Theatre/Theater echoes a trend

ONE more mainstay of small theater in Hollywood is leaving home. On the heels of the announced departures of Open Fist, Actors’ Gang and the West Coast Ensemble from their Hollywood venues because of jumps in rent or upcoming building projects, Theatre/Theater will shutter its fourth-floor quarters on Hollywood Boulevard on April 30.

The reason? A $4,000-a-month rent increase.

“It was untenable,” says artistic director Jeff Murray, who runs the theater with his wife, producing director Nicolette Chaffey.

The silver lining, says an upbeat Murray, is that the company has found a new home in L.A., one more suited to its needs -- and to the needs of its resident theater company, Meadows Basement -- than were the two 50-seat theaters and small rooms that have housed its productions and acting classes in Hollywood for the last seven years.

“We scoured the city and found an old dance studio on Pico Boulevard, just west of La Brea. Parking is free, it has 16-foot ceilings, a sprung floor, which is going to be fun -- maybe we’ll do a musical, who knows? -- and it has some large rooms for offices and extra rehearsal space.”

Murray and Chaffey plan to configure two theaters within the space, one with 99 seats and a small studio with 45.