Les Hanson
Les Hanson, founding artistic director of West Coast Ensemble, is espousing the traditions of those wandering minstrels of yore with his next production. He opens Gypsy by Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim at the Egyptian Arena Stage on May 13 under the direction of Richard Israel.
Coincidence, happenchance, fortuity or some weird example of synchronicity point up all manner of interesting incidentals regarding this simple fact. There’s the historical theory the gypsy culture originated in the 14th century in the land of Egypt which conferred these people their name.
There’s the roving nature of the gypsy bands down through the centuries which shows a correlation of sorts between them and actors, further establishing a synchronistic link in the minds of many as both actors and gypsies have been known “to sing for their supper” as the saying goes.
Finally there’s the nomadic state defining West Coast Ensemble’s current circumstances. No longer with a permanent home, the company finds itself in a migratory situation from show to show.
Hanson retains his enthusiasm for and belief in his goals in spite of those recent financial setbacks affecting the economy in general and the arts in particular. He states, “Theater in LA is very important to me and always has been. I hope in our 30 years of producing we’ve managed to add an important part in helping it grow.”
Jan Sheldrick with Baby June
The journey began for him in his native Montana where, he says, “None of my family worked in the entertainment field but they were all entertaining. I got my start by doing plays in school. Seeing faces light up in the audience excited me. Maybe I was a show-off. I guess I must have been.”
Whatever exhibitionism he possessed he put to practical use at the University of Montana where he earned an MA in theater and communications or, as he remembers, “I split my interest in two directions. I figure I actually got a degree in journalism and another degree in theater. After I graduated though, I moved more into theater than journalism.”
He produced and managed the premiere season of Montana Repertory Theatre. There he started directing and landed the prestigious assignment of helming The Fantasticks for a USO tour. “We played in nine countries with that show,” he says. “We went to Japan, Korea, that part of the world.”
Returning to the states, he found himself drifting into southern California. He tells why: “I wanted to come to a place where I could continue to do theater but also have access to a television and movie career. Here I figured I had that chance. As I investigated these genres here, I began to meet producers in the different fields. I had some good experiences and some not so good experiences.”
What constituted the not so good events? He answers, “They came from individuals in the position and business of producing who didn’t know how to do it. Or they didn’t know how to treat people well and they seemed not too interested in learning how to treat them better. I figured I couldn’t do any worse than them.”
Activated by that suspicion and armed with his educational and professional background, Hanson set out to restore richness or facilitate a fellowship he saw as missing from the local theatrical scene. He recalls, “I had met a number of people through various acting classes and productions who I invited to join me in a company. We started with around 20 original members.”
That was in 1981. He called his company the West Coast Ensemble. In the ensuing 30 years the company has produced over 250 plays and musicals. “We started in a Hollywood storefront,” he reminisces. “Of those 20 members I started with, only about five are still with me. Some of the older ones are gone now. Others dropped out of the business, moved away or moved on to something else.
Stephanie Wall
“When we did our first production, getting the word out was a challenge. That always comes down to finances which we didn’t have a lot of in those days. I relied on my journalism experience [to create press releases]. Ten years after we started we had bounced around to several different locations. We were on Santa Monica Boulevard at the old Richmond Shepard Studios for awhile. After that we worked out of a place on El Centro which is now an automotive garage, I believe. Our most recent [semi-permanent] home was on La Brea. The landlord went up on rent to the point we couldn’t remain there any longer. We’d like to find another place to put down roots awhile.
“I’ll have to say that so far our subscribers are following us wherever we go and we are still committed to putting on a four-show season. In fact we already have our next show after Gypsy lined up. It’s [playwright] Don Cummings’ Live Work Space, a drama with lots of humor although probably not enough to qualify it as an out-and-out comedy. It’s about two couples grappling with issues of intimacy in their lives and at work. We’ll be putting it up in either June or July.
“I’d like to get back to a situation like the one we had on Hollywood Boulevard where we had two theaters and could do 10 shows a year. Still we’ll keep doing our four shows as long as we can wherever we can. I like musicals. I also like classics, the traditional classics like Shakespeare and his era or even earlier from the Greek and Roman periods, but I also like the modern American classics from the last 70 years or so.
“New works are important too. Attempting to live only in the past is a foolish idea for a theater company. We receive a lot of new plays each year. How to balance a season is a concern. While I don’t worry about it, I do try to pick one from each of those four categories I mentioned. For the new works I encourage writers and composers to attend our rehearsals. Since long distance relationships can cause many problems in communication, if they’re from out of town, my hope is they can manage to fly in for the last 10 days or so before we open.”
The selection process for his seasons remains firmly in his control although he maintains, “The final decision is mine but I listen very well. I’m given a lot of advice. I promise you I pay attention to it.”
Part of that advice comes from WCE co-artistic director Richard Israel. Hanson details Israel’s indoctrination into the company: “Richard served as an apprentice with us for awhile and began to assume more and more duties along about the same time I was realizing I was growing older and needed more help running things. He joined our management team in 1994 as an associate director. He’s kept proving his value to us over the years. He’s now artistic director along with me and continues to direct many of our productions.”
Indeed Israel helmed the world premiere of Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins, the West Coast premiere of Wonder of the World and the LA premiere of Big—The Musical among others for WCE. He’s now bringing Gypsy to the wire.
