Company of Angels Seeks a New Haven; Ensemble Studio Theatre Reorganizes

The Company of Angels could use a few wealthy angels.

The April 27 fire that struck the company’s home, at Vine Street and Waring Avenue in Hollywood, has left the theater “unsalvageable,” said board president Paul Brennan.

Nevertheless, at a meeting Monday of 150 members and friends of the oldest ongoing small theater in Los Angeles, it was agreed, as Brennan declared, that “the Company of Angels will continue. We are looking for temporary space to continue our current productions as well as a new permanent home”--and the money to pay for it. Plans are under way for “a major fund-raising benefit in the fall.”

In the meantime, the company has received “numerous calls from other theaters offering help.” Brennan singled out the overtures of two of the group’s neighbors, Armina Shepard of the Richmond Shepard Theater Complex and Ted Schmitt of the Cast Theatre.

Brennan expressed hope that the City of Los Angeles might help out, as well as some of the Hollywood studios that have “taken talent from our theater and capitalized on it.” Perhaps the best-known of the theater’s alumni is Richard Chamberlain, who “has expressed an interest in being apprised of what’s going on” since the fire.

The cost of rebuilding the old theater would run as high as $150,000, said Brennan, “and even then we would still have to pay rent.” The company’s landlord, Stefano Alberti, had rented the space to the company at a bargain rate--$1000 a month.

DISASSEMBLED ENSEMBLE: Another Hollywood dues-paying organization of actors, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, has been going through a different kind of turmoil in recent months.

Ensemble founder and board president John Randolph, who was in New York most of last year performing in “Broadway Bound,” acknowledged that excessive spending in 1987 had left an accumulated debt of $70,000.

The group, he was quick to add, has begun a painstaking process of reorganization. Since his return in December, creditors have been contacted and belt-tightening has made it possible to whittle the debt to $50,000 (and counting).

A new board of directors was elected in January and artistic director David Kaplan--an advocate of big spending, according to Randolph--was let go.

(Contacted in New York, Kaplan said a $35,000 debt existed when he came aboard in January 1987. “There had been major problems before I became artistic director,” Kaplan said, “and they persisted during the time I was there. It was my job to set artistic goals; it’s the board of directors’ responsibility to sign checks,” he added, underscoring that he had no check-signing ability within the group and had left only because he was told there was no money to pay his salary.)

“David committed us to expenses we were in no position to meet, such as a $4,000 a month valet service,” said board member Kay Tornborg. “He could be very persuasive,” she said, acknowledging that she and others complied with Kaplan’s requests.

Under current austerity measures, the group’s seven-member board of directors is serving as an artistic and financial governing body. A variety of efforts are being made to raise funds and plenty of energy and expectation is going into the group’s next major presentation, opening May 18: the “Western Avenue Project.”

This grass-roots piece about the theater’s own neighborhood (Western Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard) has been in development, on and off, since last summer.

“We want to restore the Ensemble to what it was always meant to do: workshop projects and develop new plays,” Randolph emphasized.

Some of those projects are outlined in an in-house “Statement of Status and Aspirations for the Future.” They include a new play by Robert Schenkkan (who wrote “Tachinoki,” presented at the Ensemble last year), a multiethnic play-reading series, a one-woman show written by the late Sister Mary Corita and a play about the deaf, developed and performed by deaf actors.

Listed under future aspirations are the desire to make the Ensemble “a broader artistic gym for its members” and eventual plans to set up a conservatory with an outreach program. First, though, there’s more cleaning up to do.

QUICK CHANGES: It’s Neil Simon in all cases, but the farce “Rumors” will now replace the previously announced comedy “Jake’s Women,” which replaced the musical “A Foggy Day” at the San Diego Old Globe. Who said Simon wasn’t prolific? “Rumors,” we’re told, is a tale about two mistaken love affairs, an errant gunshot, a temporary hearing disorder and a missing hostess, all at an anniversary party. “Jake’s Women” was delayed due to scheduling problems. Simon veteran director Gene Saks will stage. “Rumors” will run Sept. 22-Oct. 30.

DULY NOTED: Our assurances last week that Los Angeles had not had a major revival of “West Side Story” in more than 20 years were geographically correct, but a caller pointed out that Opera Pacific did stage one in February of last year at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

MOMMA DEAREST: L.A. Classic Theatre Works and KCRW will produce what’s billed as “an oedipal feast” for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day broadcasts (6 p.m. on May 8 and June 12): Arthur Kopit’s acerbic “Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad.” Featured are Bud Cort, Marian Mercer, Holly Palance, Chris Nixon, Franklyn Seales and Frank Welker.

L.A. WAIVER LAW: The attorneys have been selected in the dispute between Actors Equity and the Equity Waiver theater operators over the union’s proposed 99-Seat Theater Plan. Representing the union will be Leo Geffner, replacing Dick Davis. Lisa Kroeger and Jerry Birn, working on a pro bono basis, will represent the theater operators.