LA STAGE Times is posting several dispatches from the annual Directors Lab West Lab, which began last Saturday and will continue until tomorrow, based at Pasadena Playhouse. Today’s report covers events on Wednesday and Thursday. Go here for the report on the lab’s first two days. Go here for the report on the lab’s third and fourth days.

Wednesday, May 22

Leading Ladies: Elizabeth Doran and Janet Roston, by Megan Kosmoski

“You are going to make mistakes. Suck it up and don’t beat yourself up about it” — Elizabeth Doran

Elizabeth Doran, executive director of Pasadena Playhouse, and Janet Roston, winner of the 2012 Ovation Award for choreography for The Color Purple, led an inspiring discussion on being women directors and choreographers and the importance of acceptance and balance in their lives.

The two of them pointed out that often, as directors and theater professionals, women put it on themselves to keep it all together. Women trying to climb the ranks in a male- dominated profession put added pressure on themselves to never show “weakness.” However, family is not a weakness, needing personal time is not a weakness, forgetting one appointment is not a weakness, not washing your dishes right away is not a weakness — it’s okay to be human, to apologize and move on. “We need to grow a thicker skin about messing up,” Doran advises.

Both Doran and Roston discussed a director “trajectory.” Everyone’s is different, and it is mostly about finding where you fit and what makes you happy — whether it is freelance directing, choreographing, traveling and supporting a group, taking a position on a board or as an administrator. There is a misconception that there are no jobs for artists, but directors and theater artists simply “find the work, get the work, create the work,” Roston said. If you as an artist want to work, then just keep doing so.

Converge! with Diane Rodriguez, by Cindy Marie Jenkins

“I look for companies that have resonance beyond their local area” –  Diane Rodriguez

Converge! session. Photo by Cindy Marie Jenkins.

While thinking about who would be a good guest to both discuss and embody career trajectories, Diane Rodriguez was at the top of our list. Her own story of producing new works at Center Theatre Group while continuing to work as a performer, writer and producer elsewhere inspired many who sometimes feel they have to choose between arts administration or freelancing. “I would not have been at CTG this long if I did not have the freedom to be an artist,” Rodriguez bluntly stated.

She probably gets the question a lot — directors asking how they can work at CTG. Her answer, although deflating in one respect, should empower creators. She says to think of yourself as a rock star, and create an energy and buzz around you. Then Center Theatre Group will find you.

She also discussed micro-tours — for example, the current collaboration between South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse and CTG in the upcoming English-language version of Neva. Nowadays, those who run theaters realize that sharing their premieres widens the work’s appeal and thus gives the artists much more out of their experience. This journey culminated in 2011 with RADAR L.A., and a second RADAR L.A. is scheduled for September. Rodriguez, one of RADAR L.A. three primary administrators, is working to continue that sharing of work.

Rodriguez spoke bluntly about wearing many hats and making a living in the theater. What are those things that work together to keep you fulfilled? She understands the importance of what she does as producer, and she never forgets that distinct privilege.

3 Perspectives, by Cindy Marie Jenkins

“I enjoy making clouds of ideas.” –Rebecca Pappas – DLW ’13

3 Perspectives session. Photo by Cindy Marie Jenkins.

This week, people have asked for insight into other Labbies’ rehearsal strategies, into their process. Luckily we had this session scheduled, where three choreographers worked with actors on the same scene from Eurydice. We held simultaneous rehearsals with DLW alumni who also act, and everyone else had the liberty to travel from room to room to observe. It was fun to be flies on the wall, and those artists under the microscope appeared to forget we were there after a while. Some presented the scene in process, and one group just talked about it. It was beautiful to see these three choreographers approach the text through movement, and how varying levels of choreography affected the text. I’d see any of their productions of Eurydice after this sampling.

A side effect to the process was how much fun our guest actors had. We chose alumni because they understand the lab’s intentions, and we would thought it would put the current Labbies at ease. What we didn’t anticipate was how much everyone misses the process. They all stressed that spending two hours exploring barely a page of dialogue felt delicious, liberating, and was the sort of luxury they missed.

Sometimes, with compressed rehearsal processes, we all forget it’s called a play for a reason. I hope the joy everyone felt in both observing and participating encourages them to spend more time exploring and less time staging.

By Appointment with East LA Rep Members, by Megan Kosmoski

“I never thought when ‘I grow up I wanna be a Tupperware Drag Queen.’ I thought you worked to pay your bills. I didn’t know you were supposed to enjoy your work.” – Oscar Quintero

By Appointment session. Photo by Cindy Marie Jenkins.