Hanson says, “We started thinking about it and working to secure the rights to the show about nine months ago. I love the work of both Styne and Sondheim. This one has them both so you can’t get any better than that. I think it’s one of the best musicals of the last 50 years. It’s been done a lot around the country but not so much here which I think gives us the opportunity to appeal to longtime theatergoers who remember it from past productions but also attract younger ones who have never seen it.”
Jan Sheldrick
It provides as well actress Jan Sheldrick in the role of Rose with an enviable challenge to live up to those stellar performances preceding hers. Gypsy’s Broadway pedigree alone set standards of exemplary excellence. In its premiere back in 1959 when it ran for 702 performances, Gypsy pulled down a total of eight Tony nominations for best musical, Jo Mielziner for set design, Raoul Pene DuBois for costume design, Jerome Robbins for direction, Milton Rosenstock for musical direction and three in the performing category: Ethel Merman as Rose, Jack Klugman as Herbie and Sandra Church as Gypsy Rose Lee. Unfortunately the show won not a single Tony that year, losing to the duo of Fiorello! and The Sound of Music.
In its four Broadway revivals, however, the musical and Rose fared much better. In 120 performances in 1974 Angela Lansbury in the role won the Tony. In 476 performances in 1989 Tyne Daly also won the Tony. In 451 performances in 2003 Bernadette Peters received a Tony nomination. And in its latest revival in 2008 for 332 performances Patti LuPone won the Tony as well.
Now Sheldrick gets a chance to place her stamp upon the part, quite understandable with a look at her resume and a listing of her WCE credits. She acted with the company in Cry Havoc, Sunday in the Park with George, Sylvia, A New Brain, The Diary of Anne Frank, Merrily We Roll Along, Cabaret, Company, Old Times, The Man Who Came to Dinner and received a 2010 Ovation nomination in the role of Etta Poore in Anita Bryant Died For Your Sins.
Hanson extols her contributions to past productions, her dedication to the present one and her promising potential for future successes. “I don’t remember when I first met Jan. She’s been with us for at least 20 years now and has been a great addition to our company. She’s done lots of musicals but she’s also quite good in more dramatic roles. I think she’s very excited to play the part of Rose. I know we’re excited she’s playing it.
“Richard directed her last year [in Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins] so they know and respect one another, and each is well aware of what the other brings to the table. I imagine she’s quite informed of the other actresses in the role before her. I imagine too she can’t help but compare herself to them to some extent. She wouldn’t be human if she didn’t. But she’s a very good actress and a hard worker who’s concerned about doing a good job which eliminates any concerns we might have.”
So once the caravan of WCE players have declaimed and decamped from the Egyptian Arena Stage, one is tempted to quote Longfellow: “And the night shall be filled with music, and the cares that infest the day, shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, and quietly steal away.”
Well not exactly. Erasing our cares by filling the night with music is one thing but quietly taking a powder is an altogether different proposition not in Hanson’s itinerary at all. He has ambitions both short-term and long-range. For one thing there’s the planning of upcoming seasons with its careful selection of plays and its painstaking pairing of the classic with the current.
How does he weed out the dynamic from the dated? He answers, “For our modern classics we ask the question: Is the theme still viable and is it important to people? If it’s a comedy, does it still make you laugh? Kaufman and Hart for example still do. Having an edge in dramatic material is good but does that edge still cut as close as it once did? Changing times mean an edge can get blunted.”
He’s also aware of the personal insecurities almost any actor can sometimes experience. He was once quoted for an acting class: “One thing I do is talk to my nerves: ‘Hey nerves, thanks for being here trying to protect me but we got to work on this together, so let’s just settle down and get this done.’
Kelly Lloyd and Stephanie Wall
“Oh yes, I remember saying that,” he affirms, “mainly because I’m still saying it or some variation of it. We have nerves. We need to be aware of them. I teach a 10-week session two times a year on how to audition. In it I assign the students to do a monologue that shows me who they are. Sometimes they’ll do material that doesn’t stretch them. Or they’ll bring in something they just saw on TV last night. That’s when I’ll encourage them to rethink their choices or dig deeper.”
Hanson longs for a permanent theatrical home because it will enable him to return to his Families-at-Play program which, being between venues, he has temporarily abandoned. That program involved inter-generational family members in theater experiences through either free or pay-what-you-can performances that included Sunday talkbacks and interactive workshops.
He says, “Our children of today will be our parents of tomorrow. It only makes sense to build future audiences by starting today with younger audience members. We need to get them to the theater to see what magic is there. We need to get them in the habit of going to the theater to make it a lifelong habit-forming activity.”
He distills much the same message from his personal philosophy for all ages. He signs off with, “I’d encourage more people to give live theater a chance. Don’t be so ensconced at home. Take the night off from TV once in awhile. Ron Sossi at the Odyssey and Barbara Beckley at the Colony are doing some fantastic stuff. Go see some of it; be moved and entertained.”
One can add Les Hanson at West Coast Ensemble to that list and we don’t need a gypsy hovering over a crystal ball, a monkey’s paw or a cup of tea leaves to verify its validity.
**All Production Photography by Carla Barnett
Gypsy, presented by West Coast Ensemble, opens May 13; plays Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun. 8 pm, 3 pm; through July 3. Tickets: $30-$34. Theatre of Arts Arena Stage, 1625 N. Las Palmas Ave., Hollywood; 323-655-0108, tix.com or westcoastensemble.org.
