by Rob Kendt
I didn't like the first show I saw at the Colony Studio Theatre
back in 1991, but I loved the second show I saw there, Jerry Fey's Oxford's
Will, a Shakespeare/DeVere authorship romp (years before Amy Freed's Beard
of Avon). And thereafter I returned happily to that cozy little beacon of
99-Seat quality, which in its Elysian Park-adjacent location was the only
theatre I could walk to from my home. Sometimes the productions were no more
than above-average, but occasionallyÑthe brilliant Putting It Together, a smart,
sexy Heartbreak House, a simple, heartfelt EleemosynaryÑthe Colony
was as good as it gets anywhere. Well, it's not news that the company traded on
its success to make the move to midsize at Burbank Center StageÑit's been there
since fall 2000Ñbut I hadn't been to the new space as a theatregoer until the
recent closing night of the sold-out, extended L.A. premiere of The Laramie
Project, which also marks the company's first step up to full Equity
status in its beautiful 276-seat space. But lovely amenities, location, and
patron services (always a Colony staple) are for naught if the work is sub-par.
I'm happy to report an embarrassment of riches: Nick DeGruccio's production of Laramie was a
stunnerÑa vibrant, surprisingly funny, warm, and circumspect look at the
awkward but eminently bridge-able chasm between America's "red" and
"blue" states, through the prism of Matthew Shepard's grisly murder.
The night I attended, I sat next to Laura Waterbury of Equity, proud to witness
another theatre in the union fold; she told me it was on a modified
"HAT" (Hollywood Area Theatre) contract. Also on hand were
Christopher Maluck and Tristan Higgans-Goodall of the Matthew Shepard
Foundation, for which the Colony's Laramie audiences raised a total of $15,186.69.
(Impressive, but who gave 69 cents?) Such Colony mainstays as Jodi Carlisle,
Chip Heller, Alison Shanks, and Nancy Learmonth were at the top of their
considerable form in a dizzying variety of roles, as was L.A. theatre homeboy
Tony Maggio; actors new to me if not to the Colony and equally excellent were
Faith Coley Salie, Chad Borden, and Ed F. Martin (who'll play the lead in next
month's You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown). It's a short drive up the 5
now rather than a walk, but my overdue visit to this glittering new Colony was
nevertheless a homecoming. I haven't felt this viscerally proud of local
theatre since Pacific Overtures triumphantly opened East West
Players' new midsized space Little Tokyo in 1998. Such evenings, and the
theatres that produce them, are rare and precious in this town.
¥ Cornerstone Theater Company is practically in the business of
making such rare and precious L.A. moments, though not in any single venue. And
so much the better: what a privilege to tour the cathedral and rectory of St.
Vibiana's months before the latter will be razed, in the recently closed Crossings, which
reimagined some of the Old Testament's gnarliest stories of judgment and exile
in terms of Catholic immigrants. I loved Peter Howard's Zimbabwe-set take on
the Book of Ruth, and Page Leong's beatific Cambodian take on Noah, on the
rectory roof at dusk, which was punctuated by spontaneous bird flights and a
changing-color sky. Most impressive of all was Bernardo Solano's intricate,
finely shaded embroidery of all the evening's characters in a final group scene
on a dirt lot at the foot of the old cathedral. A religious moment, indeed.
¥ A word on the passing of Neil Hoffman, erstwhile BSW correspondent
on Las Vegas theatre and film as well as on the Utah Shakespeare Festival, who
more recently covered L.A. theatre for the Vegas sheet Callback. A memorial was
held at Two Roads Theatre in Studio City. I remember Neil fondly as a fine
reporter and a sensitive man. He is already greatly missed.