Oscar Quintero, better known as Kay Sedia,  the Tupperware-selling drag queen of the Charlie’s Angels-satirizing comedy group Chico’s Angels, spoke at East LA Rep‘s By Appointment, an amazing community resource. East LA Rep realized that traditional theatrical structures couldn’t reach or truly benefit the mostly Latino community it’s trying to serve. The company has now re-invented itself as an artistic center.

Every Wednesday East LA Rep opens its “theater” for companies to have free rehearsal space. Artists can come and check out the awesome theater library — completely run on the honor system — and East LA Rep bridges the gap in engagement in an open forum between the artist and the community, a series called By Appointment.

An avid audience member at By Appointment had requested that Quintero come to talk about creating his Tupperware Queen character and what Kay Sedia had in store for the future. By Appointment is a safe and supportive environment for the artist to speak openly about process, work, and development. It also allows a diverse community to connect and contribute to the artists conversation. This program is exactly what Oscar said he needed while growing up in East LA, that without an artistic outlet he turned to alcohol and drugs. Once out of rehab, he then started performing, and through Kay Sedia he was able to confront his shame and sadness. “I was able to take that pain and turn it into something beautiful… I stopped apologizing for who I am.”

Thursday, May 23

Luis Alfaro, by Cindy Marie Jenkins

“I don’t need to be loved. I need to be provocative.” – Luis Alfaro

Luis Alfaro. Photo by Cindy Marie Jenkins.

This year, everyone on the steering committee went after an “ungettable get” — someone who, for whatever reason, is a long shot. I didn’t realize this until recently, but Luis Alfaro was my “ungettable get” because he is so busy. The thing about these blue-sky asks is that you never know how they’ll work. The worst is to go out on a limb for a guest and then have it bomb.

This was not an issue with this session. From the moment we began, Alfaro ignited laughter and passion in the whole room. He described how he never works for free; he always gets something, even just a latte, in exchange. Breaking the mold of a playwright, Alfaro surely leaves an indelible mark on everyone he touches directly or indirectly with his work. He certainly inspired this roomful of directors, choreographers and guest artists. Working deeply with communities, or making simple requests that the box office hire someone who speaks Spanish when they want Latinos to attend the shows — every story opened a new door for this group. When asked how he keeps his sanity while baring his heart to every new adventure and community, Alfaro cited discipline. Discipline is also how he continues writing, even if just a few minutes every morning.

Alfaro ripped down the curtain of what traditional theater-making is or can be. The room felt empowered after he left with the possibility of how our work can have a real effect in real life. Theater-makers challenge and touch the world one group of people in a dark room at a time, and I got the feeling our Labbies this year will try to make every single moment count.

Lost in Translation: Directing Bilingually, by Megan Kosmoski

On the bilingual director/actor relationship: “You just have to adapt — director to actor, actor to director… In the end we all speak theater” — Joann Yarrow

Directing Bilingually session. Photo by Evita Castine.

Infieles,  by Chilean playwright Marco Antonio de la Parra, was presented by Florida-based Teatro Prometeo in Spanish at the International Hispanic Theatre Festival in Miami last year, staged by Directors Lab West co-founder Ernest Figueroa, who’s primarily an English speaker.  Along with Figueroa, the cast and Prometeo artistic director Joann Maria Yarrow spoke about the process of creating and rehearsing a production when the director is literally speaking another language from the cast and artistic team. Directors out there, imagine: “In Spanish, there is no real translation for the word ‘choice’. How do you direct without that word?” Ernest noted.

The actors received the text a month before even meeting Ernest and were hesitant, saying, “We want to know: who is this man? Can we trust you with who we are?” Ernest came in very organized and focused. He had only two weeks to stage and produce this show. The actors were used to directors being very relaxed and casual in process yet loud and passionate in demeanor –  the last production this cast had worked on took a year of process and rehearsals.

Starting off with different backgrounds and languages was very difficult. However, the process seemed to teach everyone involved that storytelling is so much more than words, but involves trust in your fellow actors, passion for the work, and having the ability to adapt. There were misunderstandings. During an emotional scene, Ernest asked an actress to wail and she was utterly confused, asking “big fish?” They had a big laugh and moved forward, embracing the barrier.

