June 03, 1999
A Noise Within will move to
Cal State L.A.'s lavish Luckman Theatre.
by Rob Kendt
Last Wednesday night, members of Glendale's classical repertory
company, A Noise Within, arrived by 6:45 p.m. sharp at the former Masonic
temple that has housed their scrappy, steadily growing efforts since a
production of Hamlet in 1991. The assembled actors, directors, and designers
had been called to a company meeting but were given no idea what the meeting
was about.
At 7 p.m., still mystified about their gathering, company members
piled into a rented bus and embarked on what seemed a circuitous freeway route
to a still-unknown destination. Recalled resident actor Jenna Cole, "We
were like kids at camp."
The bus stopped on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles, northeast
of Downtown L.A., and company members were led to the college's Luckman Fine
Arts Complex, a four-year-old performing arts facility whose centerpiece is a
gorgeous 1,150-seat theatre.
This, as company members learned to their delighted surprise, is
to be the new home of A Noise Within, which until recently ran an ambitious
repertory season in a 99-seat in-the-round theatre with wooden pews for seats
(seating has been expanding for a few years now, to its current 144).
Conveniently, the Luckman Theatre has curtains to block off the balcony and the
back of the orchestra for an initial 252-seat configuration-a crucial point not
only for ANW's audience-building but for its negotiations with Actors' Equity.
Amazingly, these negotiations have only just begun, though ANW's
soon-to-be-announced fall season begins rehearsals in July. Indeed, this big
move is progressing at hyper-speed, given that it's a marriage between a university
and a small nonprofit arts organization.
"I've been working on this for seven weeks, which must be a
new speed record for the university," said Charles Redmond at a reception
in the Luckman lobby last week. As a board member of A Noise Within and a
councilmember at Cal State L.A., Redmond was the crucial link who saw unmet
needs on both sides and endeavored to bring them together.
On the one hand, the splashy Luckman space has been under-used,
with a performing arts season consisting mainly of one-night-stands of dance,
opera, and concert music; on the other hand, A Noise Within has been shopping
for a new space ever since it became clear that the Masonic temple building in
Glendale may never meet the troupe's needs "in a timely fashion," as
co-artistic director Geoff Elliott said last week.
"Our success was collapsing in on us," Elliott said.
"We were turning people away, and actors were getting frayed around the
edges. There was no heating or air conditioning, no showers."
In 1995, the city of Glendale earmarked $2.5 million for the
company to upgrade the space; $600,000 was spent upgrading the existing
black-box space, with now-moot plans to build another 450-seater downstairs.
The company's last production in the old building will be a brief revival of
its award-bedecked 1998 rep productions of Lillian Hellman's The Little
Foxes and its prequel, Another Part of the Forest, June 3-13.
Plans at the Luckman, where A Noise Within will be officially a
"company in residence," include its 22-week, seven-play 1999-2000
season and continued educational and internship programs. Its conservatory
classes will not restart right away, but both Cal State L.A. officials and A
Noise Within are clearly eying future educational collaborations, citing such
models as La Jolla Playhouse's relationship with UC San Diego and American
Repertory Theatre's with Harvard.
Details will be worked out in coming months at a breakneck pace.
Currently ANW productions are on an Equity Periodic Performance contract, and
while there are few if any employment models quite like this one-a repertory
acting company in a college setting-Equity is likely to make League of Resident
Theatre (LORT) scales a goal (professional midsized theatres on campuses, like
La Jolla Playhouse, as well as the nation's only real rep acting company, the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, both use LORT contracts).
Last week, though, members took a moment to relish the abundant,
Ahmanson-sized fly space of the Luckman stage, the bathrooms and scene shop,
and the attractive courtyard.
Said co-artistic director Art Manke, "All I keep thinking of
is the theme from The Jeffersons: "We're movin' on up/To the
Eastside/To a deluxe apartment.' "