Smaller playhouses offer own unique experience

  ANGIE LEVINE Smaller theaters, such as those near
Cahuenga and Santa Monica Boulevards, often provide a more intimate
setting in comparison to the larger, more well-known theaters in
Los Angeles.

By Andie Dingman
Daily Bruin Contributor

Theater-loving students don’t have to spend a whole
paycheck for a pair of tickets at one of the large, well-known
playhouses in Los Angeles.

Reasonably priced tickets are available for productions at
smaller theaters, which can be found nestled in the communities of
North Hollywood (NoHo), Hollywood, Glendale and Pasadena.

“Larger doesn’t mean better. I do go to both, and I
really like them both,” said Lee Wochner, the CEO of Theatre
League Alliance, a non-profit association that promotes theater in
Los Angeles.

Although there are differences in setting between the theater
districts in the Los Angeles area, they have in common a large
selection of intimate theaters that thrive on a communal
atmosphere.

“When you go see a terrific, kick-ass show in a small
theater, you know that you were part of that experience that made
it so great,” Wochner said. “It’s like going to a
boutique instead of going to the department store.”

Many smaller theaters aren’t expecting to make a fortune,
so they engage in increased artistic freedom.

“You get to take more risks, because it’s not about
making money. We just broke even with “˜Mislaid Heaven,’
which we consider success,” said Ken Sawyer, a member of the
Road Theatre Company and the director of its current production,
“A Mislaid Heaven.”

“”˜Lion King’ and all those big shows ““ I
love “˜Lion King,’ I think it’s a beautiful piece
of theater ““ but it’s also a money-making machine.
That’s not what we’re about,” he continued.

Deborah Lawlor, the producing artistic director at the Fountain
Theatre in Hollywood, agreed that there was more room for creative
expression in smaller theaters.

“You’re free,” she said. “You can do
exactly what you want. You can go out on a limb and do big-cast
shows, but just do them more simply.”

Unfortunately, there are also much smaller budgets to work
with.

“The disadvantage is that you have to work under a lot of
constraints. But that also becomes the advantage, because it just
forces you to be more creative,” Sawyer said.

Theater-goers who are looking for non-mainstream productions can
turn to the local theater districts, each of which has its own
personality.

The neighborhood of NoHo has two city blocks full of theaters,
small galleries, and restaurants, giving it a close-knit feel.

“What’s great about NoHo is that there’s a lot
of little theaters that probably nobody’s ever heard of, all
nestled into two blocks,” Sawyer said.

The popularity of the arts district in NoHo is relatively
recent. Sawyer recalls when the Road first began presenting there
six years ago.

“When we went there, it was really sort of a bad
neighborhood and no one would even think to go over there,”
Sawyer said.

However, in the years since then, NoHo’s character has
changed drastically.

“Now everything is sort of sprung up; there’s a
Starbucks on the corner, and restaurants, and there’s a dance
studio across the street,” Sawyer said. “So, it’s
sort of become a happening place.”

The small theater scene in Los Angeles is both accessible and
affordable to students.

As NoHo’s theater scene is relatively young, so is its
basic audience. A considerable portion of the audiences in NoHo
theaters is made up of other actors, as well as younger
theater-goers looking for something a little bit off of the beaten
path, according to Sawyer.

In contrast to NoHo’s residential, walking-distance feel,
the smaller theater scene in Hollywood is affected by its
environment.

“Hollywood itself doesn’t have a local audience,
because you don’t really have a community in
Hollywood,” said Deborah Lawlor, the producing artistic
director at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood. “It could be
that they get more people from their immediate area in NoHo than
they do in Hollywood.”

She added that Hollywood has the advantage of drawing its talent
and audience from all over the Los Angeles area.

Hollywood’s geographic location “is not that
important; we get people from all over the place coming to our
shows,” Lawlor said.

In contrast, the relaxed, residential environments of Glendale
and Pasadena make them similar to NoHo.

“I like Glendale. I go to Glendale pretty often,”
Wochner said. “Again, you come back to kind of the North
Hollywood sort of thing; it’s not as urban of an environment,
it’s a smaller town. You can park and walk to the theater,
and go to restaurants.”

Leslie Waltzer, a board member at the Stepping Stone Players of
Glendale, said that like Hollywood, the audiences at the theaters
in Glendale vary depending on the work being performed.

“It spans,” Waltzer said. “There’s such
a diversity of things you can go see.”

“It may not be as sophisticated as the Westside, in terms
of our theaters, but we have everybody coming, from very
sophisticated theater-goers to the students from Glendale college.
It’s a very diverse audience,” she said.

Much like NoHo, the atmosphere of the town is reflected in the
types of plays that are produced.

“South Pasadena is a small town known for boutique,
specialty shops,” said Lissa Reynolds of the Fremont Centre
Theatre. “The small professional theater of FCT
complements the make up of this type of community. It goes with the
grain, so to speak, and not against it.”

The small theater scene in Los Angeles is both accessible and
affordable to students. Many venues offer student ticket prices,
and those willing to wait until the day of the performance can
often purchase tickets for half-price on the Theatre League
Alliance Web site, at www.theatrela.org.

“A significant and theatrically satisfying difference is
that the small professional theaters appeal to true theater-goers
who appreciate the particular “˜flavor’ each theater
offers,” said Reynolds.