and is designed as a piece that can travel to schools, libraries and community centers. After that, the only other show that has been assigned specific dates is Prince Gomolvilas’ “Big Hunk o’ Burnin’ Love,” slated for July 15-Aug. 2.

In between the two upcoming shows, the theater will close for three weeks in order to fix a few problems. “The fly system is too slow and too loud,” Dang said, referring to the chugging sound of some of the set changes, “so we’re installing different machinery.” East West also will improve aspects of the electrical system in order to obtain a permanent certificate of occupancy from the Fire Department; it has been operating with a provisional permit.

Fifty infrared hearing devices are being added. Not that Dang heard complaints about sound quality, he said. However, cheaper balcony seats sold much slower than the orchestra seats.

The theater hopes to install a box office and a marquee. A few people arrived late at every performance, Dang said, because the recently renamed Judge John Aiso Street (formerly San Pedro) still isn’t on many maps, and also because there was no marquee or large sign to let people know they had found the theater, which occupies the former Union Church. The historical status of the church restricts the number of changes that can be made in its appearance. “It would have been easier to start from scratch instead of working with a historical structure,” Dang said. “But the theater has a lot of character.”

The company still has no permanent Actors’ Equity contract to work with, requiring separate negotiations for each show. “Heading East”--like “Pacific Overtures,” a musical--will operate on the same contract used for “Overtures,” taken from a Bay Area contract, though Equity says it isn’t designed for musicals, Dang said. The contract allows an actor to miss a performance with only 24 hours’ notice--something Dang hopes will be changed when or if Equity devises a long-discussed standard contract for mid-sized, nonprofit L.A. shows.

No actor gave only 24 hours notice about missing a performance, but actors did come and go through the eight weeks. Dang, who directed this “Overtures” and appeared as the Reciter in an Irvine production in 1991, twice went on as the Reciter during the East West run, when the regular actor in the role was out of town shooting a commercial. As an Equity member who wasn’t signed to a contract, Dang said he received “a slap on the wrist” from Equity for stepping in. However, he joked, he had no complaints about the producer for whom he was working--himself. “He was very understanding,” Dang said.

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TEENS IN LOVE: Romeo, Romeo, where aren’t thou? Let no one say they have no opportunities to see “Romeo and Juliet.” Beginning last month in the Southland, the play has been presented by Will & Co. at LATC, the Pasadena Shakespeare Company, the touring Acting Company (Cerritos, Palm Desert, Escondido), in Deaf West’s “Circus Verona” adaptation at the Odyssey and in at least one college production. Still to come: a June 7-Sept. 20 production at the Theatricum Botanicum and another one in September at San Diego’s Old Globe.