Ernest developed his own “sign” language to communicate with the sound designer. He could tackle only larger concepts at times, trusting each person to interpret not with words but through being a human and an artist. In the end they achieved a sense of family. They had experienced a whirlwind process filled with challenges they had not previously faced. Seeing the cast, director, and artistic director onstage a year later, they appeared to be connected on a loving and human level that language itself could never have achieved.

The Man Behind the Throne, by Sara Fenton

“The performers are the jewels.  I’m the one that gets to shine them up and display them in all their beauty” — Vincent Paterson

Che’Rae Adams and Vincent Patterson. Photo by Evita Castine.

Watching the work of Vincent Paterson, as featured in Kersti Grunditz’s documentary The Man Behind the Throne, was like taking a trip down memory lane to many of the performers and productions that inspired me to chose directing and choreography as a career path — Michael Jackson, Madonna, Cirque du Soleil and even Lars Von Trier.

In the post-screening chat we met the humble and unassuming Paterson, whose process starts with coming in prepared, being the most researched and knowledgeable person in the room.

A self-described “research addict,” he shared his habit of constant collecting visual references — what he called “scraps” and file folders full of all kinds of images. It’s as though Pinterest were invented just for him.

Paterson has worked on everything from 100-million-dollar endeavors to Kickstarter- funded projects.  Regardless of the scope of the work, he likes to go in prepared and he is very mindful of efficiency and of not wanting to waste anybody’s time.

He is a firm believer in declaring his reality, envisioning it, speaking it affirmatively in the present tense.   While most of us have recently been introduced to the trend of vision boarding, Paterson has been doing this for years on his “vision fridge”. He described the uncanny power of putting pictures of people he wanted to work with on the appliance and “sending it out into the nether regions of the universal consciousness”.

One of the labbies shrewdly asked, “So how do I get you a picture of me?”

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Lee Melville. Photo by Michael Lamont.

Lee Melville, the founding editor of LA STAGE Times and its predecessor, the print magazine LA STAGE, has died. Terence McFarland, the CEO of LA STAGE Alliance which publishes LA STAGE Times, issued this statement last night:

“I am deeply saddened by Lee Melville’s passing. He was the most extraordinary advocate Los Angeles theater has known. The entire community owes a debt of gratitude to Lee and his work on our behalf. I will miss most his post-show lean-in, followed by “What did you think?” with that smirk of his mischievous eyes. Thank you, Lee, for a life well spent in the theater. You will be truly missed.”

Others who would like to submit memories of Lee Melville, for possible publication in a tribute article next week, should email their stories and remarks to LA STAGE Times editor-in-chief Deborah Behrens at dbehrens@lastagealliance.com. Details of a public memorial tribute will be published here when available.

Here is an article by Steve Julian about Melville that appeared in LA STAGE Times two years ago:

Playwrights’ Arena Award Renamed in Honor of Lee Melville

When Lee Melville smiles, his eyes beat him to it.

The editor-in-chief of this publication, LA STAGE Times, smiles frequently as he reminisces over his 50-year career in theater: actor, stage manager, producer, critic, editor. His outstanding contributions to theater, principally in Los Angeles, prompted Playwrights’ Arena artistic director Jon Lawrence Rivera this year to rename the company’s prestigious award after Melville.

“It’s a real honor,” says Melville, in one of two cozy lobby chairs at LA STAGE Alliance, not 20 feet from his office that awaits renovation from a seeming storage room to something habitable. “In 2005 I was honored with the Playwrights’ Arena Award along with Emily Kuroda and Diane Rodriguez. Jon usually honors three or four people a year.”

We sit close, too, to Terence McFarland’s office. McFarland enjoyed a 12-year stint in the New York fashion and publishing business before completing both his bachelor’s of fine arts and MFA at CalArts. In 2003 he became LA STAGE Alliance’s executive director and shared the Playwrights’ Arena Award last year with Ben Guillory and Madeline Puzo.

McFarland calls Melville “a huge resource for me since I was brand new to this community. Lee is our living archive of Los Angeles theater knowledge — fact, innuendo and scandal!”

Sit with Melville or chat with him at one of the dozens of shows he sees each year, and you find he freely shares facts and sage insights; innuendo and scandal remain parked inside his vest.

