L.A. Theatre Works, citadel of audio drama, keeps adapting to changing times

The golden age of radio drama is a memory shared by a dwindling few. But the flame has been kept alive in Britain by BBC Radio, in Ireland on RTÉ and in America by L.A. Theatre Works.

LATW celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The company, founded by Susan Albert Loewenberg and seven other women in 1974 during the heyday of the liberation movements, was formed with a strong social conscience. A main focus of the early years was on programs that brought artists into prisons.

By the 1980s, Artists in Prison (the company’s original name) had become L.A. Theatre Works and was building a reputation for its professional theater productions of classic and contemporary works. A group of prominent actors approached Loewenberg with the idea of forming a classical repertory company. And with these founding members (Ed Asner, René Auberjonois, Robert Foxworth and Marsha Mason among them), LATW transitioned again, this time from conventional theatrical presentations to audio recordings of plays.

“The idea was to form this repertory company and be like the Mark Taper Forum,” Loewenberg recalled. “For various reasons, it didn’t happen. The first big project we did was to record Sinclair Lewis’ novel ‘Babbitt.’ Ed Asner played Babbitt. And it was done like a theater production in the sense that every time there was a character, the role was played by an actor. So we did the whole book and it was a huge success.”

Ed Asner, from left, Amy Irving and John Lithgow in “Babbitt” in 1987.

(L.A. Theatre Works)

“Babbitt” was recorded at KCRW in Santa Monica in 1987. KCRW founder Ruth Seymour, an early champion, broadcast the recording in serial and marathon formats.

“And then National Public Radio got in touch, and they aired it all over the country,” Loewenberg continued. “And the whole thing took off and the company solidified around that success. We did many plays with KCRW. We recorded Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible,’ which still remains our No. 1 bestseller.” (The titles, Loewenberg explained, “were originally sold as cassettes, then CDs, then digital downloads, and now both as digital downloads and through LATW’s streaming subscription service.”)

I wasn’t in L.A. during the glory days of KCRW Playhouse. I was introduced to the work of the company through the radio program “The Play’s the Thing,” which I would listen to on Saturday nights on KPCC-FM, usually when driving home from the theater. Transfixed by the voices of actors giving life to drama I had stumbled upon on the freeway, I would try to guess the title before an announcer would break in with the information.

Curious about the work of a local company that was drawing top-flight actors to ambitious plays, I attended a few offerings in the company’s performance series at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater, where the programs were recorded before a loyal audience. I liked what I heard, but it struck me that LATW was operating in an adjacent field, complementary but separate. As a theater critic surfeited with plays, radio dramas worked best for me as an unplanned diversion in my car.

But listening has never been easier. Technology has transformed audio broadcasting into an on-demand experience.

LATW streams its radio show and launched its own podcast in 2017. The podcast series, Loewenberg clarified in an email, “has allowed LATW to reach a wider and more diverse audience because of the way it’s distributed.”

Different platforms reach different sectors. “Audiences have their preferences as to the way they look for content,” she elaborated. “All these various platforms — radio broadcast, free streaming services like SoundCloud, podcast platforms like Apple, Amazon, iHeart, etc. — have their own audiences. We distribute to over 100 podcast platforms, each with its own constituency.”

New competitors have also unexpectedly arose. Audible, the audiobook and podcast service that’s a subsidiary of Amazon, has notably entered the theatrical space, commissioning new works from playwrights and presenting productions at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village.

Hugh Jackman and Ella Beatty are starring in the U.S. premiere of “Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes” at the Minetta Lane Theatre. The play by Hannah Moscovitch, which is alternating with Jen Silverman‘s “Creditors,” a new take on Strindberg’s drama starring Liev Schreiber, represents a unique collaboration between Audible and Together, a company launched by Jackman and the prolific, award-winning producer Sonia Friedman to create new models of intimate and accessible theater.

“I would say they were inspired by us,” Loewenberg said when asked whether she sees Audible as an inspiration or a threat. “We distribute through Audible and still do, and then they decided they wanted to do plays themselves. And they’ve done so. They do so many things. I think they realize that recording plays is a lot more expensive and a lot less profitable than recording one person reading a book.”

Currently, LATW’s program airs weekly on KPFK 90.7 in Southern California and on station affiliates serving over 50 markets nationwide. But the heart and soul of the operation is the archive of play recordings, which Loewenberg, still the company’s indefatigable producing director, said is nearing 600 titles. A recently launched monthly subscription service now offers full-range access to a catalog that includes Broadway titles, world classics and docudramas and social justice plays.

