Theatre West
Encyclopedia
Theatre West is a theatre
company in Hollywood, California, the oldest continually-operating theatre company in Los Angeles
, established in 1962.
Originally conceived as a venue for working professional actors in the film and television industries to exercise their artistic skills in roles and material far different from what they were called upon to do in front of the camera, Theatre West first came together as an informal workshop led by Curt Conway
. Among its early members were Joyce Van Patten
, Naomi Caryl, Betty Garrett
, Charles Aidman
, Philip Abbott
, Richard Dreyfuss
, Jack Nicholson
, Lee Meriwether
, Martin Landau
, Earl Holliman
, Harry Dean Stanton
, Sally Field
, Beau Bridges
, Carroll O'Connor
, Harold Gould
, and Marvin Kaplan
. (More recent members include Chazz Palminteri
, Ray Bradbury
, Jim Beaver
, John Cygan
, Sherwood Schwartz
, Pat Harrington
, Cecily Adams
, Bridget Hanley
, Anne Haney
, John Gallogly, Leslie Caveny
, Eugene Pack
, Mary Garripoli, Kelly Stables
, and William Blinn
.)
One of the company's earliest and most successful productions went on to become a Broadway
hit and a treasured perennial of the American theatre. Spoon River Anthology
, Charles Aidman's masterful dramatization of poetry of Edgar Lee Masters
, was developed in the Theatre West workshop, was transferred to television, and since 1963 has been performed in thousands of productions around the world.
More recently, Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Play was developed in the Theatre West workshop, produced by the company, moved to Off-Broadway
and then became a feature film, A Bronx Tale
, directed by and starring Robert De Niro
. John Gallogly adapted and directed two poems by Poet Laureate James Dickey
, author of 'Deliverance
', that starred Bridget Hanley. May Day Sermon was nominated as Best of the Fest by BBC Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival. Bronwen, the Traw, and the Shape-Shifter premiered after Mr. Dickey's death. Both plays were selected by the California Arts Council for inclusion in the Touring Artists Directory and played throughout California as well as in Atlanta, South Carolina and other states. Love of a Pig by Leslie Caveny traveled to Dublin and is produced around the United States. Gene Pack's Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words
has recently been made into a television series with Pack and Dale Rehfeld.
A vital part of the company is Storybook Theatre, an acclaimed program of original musical plays for children. Begun in 1984, by Lloyd J. Schwartz
and Barbara Mallory Schwartz Storybook Theatre has been honored with commendations from the United States Senate
and House of Representatives
in addition to scores of local theatre and civic awards and commendations. Storybook Theatre Live will soon be available in DVD and video. Storybook Theatre presents interactive, non-threatening musicals with a message.
The company is a democratic membership company, run by an artistic board of directors elected by the membership. In addition to producing plays, the theatre presents workshops for actors, writers, musical comedy performers, and students of William Shakespeare
, and a special two-year free training class for young professionals, the associate membership. Membership is primarily by audition (for actors) and script submission (for writers). Current artistic moderators for the workshops are Mark W. Travis and Drew Katzman (actors), Doug Haverty and Christine DiGiovanni (writers), Betty Garrett
(musical comedy), and Matt Ritchey and Rebecca Lane (Shakespeare). The executive director is John Gallogly. The current Artistic Board of Directors is composed of established Los Angeles based actors/writers/directors that includes Adam Conger, David P. Johnson, Sandra Tucker, Jill Jones, Maria Kress, Jeanine Anderson and Neil Elliot.
Theatre West recently produced Mornings at Seven with Betty Garrett, Marvin Kaplan, and Malachi Throne
, May 18—July 1, 2007. Other recent productions include the lauded rendition of Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight
and an original adaptation, Acting - The First Six Lessons starring Beau Bridges
and Emily Bridges.
http://www.theatrewest.org. One of their recent Storybook Theatre shows was an original version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
which starred Lee Meriwether as the Queen. The current Storybook Theatre show, an original version of Jack and the Beanstalk, will run through March, 2011.
Many Theatre West members star and are involved in the production of member Mary Garripoli's comedic webseries, The Reel Housewives of Theatre West, which chronicles the plight of actresses in their fight to stay relevant and keep working in an age-and-talent-phobic Hollywood.
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
company in Hollywood, California, the oldest continually-operating theatre company in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, established in 1962.
Originally conceived as a venue for working professional actors in the film and television industries to exercise their artistic skills in roles and material far different from what they were called upon to do in front of the camera, Theatre West first came together as an informal workshop led by Curt Conway
Curt Conway
Curt Conway was an American actor. He was sometimes billed as Curtis Conway or Kurt Conway.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Conway began his career with small parts in films of the late 1940s, but appeared principally on TV from 1960 until his death...