It was at last year’s production of Velina Hasu Houston’s Calligraphy at Los Angeles Theatre Center that Rivera and Melville found themselves chatting at intermission. “Jon told me the next awards ceremony was going to be in the Tom Bradley Theatre at LATC. They’d always done it at a club in West Hollywood, so it was going to be a whole different [and grander] thing. And as he was telling me about the change, like a run-on sentence, he says, ‘And the board has decided we’re going to call it the Lee Melville Award.’ I said, ‘What?’”

His eyes widen as if the shocking news had been delivered for the first time.

“I was very touched,” he remembers. “I think back to Polly Warfield and others like Margaret Harford, both of whom have awards named after them by the LADCC [Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle]. When Polly was honored with an award [named after her], I was glad because Polly was special, a very dear friend, a critic from whom I learned a lot.”

Deborah Behrens and honoree Lee Melville at Playwrights’ Arena’s 2005 Hot Night in the City Awards

Reached by telephone, Rivera says, “For years I felt we really needed to change it from the Playwrights’ Arena Award to being named after someone with longevity here in Los Angeles. The natural reaction is to look for someone who’s dead. But I thought, why name it after someone who’s gone when there are people still living and still creating the work and who’ve been around many, many years?”

The name that kept coming back to him was Lee Melville. “There is nobody else more fitting because he’s actually doing it; he’s never slowed down. When I told him about it last year at Calligraphy I thought he was going to burst into tears. He said, ‘Jon, next year is my fiftieth year in the business.’ I thought, well, that’s perfect: we’ll have a double celebration.”

On May 10, the first Lee Melville Awards will be presented to playwright/director Luis Alfaro, Cultural Affairs executive director Olga Garay, and artistic director Katharine Noon and producing director Mark Seldis of Ghost Road Theatre Company for “Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles Theater Community.”

CRITICISM

While Melville may be one to hold his tongue with innuendo and scandal, history shows him capable of writing scathing reviews. “I was harsh. I know I was,” he says. “I stopped reviewing in 1989 and, over 20 years later, people still come up to me and say I gave them a horrible review. Sometimes they even quote it!”

Even friends were not immune. “One friend, who I reviewed pretty harshly, didn’t say anything until the show closed at South Coast Rep. We were having lunch one day and I asked her why she’d never said what she thought of my review.” He chuckles. “She said, ‘I didn’t agree with it, of course, but you have to do your job and I have to do mine.’ She let it go at that. I wish everybody could do that.”

He laments, “Reviewing is a thankless job. The trouble with reviewing is if you’re going to be honest then you’re going to have to be somewhat brutal. You try to finesse it the best you can, but…”

Finessing can be an elusive skill. “I took a great lesson from Polly. People felt she was too easy, always finding something good to say. She would come back from a performance and tell me she really didn’t like it. Then I’d read her review in print and I’d think, ‘You didn’t like it? Sounds pretty good to me!’ It was a lesson to keep in mind.”

A critic’s obligation, Melville believes, is to the reader. “You must inform the audience of what the play or musical is and evaluate its production. A review’s purpose is not to bring something down or give it an artificial lift. I don’t necessarily love theater but I do respect it. Love is blind.”

1961

If Melville’s complete personal history were being honored, it would stretch back nearer 70 years than 50. But the Playwrights’ Arena, appropriately, does not take into account tap dance awards won at four years of age or performances before Kiwanis and Lions clubs at eight, when the family moved from Provo, Utah to Los Angeles.

By the time Melville got to high school, he was a tap-dancing king, thanks, in part, to the wooden staircase his father built for him as a child. “But I couldn’t do any other kind of dance,” he remembers. “I ran for student body president in my senior year but lost by six votes to the baseball jock. To tell you the truth, I was glad I wasn’t student body president because otherwise I couldn’t have been editor of the yearbook.”

Politics was out; theater and journalism were in. “I got into the senior play as the male lead in Stage Door. That bit me,” he recalls, reinvigorating his love of performing.

Melville matriculated to UCLA, went to work for NBC in Burbank as a page and joined the Freeway Circuit, a theater company run by Corey Allen that toured synagogues and civic centers.

“Corey was the actor who played opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause,“ Melville says. “On the chicken run, he was the guy who got his sleeve caught and went over the cliff, so Corey became kind of an idol among young actors.”

In 1961, when Melville joined the Freeway Circuit, the 101/110 four-level interchange was 12 years old and the region was abandoning a mass transit system in favor of one that favored motorists. There had been calls for new freeways that could shuttle commuters from urban area to urban area without being funneled through downtown Los Angeles. The company took advantage of the public outcry and development of new highways in choosing its name and developing its mission.

