Reprise! Wants to Graduate From UCLA

Reprise! would like to expand.

The company’s sellout run of “Hair” at the 1,400-seat Wadsworth Theater in June probably could have run for three months, producing artistic director Marcia Seligson said.

Most of the group’s shows run at the 580-seat Freud Playhouse on the UCLA campus. “We love the Freud,” Seligson said, but rent and box-office costs there are rising, so she and the board are mulling the possibility of a move.

Wadsworth operator Martin Markinson said Reprise! officials are talking with him about a permanent move to the Wadsworth, but Seligson said, “It’s really premature to talk about that.” However, she acknowledged that there aren’t any other obvious possibilities in the same neighborhood.

In the meantime, the Reprise! season--launched last week with “1776”--has expanded to 16 performances per production, up from six in the first season four years ago, and up from 14 last year. Performances on Tuesdays and Sunday nights have been added. DESIGNERS UNITE: United Scenic Artists--the union for set, costume, lighting and sound designers--is assuming a higher profile.

Starting Sept. 1, designers who are union members are being asked not to work on productions that don’t agree to the minimum wages and benefits of a new rate sheet the union has prepared specifically for Southern California.

Productions in theaters with fewer than 99 seats can still work out individual agreements with the union, but shows in the many theaters with exactly 99 seats are being asked to pay a minimum of $1,000 to each designer. The scale rises, depending on the number of seats as well as the number of sets, costumes and special assignments, to as much as $4,300 for set, lighting and costume designs, and $3,400 for sound designs in theaters with more than 1,000 seats. The sheet also includes slightly rising fees for the following two years, and asks for a 15% contribution to the union’s pension and welfare fund.

Charles Berliner, the union’s Western regional representative, said he doesn’t want “to excite riots” and that the union is willing to consider lower rates for “companies in transition or experiencing unusual economic difficulties.” But he said union members are sometimes paid even more than the minimums on the sheet. He hasn’t heard from any producer who won’t participate, he said.

He may hear soon from Ron Sossi, artistic director of the Odyssey Theatre. Sossi said that news of the proposed minimums hadn’t reached him yet, but “it ain’t gonna happen with us.” Unless the theater obtains a special grant for that purpose, designers there are paid “substantially less,” Sossi said. He can see such wages being paid by “one-shot productions that aren’t concerned with ongoing longevity and are prepared to lose money,” but he “doesn’t see how it’s possible for companies that do seasons.”

‘FOLLIES,’ ANYONE?: When the doomed Shubert Theatre closes at the end of September 2002, what should be the last show?

Shubert Organization Executive Vice President Robert Wankel said he doesn’t know what the theater’s swan song will be. But that hasn’t prevented a pack of people from suggesting the obvious best choice: the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical “Follies.”

“Follies” opened the Shubert in 1972. And it’s set in a partially demolished theater, where the ghosts and memories of previous performers materialize.

“There needs to be a big last hurrah,” said Martin Wiviott, managing director of Broadway/L.A., which will use the Shubert in December for “The Who’s Tommy.” He suggested a brief run of a star-studded “Follies,” perhaps benefiting some good cause, which might make even more money if the final patrons are allowed to buy their seats as souvenirs.

And for the grand finale after the final performance, Wiviott said, “They could actually put the wrecking ball through the theater.”