. Among its early members were Joyce Van Patten
Joyce Van Patten
Joyce Benignia Van Patten is an American stage, film and television actress.-Personal life:Van Patten was born in New York City, the daughter of Josephine Rose , an Italian American magazine advertising executive, and Richard Byron Van Patten, a Dutch American interior decorator.She is the younger...
, Naomi Caryl, Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett was an American actress, comedienne, singer and dancer who originally performed on Broadway before being signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
, Charles Aidman
Charles Aidman
Charles Aidman was an American film scenarist and television actor.-Career:Among his many television credits include appearances on NBC's western series The Road West in the 1966 episode "The Lean Years"...
, Philip Abbott
Philip Abbott
Philip Abbott was an American character actor and occasional voice actor.Abbott was a secondary lead in several films of the 1950s and 1960s. Miracle of the White Stallions...
, Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
, Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
, Lee Meriwether
Lee Meriwether
Lee Ann Meriwether is an American actress, former model, and the winner of the 1955 Miss America pageant. She is perhaps best known for her role as Betty Jones, the crime-solving partner in the long-running 1970s crime drama, Barnaby Jones. The role earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations in...
, Martin Landau
Martin Landau
Martin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
, Earl Holliman
Earl Holliman
-Early life:Earl Holliman was born at Delhi in Richland Parish of northeastern Louisiana. Holliman’s biological father died before he was born, and his biological mother, living in poverty with several other children, gave him up for adoption at birth...
, Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton is an American actor, musician, and singer. Stanton's career has spanned over fifty years, which has seen him star in such films as Paris, Texas, Kelly's Heroes, Dillinger, Alien, Repo Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild at Heart, The Green Mile and The Pledge...
, Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
, Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
, Carroll O'Connor
Carroll O'Connor
John Carroll O'Connor best known as Carroll O'Connor, was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades...
, Harold Gould
Harold Gould
Harold V. Goldstein , best known by his stage name Harold Gould, was an American actor best known for playing Martin Morgenstern in the 1970s sitcoms Rhoda and The Mary Tyler Moore Show and as Miles Webber in The Golden Girls...
, and Marvin Kaplan
Marvin Kaplan
Marvin Kaplan is an American character actor and voice artist. Kaplan is probably best known for his recurring role on the sitcom Alice where he portrayed a phone company employee named Henry Beesmeyer who frequented Mel's diner. He was a part of the cast from 1977 to the series end in 1985...
. (More recent members include Chazz Palminteri
Chazz Palminteri
Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri is an American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usual Suspects, A Bronx Tale, and his Academy Award nominated role for Best Supporting Actor in Bullets Over Broadway....
, Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, Jim Beaver
Jim Beaver
James Norman "Jim" Beaver, Jr. is an American stage, film, and television actor, playwright, screenwriter, and film historian...
, John Cygan
John Cygan
John Cygan is an American actor, voice artist, and comedian.-Career:Cygan is notable for his television work and his voice work .-Filmography:*The Commish ......
, Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Charles Schwartz was an American television producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, and created the television series Gilligan's Island on CBS and The Brady Bunch on ABC...
, Pat Harrington
Pat Harrington
Pat Harrington may refer to:*Pat Harrington, Sr. , Canadian actor*Pat Harrington, Jr. , his son, American actor*Pat Harrington , Canadian soccer player-See also:...
, Cecily Adams
Cecily Adams
Cecily April Adams was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, the daughter of comic actor Don Adams and singer Adelaide Efantis, and the sister of actress/TV executive Stacey Adams...
, Bridget Hanley
Bridget Hanley
Bridget Ann Elizabeth Hanley, professionally known as Bridget Hanley, is an American actress, known for her starring and supporting roles in TV comedy, western, adventure and drama programs, including Candy Pruitt on the Western dramedy Here Come the Brides. She also starred in Harper Valley...
, Anne Haney
Anne Haney
Anne Haney was an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles as social worker Mrs. Sellner in Mrs. Doubtfire, Greta the secretary in Liar Liar, and for her unique, low-octave voice.-Career:...
, John Gallogly, Leslie Caveny
Leslie Caveny
Leslie Caveny is an American film and television writer and producer. She was a staff writer and producer for Everybody Loves Raymond for several years in which she shared the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. She later went on to write the screenplay for Penelope. She is...
, Eugene Pack
Eugene Pack
Eugene Pack is a writer, producer, actor, and playwright. He created the long-running Off-Broadway comedy show "Celebrity Autobiography", in which he also performs. For producing "Celebrity Autobiography," Pack won the 2009 Drama Desk Award and the Bistro Award for Comedy...
, Mary Garripoli, Kelly Stables
Kelly Stables
Kelly Michelle Stables is an American actress known for both stage and film acting.-Personal life:Stables was born in metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri. She was a well-known cheerleader in her high school years, a fact which would be commemorated in an article in the magazine American Cheerleader...
