50 local theaters, one grand project

Fairy tales and urban tales, homecoming stories, observations of life and death, tragedy and comedy: There’s something for everyone in “365 Days/365 Plays,” reportedly American theater’s largest collaborative venture, conceived and produced by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks (“Topdog/Underdog”) and Bonnie Metzgar, associate artistic director of Curious Theatre Company in Denver.

During the course of a year, theaters across the country will produce short plays that Parks wrote, one a day, between 2002 and 2003.

Fifty Los Angeles-area theaters have signed on to perform the plays in the order written, spearheaded by L.A.’s Center Theater Group, which opens the festival with Parks’ first seven works -- some five minutes or shorter -- on Wednesday. It will present the last seven on Nov. 5, 2007.

Bring your walking shoes: Directed by Bart DeLorenzo, Wednesday’s plays, beginning at 8:30 p.m., take place in various areas around the Music Center Plaza and end across the street on the steps of Walt Disney Concert Hall. Admission is free.

CTG will pass the baton to Open Fist Theatre (Nov. 27); other companies participating in the theatrical relay include East West Players, Geffen Theatre, City Garage, Son of Semele Ensemble, Theatre @ Boston Court, Circle X Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Sacred Fools Theatre Company and East L.A. Repertory Company.

In what is essentially a grass-roots effort, each company is expected to put its signature stamp on Parks’ plays, says Diane Rodriguez, a CTG associate producer and the staff producer for “365” in Los Angeles.

They can be presented as stand-alone events or curtain raisers, Rodriguez says, or “you can perform them all at once, the way we’re going to, or one a night. They can be done at a coffee shop, where the actors get up and do it for anyone who’s there; they can be done on the beach as a ritual, with just two people watching.”

More information is available at www.365inla.com.

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-- Lynne Heffley