“We did a play called Only in America by Lawrence and Lee about Harry Golden. Herschel Bernardi played the role of a Jewish journalist in South Carolina. I was the assistant stage manager and had a small role. It was my first chance to work with professional actors. And when the show moved to the Ivar [in Hollywood] I got paid. That’s why I consider 1961 my first professional year in theater.”

Melville continued on as a page at NBC until 1962 when he took a summer stock job in picturesque Carmel Valley, along the Pacific Coast. “Everyone had been talking throughout the summer about going to New York, the mecca. I got the bug and wanted to go there also to study with Sandy Meisner because he was such a legend.”

By January 1963 Melville had successfully auditioned and relocated to New York City. He studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy where Meisner taught. “I took all the courses I could the first year. By the second year, because of finances and being a bit bored with other aspects of the school, I studied only with Sandy. When I finished, I figured I was ready to go out and be an actor.”

Melville auditioned throughout New York City and found it particularly intimidating and discouraging. A friend offered him an assistant stage manager job at Starlight Musicals in Indianapolis. “That’s where I got my Equity card and played little roles. So eventually, armed with my card, I went back to New York, went on the rounds of auditions and still didn’t get anywhere.”

He did, however, get stage managing offers. “I pretty soon figured out I better stick to the production end rather than acting. But it took me until I was almost 30 before I called it quits as an actor.”

Melville views stage managing as a life saver. He worked in regional and summer theaters, still missing New York but thankful to be employed in his chosen vocation. Along the way, he and a partner formed American Children’s Theatre, a company that performed at the old RKO 86^th Street movie theater in New York City. “We got a grant from Con Edison to do Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We bused in disadvantaged children from all five boroughs for two shows a day, all week long. I used the same script Corey had used in Los Angeles; in fact, I got him to fly in and direct the first year. We got Mayor John Lindsay and James Earl Jones to alternate as narrators and Orson Bean played Scrooge. Orson and I still joke about it to this day.”

Melville calls producing the children’s show one of his biggest thrills. “When that huge curtain opened and the kids squealed, I knew I wanted to be a producer.”

Other productions followed, including a version of Peter and the Wolf that Jacques d’Amboise of the American Ballet Theatre created, and Toby Tyler, a children’s show taken from James Otis’ book Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks at the Circus. Melville wrote the adaptation and toured it throughout Manhattan parks under a grant from Chef Boyardee. They towed a trailer whose side could drop down to serve as a stage.

In his late 20s, Melville formed the Brier Hill Playhouse near Uniontown, PA with two partners, which they ran for four years. He remained in Pennsylvania during the winter and managed the Twin Coaches Dinner Theatre. Brier Hill’s last production before folding was Gypsy. Melville played Herbie; it was his final appearance on stage. “It was fun but after opening night, which was a hoot, I turned to the actress playing Rose and said, “˜You mean we have to do this for two more weeks?’ That’s when I knew my desire to act was over.”

JOURNALISM

Lee Melville in 1983 as editor of Drama-Logue

Instead of returning to New York in 1972, Melville rejoined his parents in Los Angeles where he rediscovered his penchant for writing. He penned freelance pieces for various theatrical publications.

“Bill Bordy, the owner of [now defunct] Drama-Logue, asked me if I would like to become the editor. His editor was going to New York. That began my 12-year tenure as editor-in-chief of Drama-Logue. In 1977 I started the Drama-Logue Awards by compiling a list of what I considered the outstanding shows I’d reviewed that year.”

It was a popular idea and inspired other Drama-Logue reviewers to create their own lists. The winners were published in the paper. “We got a huge reaction, of course,” Melville remembers. “One person even came to the office and handed me a carnation because he was so touched.”

Bordy decided the response deserved an actual ceremony, which inaugurated the following year and included the winners of the first awards. “We gave them certificates and it just built and built until it was too many awards. Three and a half hours of people getting up and accepting awards? But Bill didn’t want us to narrow it down.”

Melville moved the paper from reviewing only Equity-waiver shows to productions in larger venues such as Center Theatre Group’s. “Some years we had actors such as Jon Voight, Julie Harris, Gregory Harrison, Gena Rowlands and Ed Harris coming to the ceremony to receive their awards. We had a great time.”

Bordy told Melville in 1989 he wanted to produce films. Melville offered to buy Drama-Logue from him. “But we couldn’t come to any kind of a deal. He later sold it to BackStage.”

