Roy Brocksmith, 56; Made His Living Room a Theater

Roy Brocksmith, a movie and television character actor who ran what is believed to have been the nation’s only Equity-waiver theater in a private residence, has died. He was 56.

Brocksmith, who founded the California Cottage Theatre in the late 1980s and staged productions in the living room of his San Fernando Valley home for nearly 10 years, died Sunday of kidney failure from complications of diabetes at Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank.

A native of Quincy, Ill., Brocksmith made his stage debut at 3 1/2 by standing on the bar of a tavern dressed in a sailor suit and serenading patrons with a rendition of “Cruising Down the River.”

After studying theater at Quincy University, he moved to New York in 1969 and six years later made his Broadway debut in the Joseph Papp production of “The Leaf People.” After appearing in New York and regional theater, including stints in Anchorage directing productions for the Alaska Repertory Theater, he moved to Los Angeles in 1986.

He worked continuously, appearing in small roles in dozens of television shows, including “Ally McBeal,” “L.A. Law” and “Picket Fences,” for which he won an Emmy nomination in 1992 for his role as a school principal.

He also performed in numerous movies such as “Total Recall,” “War of the Roses,” “Arachnophobia” and the 1998 remake of “Psycho,” in which he appeared, in an uncredited cameo, as Alfred Hitchcock.

But Brocksmith’s first love was theater, as an actor, writer and director.

In 1987, he and actor Michael Liscio decided to stage Jan Quackenbush’s “A Cold Day In Hell,” a 35-minute monologue on euthanasia. But when they went looking for Equity-waiver theaters, what they found were beyond their means.

So Brocksmith came up with what he thought was the perfect solution: his 1920s-vintage cottage--painted barn red with white trim and a weathercock perched atop the chimney--on a tree-lined street in a middle-class section of what is now Sherman Oaks.

California Cottage Theatre audience members were greeted at the driveway gate by an actor dressed as Toby, a red-haired, freckle-faced rustic character in bluejeans who was a staple of tent shows in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The actor would lead the way past fruit trees and a doghouse to the theater “lobby,” the plant-filled back porch where coffee and home-baked cookies would be served during intermission.

Come show time, the audience would assemble in the dining room, where folding chairs faced the living room, which served as the stage.

Admission was free, and the audience turned up via invitation and word-of-mouth. Reservations, however, were a must.

The Brocksmiths could accommodate 36 to 40 people, depending on whether “we turned the couch on its back, put boards across the front and made a ‘balcony.’ ” said Adele, Brocksmith’s wife of 37 years, who not only baked the intermission cookies but also handled the lights and sound.

“Over 8,000 people have been in our house--and never was anything stolen,” she said with a laugh. “It was very fun. We had such a wonderful time doing it.”

Each California Cottage Theatre production was performed four times one weekend a month, and shows typically ran three to six months.

Brocksmith staged seven productions in all and wrote three of them, including “Heddy,” a musical based on Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.”

As did the actors, Brocksmith worked for free.

“He just did it for a love of doing it,” said Adele Brocksmith. “He was making money doing television, so he felt he should give something back to the community.”

The Brocksmiths staged their last California Cottage Theatre production in 1996.

“It was a hard decision to make,” Adele Brocksmith said, “but we just decided we wanted our house back as a home.”

In addition to his wife, Brocksmith is survived by his son, Blake, of New York City; and three brothers and three sisters.

The family will hold a private memorial service at 6 p.m. Dec. 30 in the backyard of the cottage. For details, call (818) 784-1023.