, and William Blinn
William Blinn
William Frederick Blinn is an American screenwriter and television producer.-Career:Born in Toledo, Ohio, Blinn began his career in television in the 1960s. As a screenwriter, Blinn has written episodes of Rawhide, Here Come the Brides, Gunsmoke, The Rookies, and Fame...
.)
One of the company's earliest and most successful productions went on to become a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
hit and a treasured perennial of the American theatre. Spoon River Anthology
Spoon River Anthology
Spoon River Anthology , by Edgar Lee Masters, is a collection of short free-form poems that collectively describe the life of the fictional small town of Spoon River, named after the real Spoon River that ran near Masters' home town. The collection includes two hundred and twelve separate...
, Charles Aidman's masterful dramatization of poetry of Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist...
, was developed in the Theatre West workshop, was transferred to television, and since 1963 has been performed in thousands of productions around the world.
More recently, Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Play was developed in the Theatre West workshop, produced by the company, moved to Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
and then became a feature film, A Bronx Tale
A Bronx Tale
A Bronx Tale is a 1993 American crime drama film set in The Bronx during the turbulent era of the 1960s. It was the directorial debut of Robert De Niro, and follows a young Italian-American teenager as his path in life is guided by two father figures, played by De Niro and Chazz Palminteri...
, directed by and starring Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
. John Gallogly adapted and directed two poems by Poet Laureate James Dickey
James Dickey
James Lafayette Dickey was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1966.-Early years:...
, author of 'Deliverance
Deliverance (novel)
Deliverance is a 1970 novel by James Dickey, his first. It was adapted into a 1972 film by director John Boorman. In 1998, the editors of the Modern Library selected Deliverance as #42 on their list of the 100 best 20th-Century novels...
', that starred Bridget Hanley. May Day Sermon was nominated as Best of the Fest by BBC Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival. Bronwen, the Traw, and the Shape-Shifter premiered after Mr. Dickey's death. Both plays were selected by the California Arts Council for inclusion in the Touring Artists Directory and played throughout California as well as in Atlanta, South Carolina and other states. Love of a Pig by Leslie Caveny traveled to Dublin and is produced around the United States. Gene Pack's Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words
Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words
Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words was a one-hour comedy television special which premiered on December 5, 2005 on Bravo. The show featured comedians reading actual excerpts from celebrity autobiographies...
has recently been made into a television series with Pack and Dale Rehfeld.
A vital part of the company is Storybook Theatre, an acclaimed program of original musical plays for children. Begun in 1984, by Lloyd J. Schwartz
Lloyd J. Schwartz
Lloyd J. Schwartz is an American television producer and writer.-Career:Schwartz is the son of TV mogul Sherwood Schwartz and has worked alongside him since the late 1960s. He has teamed with his father on many Brady Bunch projects, often as writer or producer.He also has written for TV series...
and Barbara Mallory Schwartz Storybook Theatre has been honored with commendations from the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
and House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in addition to scores of local theatre and civic awards and commendations. Storybook Theatre Live will soon be available in DVD and video. Storybook Theatre presents interactive, non-threatening musicals with a message.
The company is a democratic membership company, run by an artistic board of directors elected by the membership. In addition to producing plays, the theatre presents workshops for actors, writers, musical comedy performers, and students of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, and a special two-year free training class for young professionals, the associate membership. Membership is primarily by audition (for actors) and script submission (for writers). Current artistic moderators for the workshops are Mark W. Travis and Drew Katzman (actors), Doug Haverty and Christine DiGiovanni (writers), Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett was an American actress, comedienne, singer and dancer who originally performed on Broadway before being signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
(musical comedy), and Matt Ritchey and Rebecca Lane (Shakespeare). The executive director is John Gallogly. The current Artistic Board of Directors is composed of established Los Angeles based actors/writers/directors that includes Adam Conger, David P. Johnson, Sandra Tucker, Jill Jones, Maria Kress, Jeanine Anderson and Neil Elliot.
Theatre West recently produced Mornings at Seven with Betty Garrett, Marvin Kaplan, and Malachi Throne
Malachi Throne
Malachi Throne is an American actor, most noted for his roles on Star Trek and It Takes a Thief.Throne was born in New York City...
, May 18—July 1, 2007. Other recent productions include the lauded rendition of Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight
Gaslight
Gaslight may refer to:* Gas lighting, the use of flammable gas such as natural gas as a light source* Gaslighting, a form of psychological abuse* Gas Light a Patrick Hamilton stage play...
and an original adaptation, Acting - The First Six Lessons starring Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
and Emily Bridges.
http://www.theatrewest.org. One of their recent Storybook Theatre shows was an original version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White
"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
which starred Lee Meriwether as the Queen. The current Storybook Theatre show, an original version of Jack and the Beanstalk, will run through March, 2011.
Many Theatre West members star and are involved in the production of member Mary Garripoli's comedic webseries, The Reel Housewives of Theatre West, which chronicles the plight of actresses in their fight to stay relevant and keep working in an age-and-talent-phobic Hollywood.