It was time for a change and Melville left town, heading to the high desert where his family operated a wedding business for Angelenos who couldn’t wait until they reached Las Vegas to tie the knot. Ten years of that was enough, he says, and the business was sold. During those years he still drove to LA every week to see plays. Melville moved to Valley Village where he purchased a townhouse. “One of the first calls I got,” he remembers, “was from Lars Hansen who was the director of what was then the precursor to LA STAGE Alliance.

Larsen and Melville were cronies from his Drama-Logue days. “Lars wanted to start a print publication but only if I would do it. I told him I would, as long as it wasn’t a casting newspaper like Drama-Logue and on a monthly, not weekly, basis. He said that would be perfect.”

It took a while in 2000 to get it off the ground. Melville describes the first issue as a thin 16 pages. “Then Lars left for a position at USC and the magazine survived in print for nine years. But we had to stop publishing in January 2009 because of the economy. [Executive director] Terence McFarland said he didn’t want to stop but we just couldn’t afford to publish. That’s when he suggested we do it as an online blog. I said, “˜What’s a blog?’”

LA STAGE TIMES

Lee Melville with some of the covers of LA Stage magazine

Turns out “blog” is a word kept mostly hidden inside his vest, discouraged alongside innuendo and scandal. LA STAGE Times is an arts journalism site, according to program director Doug Clayton. Last October the site was renamed LA STAGE Times, which received over 300,000 page views by over 100,000 unique visitors in 2010, Clayton reports. It currently averages about 1,100 page views a day.

The difference in the site versus blogs, Melville believes, is that most other online theatrical publications are “very limited.” He counters that, however, by acknowledging, “I’m sure each one has a devoted following as we do.”

As editor-in-chief, Melville credits his writers for the site’s success. “First, we don’t do reviews except for [former LA Times reporter] Don Shirley’s ‘commentaries’ as he prefers to call them. We worked hard to get Don who said he would write for us only if he could do a column similar to the one he wrote while at LA City Beat. He sees a lot of theater and is so versed in it so we said, sure, why not?”

Up to that point, Melville says, the focus was solely on supporting member theaters and promoting their shows. “We really didn’t want to write anything negative. That was our policy during our nine years of [print] publication. But now that we’re on a website, we have a lot more flexibility in length and the number of stories we cover.”

Melville also credits other writers for moving LAStageTimes forward. Gary Ballard, Connie Danese, Julio Martinez and Tom Provenzano were among Melville’s cadre of writers at Drama-Logue and continue with him today.

“When we started the magazine, I asked them if they would write for us and they’ve all stayed on with the blog, er, website.” He laughs at yet another reminder that “blog” is no longer fashionable. It is understandable given the first few months he endured as online editor. “Were it not for Janet Thielke, a wonderful intern from USC, I might have remained terrified about computers and websites. I would just edit the stories, send them to her and she published everything online. She spoiled me.” He laments her departure once her internship wrapped up.

Deborah Behrens and Lee Melville at “God of Carnage” opening night party

In discussing his staff, Melville singles out Deborah Behrens. “She has blossomed not only as a writer but also as my managing editor. She has gained so much knowledge over the years and wrote her first cover story about Megan Mullally in our third issue.”

It is a story Melville relishes. “I called Bart DeLorenzo, who was directing Megan at what was then the Evidence Room, and asked if he could line up an interview. I was afraid if we had gone through her publicist, we would’ve been turned down. Deborah went to Megan’s home, had a wonderful afternoon and came back with a great interview. She has been writing terrific pieces ever since.”

Behrens met Melville through San Francisco director and critic A.J. Esta, who wrote a column for Drama-Logue. “I’d been living in the Bay Area for nearly a decade working in public relations and marketing,” Behrens recalls. “A short play of mine was produced locally and in New York City, plus I’d performed in and written others. When I returned to LA in 1998, Lee acted as entree to the various players in town as well as theatrical historian.”

Behrens agrees with Susan Dietz that Melville “holds the institutional theatrical memory of this town. He dearly loves show business and genuinely respects those who try to earn a living doing it in any capacity at any level. People with well-known careers remain grateful for his help when they were first starting out. That’s why he is so beloved by so many.”

