Two sides to the Colony troupe’s drama

The article on the Colony Theatre Company [“An Unscripted Drama,” by Don Shirley, Aug. 1] was very interesting. It’s unfortunate that the members of the Colony company have not been selected for many of the Equity plays presented at the theater but, as a Colony subscriber for 17 seasons, I can only say that the performances at the current Burbank location are better than the performances at the old Silver Lake location with the Colony members. We miss seeing them, but we have been absolutely enthralled by every production presented at the Burbank theater.

Barbara Beckley has a very difficult job, but if presenting outstanding productions at low ticket prices is her goal, she is doing it extremely well.

ELLIOTT PORTER

Burbank

Democracy rarely works in a theater company and there must be leadership, but it went beyond that when I was a member of the Colony, causing pain, animosity and unrest.

I would love to see the list of people who have quit the company over the years -- creative, artistic forces pushed out by a producer of limited vision who gets away with operating on a platform of confusion and subliminal dictatorship. I’ve been gone for 10 years and it’s sad to see nothing has changed.

PAUL COATES

Los Angeles

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Nick DeGruccio says in the article, “many of us cannot participate in the rewards of having helped to build an Equity theater.” According to the article, DeGruccio left the company. So saying that he can’t participate is simply untrue. He has chosen not to participate, the same as all the other actors who left. They all could have stayed around and tried to work things out with Barbara Beckley and the board.

Clearly the disgruntled actors are unaware of what it takes to produce theater for an audience paying good money to see them perform. The members who left can now band together and form their own company. Then they can see just how simple it is to produce theater.

ERIC ANDRIST

Valley Village