Where the Sound of the Play’s the Thing

What theater company in Los Angeles produces some 20 plays a year featuring name actors from film, stage and television in almost every production? L.A. Theatre Works--the theater of the radio airwaves, which presents most of its productions before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center.

For its latest production--”The Autumn Garden” by Lillian Hellman, which opens Wednesday--producing director Susan Loewenberg and director JoBeth Williams have knitted an ensemble cast that includes such theater stars as Julie Harris and Glenne Headly, as well as television and movie favorites Mary Steenburgen, Eric Stoltz and Scott Wolf.

With such seasoned pros, it’s a team one would be hard put to assemble on the regular stage--given busy schedules and the more lucrative draw of other media. In a town where casting deals are described in dollar amounts, this is one place where the play’s the thing. As Williams says with a laugh, “The actors are paid the equivalent of cab fare.”

Harris, a veteran of seven LATW productions, explains its allure. “The great thing is you’re able to read a very interesting play with wonderful actors,” she says by phone from Cape Cod, Mass. “[Normally] we wouldn’t be able to assemble a cast like this. I know when I did ‘The Road to Mecca,’ to work with Amy Irving and Harris Yulin was a real joy.”

“I find it always a very pleasurable experience,” says Williams, who has logged 15 LATW productions as an actor and a handful as a director. “It doesn’t matter that it’s on radio; they’re just wonderful parts. And they’re parts you might not be necessarily right for on stage, but you can play them [for radio theater] as long as vocally you’re right.”

“If you get sent a play from them,” says Stoltz, a third-timer, “odds are it’s a chestnut or an overlooked gem deserving a production.”

While many in the cast are LATW alumni, newcomers continue to be attracted to the company. “I’ve had the good fortune of working on stage in the last few years in Williamstown and New York,” says LATW novice Wolf, known best for his work in the Fox television series “Party of Five.” In “Garden” he will play the marriage-shy Frederick Ellis. “I jump at any chance I get to work on stage.”

He too mentions the other cast members as one reason for his excitement. He looks forward to working with actors he has “watched and respected.” And then there’s the format itself. “The main thing that attracted me,” Wolf says, “was being part of this process, like a throwback to doing an old-time radio show.”

“Actors love having really good words to work with,” Williams adds, “and it’s for a limited commitment, so most will jump at the chance to be in a production.”

*

An LATW production requires only three days of rehearsals, with the first performance taking place the evening after the third rehearsal, and four more days of performances after that. There are no costumes, no sets and no memorization--the actors get to read from scripts. Even so, the fast pace creates its own challenges--”How do you prepare for being pushed into a swimming pool?” Stoltz quips.

While the works aren’t fully staged, the live audience will get expressions, gestures, and occasionally eye contact. “We actors have to make the play come to life,” Harris points out. “It’s as demanding as a real performance is.”

Each performance is miked and recorded by sound technicians from KCRW-FM (89.9), co-producers in these presentations, and the best bits are later spliced together into one performance. These are broadcast as “The Play’s the Thing,” heard in about 15 markets throughout the U.S. KCRW generally airs the plays a month or two after the live performances. The plays are also sold on cassette tape--LATW boasts a library of about 300 recordings, with plans for future delivery through Internet downloads.

L.A. Theatre Works was founded by Loewenberg and six others in 1974 to do play readings in prisons. In 1985, they collaborated with a group of actors who wanted to work together in quality stage productions. This group included Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Asner, Marsha Mason and Stacy Keach, as well as Harris, David Selby and Williams, who are working on “The Autumn Garden.”

They started by reading plays together, then recorded an audio book, Sinclair Lewis’ “Babbitt,” which led to recording plays. In 1990, LATW launched the radio series “The Play’s the Thing,” in conjunction with KCRW. Today, there is a loyal subscriber base for the performances, which often sell out.

In choosing the works to produce, Loewenberg considers what listeners would want to have in a library of radio plays. For some time, she had been interested in doing work by Hellman. “I consider her an interesting representative of her era,” she says. “She’s not a great playwright but certainly a major writer.” In 2000, while mounting Peter Feibleman’s “Cakewalk,” about his 25-year relationship with Hellman, Loewenberg discovered that he controlled Hellman’s estate. His favorite Hellman play was “The Autumn Garden,” so she took another look at it.

“In a way it’s a major revival of the play,” she notes. “It hasn’t been done in years in a visible way.”

In the play, a group of old friends and relations gathers at the Tuckerman summer house, where they once dreamed of more glorious futures. Constance, the never-married chatelaine of the house, looks forward to the return of her former beau, the wickedly charming Nick (Selby), a dilettante artist who has found himself a wealthy wife (Steenburgen).

The reunion must be witnessed by one who has pined for Constance these long years, Edward Crossman (Stoltz), a man who has understood Nick’s flaws all along. Meanwhile, other dramas are unfolding at the house party; for example, the elderly Mrs. Mary Ellis (Harris) must try to prevent her daughter Carrie (Roxanne Hart) from further estranging her grandson Frederick (Wolf).

“It’s an ensemble piece,” notes Loewenberg. “It requires actors of great subtlety, but there is no starring part. It’s very Chekhovian and I sense that it will sound very good, so it’ll make an excellent radio play.”

Among the cast, Harris has the distinction of actually having worked with Hellman--twice, once for the critically acclaimed “The Lark,” an adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s play about Joan of Arc. Hellman was a “very tough lady,” Harris recalls. “She didn’t have much patience with actors; she wanted the results right away. I used to say to her, ‘How long did it take you to write this play?’ She would say, ‘Two years.’ And I would say, ‘We want four weeks, give us four weeks [to rehearse]!’ ”

This time the cast won’t have four weeks to come up with a polished version of “The Autumn Garden,” but, as Harris says, “the important thing is to generate the emotions that are in the play truthfully.” These thoughts are echoed by the younger generation. “Our job remains the same,” says Wolf, “play a character and tell the truth and have fun.” *

*

“THE AUTUMN GARDEN,” Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. Dates: Wednesday-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m.; Sunday, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Prices: $32-$36 (student rush tickets, $10). Phone: (310) 827-0889.