Yet, for Melville, the line between criticism and journalism often is blurred. “Sylvie Drake and Dan Sullivan were both editors and reviewers for The Los Angeles Times. They would go out, Sylvie in particular, interview someone who was opening a play and then go back the next week and review it and maybe not like it. I found doing that difficult. At Drama-Logue, I decided I would just edit the interviews and not actually write them since I was also reviewing.”

Melville prefers critics who are knowledgeable about theater and have experience as an actor, playwright or director. A reviewer, he believes, should not be like one he won’t name from the 1970s and ’80s who famously would review a performance with his own script tucked under his arm, ready to hand it to the director during intermission.

Having seen so much theater over the years, however, he often is asked what productions stand the test of time. He refers to what he calls The Golden Years (late-’70s to late-’80s). “There are a few plays I find stay cemented in my mind as being quite phenomenal,” he replies. “Oliver Mayer’s Blade to the Heat at the Mark Taper Forum and Bouncers at the Tiffany, both directed by Ron Link,” are on the list. “Link also directed the wonderful spoof Women Behind Bars which Frank Levy’s Catalina Production Group presented and toured.”

Catalina, he remembers, also was responsible for the production of The Hasty Heart with Gregory Harrison which started at the Cast Theatre, then moved to the Ahmanson and was an HBO movie. “And I must include Ray Stricklyn’s portrayal of Tennessee Williams in Confessions of a Nightingale which I saw several times here, then in New York and Edinburgh.”

Melville also recalls, “three exquisite Lanford Wilson plays presented by Center Theatre Group: Fifth of July, Tally’s Folly and the world premiere of Burn This. And there were excellent productions at the Colony, Odyssey, Theatre Exchange, LA Actors Theatre and Company Theatre.”

He also points to exceptional performances by Karen Kondazian and Ed Harris in Sweet Bird of Youth and Susan Dietz’s version of Cloud Nine at the Canon Theatre. “There are others from that era as well as later on,” he says, “but that’s a start.”

THE FUTURE

Melville says plans are for online coverage to expand to report on music and dance events in the fall. “Someday we may cover live performance in other states and countries. I’m still trying to find out how much people will read,” he says.

He also would call for an end to the debate over whether Los Angeles is a theater town. “It happens all the time, people arguing over whether LA is a theater town or it’s not a theater town. Who the hell cares? We have wonderful theater groups here of every size and shape. But maybe we have too much theater so the part that really stands out is a smaller percentage than in a city like Chicago.”

Furthermore, he believes the future of Los Angeles theater is directly in the hands of producers and, to a degree, actors and playwrights. His opinion is that commercial producers must create shows on a long-term basis, allowing themselves the flexibility to extend runs past five or six weeks.

“Theaters with subscriptions have to have a season and their shows have limited runs. There isn’t a way to really make money with these limitations. I love it when theaters, like the Colony or the Fountain, have an extra dark week [or weeks] that can be used to extend a hit show. You can’t be so rigid that if you have a hit you can’t keep it going.”

The longer a play runs, Melville believes, the more likely it is to attract out-of-town attention. “It’s good for the whole of theater.” He credits producers like Dietz and “modern-day wonder” David Elzer who took The Marvelous Wonderettes out of a very long run in Los Angeles to New York. “That’s a show that hasn’t breathed its last breath,” Melville notes.

Dietz, who met Melville in the late ’70s, is taking a breather as she awaits her second grandchild this summer. She says, “Lee is like an encyclopedia of LA theater. He’s so intellectually curious of everyone in theater and what we were doing. I find him to be the pillar of Los Angeles theater now.”

Lee’s dog, Zoe

After a long hiatus Melville returned briefly to producing in 2006. He co-presented his partner Bo White’s play Manner of Trust at the Underground Theatre in Hollywood in association with Playwrights’ Arena. It received favorable notices and Melville hoped it would rejuvenate White’s spirits enough to continue writing and return to acting. “However, his health took a downward spiral and he died March 31, 2009. Bo was the love of my life for 20 years. In 2000, we adopted a mixed breed puppy from the shelter and Zoe became a great comfort to Bo. Now, 11 years later, she is my constant companion.”

It is the first time his mouth beats his eyes to the smile.

Everyone has their place to be emotionally touched. “I defy anybody to say they haven’t had wonderful experiences in theater.” He chuckles at people who question his ability to see so many productions each year, a number that far exceeds his years in the business. “They ask me how I can go to theater four or five times a week. I just look at them and ask how they can watch television four or five nights a week. Everyone has their own church at which they worship. Mine happens to be theater.”

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