The extensive collection is a tremendous resource for libraries and schools, as well as for industry professionals and play-lovers. Before I went to New York in April for my annual Broadway spring marathon, I listened to LATW’s recording of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” to prepare for my encounter with “John Proctor Is the Villain,” a play by Kimberly Belflower that’s in conversation with Miller’s classic.

I haven’t seen a production of “The Crucible” since Ivo van Hove’s deconstruction on Broadway in 2016, which is probably the last time I read the play. While sitting down with my copy of the drama, I found LATW’s recording online and followed along with the text as a sterling cast thunderously performed Miller’s allegory of a paranoid America that had lost its way during the communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era.

LATW has had access to what is arguably the greatest acting pool in the world. Annette Bening, Nathan Lane, George Clooney, Chris Rock, Amy Irving, Alan Alda, Alfred Molina, Jimmy Smits, Matthew Rhys and Charlayne Woodard are just some of the luminaries who have lent their voices to the LATW airwaves. The glittering cast of “The Crucible,” which included Stacy Keach, Hector Elizondo and Richard Dreyfuss, would be difficult for even a major Broadway revival to match.

L.A. Theatre Works managing director Vicki Pearlson.

(Matt Petit)

“Many of the actors we work with are known by the public for their movie or TV roles, but their background is in theater,” managing director Vicki Pearlson said on a Zoom call with Loewenberg. “They work with us because they love theater and our format allows them the opportunity to work on plays in a very compact amount of time.”

When LATW presents live recordings, the commitment for performers is about a week. For studio recordings, the actors are needed for just three or four days, although the entire process from pre- to post-production takes around three to four months.

“So actors who have very busy schedules can do this thing they love, knowing that the work is going out to the world and will reach new generations of students,” Pearlson said. “We’ve worked with more than 2,000 actors over the years and we’re obviously adding to our family of artists all the time.”

Bringing a stage play to an audio medium requires adjustments. “The actors have to learn how to do this,” Pearlson said. “Susan always used to say, ‘Half the volume, twice the intensity’ at the mic. Of course, we set the environment by the sound design, but it’s very much about engaging the story through the dialogue of the play.”

Loewenberg said she often would tell actors: “OK, you’re smiling here, but if the smile is not in your voice, I don’t know you’re smiling.”

LATW has never lacked ambition. At one point, the group had extended its live shows to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston. Carving such an independent path in the theater is a Herculean challenge, but the secret of longevity has been the company’s adaptability.

“We’ve had to adapt to many changes,” Loewenberg said. “And sometimes challenges turned into really positive enhancements.” (A new emergency has just arrived with the Trump administration’s decision to cut NEA grants, as my colleague Jessica Gelt recently reported.)

L.A. Theatre Works maven Susan Albert Loewenberg says adapting to changing times has been key.

(Joshua Arvizo)

When a radio station stopped broadcasting, another stepped into the breach. Live recordings, put on pause during the pandemic, haven’t yet restarted. But audiences have been engaged through a panoply of digital programs and new outreach endeavors, such as the play club program with libraries that Loewenberg said she plans to introduce throughout the country.

Education is an integral part of LATW’s mission. This commitment is clear in the enthusiasm with which Loewenberg reels off canonical titles (by Shakespeare, Jane Austen and John Steinbeck). She is equally ardent when talking about specialized initiatives, such as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation-sponsored Relativity Series of science-themed plays. Database tools for higher education make it possible to search the archives for plays dealing with specific thematic topics, making it more useful for instruction across disciplines.

“As a nonprofit organization, LATW’s purpose is to expand access and to introduce both the general public and students to theater,” Pearlson added in an email follow-up. “Much of our programming is available for free through radio broadcasts, streaming, podcasts, public libraries, and the distribution of recordings and educational materials to secondary schools across the country. So those who support us by purchasing titles are not just enjoying the best of theater but are helping us bring it to people who may not otherwise have the opportunity to experience the full range of works our library offers.”

When asked to name personal highlights of LATW, Loewenberg mentioned her experience of taking the docudrama “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers” to China when President Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping happened to be holding a bilateral meeting in California. Pearlson joyfully recalled the sight of Neil Simon laughing in the audience during a live recording of his play “Broadway Bound.”

In the divergence of these answers lies the company’s extraordinary legacy. Art should delight and instruct, the Roman poet Horace asserted. LATW has taken an auditory approach to this challenge. But the ultimate destination of the work, like that of any long-enduring theater company, has always been the hearts and minds of the audience.