Catherine Gray, Gina D'Acciaro, Kimi Walker and Tawny Mertes in "The 1940's Radio Hour"

Actors Co-Op is celebrating its 20th anniversary season as the only Christian-based Actors’ Equity-approved theater company in Los Angeles.

Located on the campus of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church, nestled below the Hollywood Hills, Actors Co-Op operates two theaters — the Crossley with 95 seats and the Crossley Terrace with 99 seats.

Its mission statement sums up its raison d’etre — “Actors Co-Op is a company of Christian actors driven by passion for the Lord Jesus Christ, with a mission to pursue the highest standards of theatrical excellence and to build up its members spiritually, personally and professionally in order to be an outreach of Christ’s hope.”

1991's "The Traveling Lady" by Horton Foote from the Actors Co-op's first season

The Co-Op is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Margaret Harford Award for “Sustained Achievement” in a smaller theater from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, as well as the Charlie Award for “Excellence in the Arts” by the Hollywood Arts Council. It has received four 2011 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award nominations (one win) and two 2011 LA Weekly Awards for Lead Performance and best revival for the 2010 production of Wit, by Margaret Hudson. In two decades, it has received 30 LA Weekly Award nominations with six wins, 25 Theater LA Ovation Award nominations (two wins), five Garland Awards and 19 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards (five wins).

I attended the group’s 20-year gala celebration — 20 Years: A Look Back At The Award-Winning Actors Co-Op Legacy. It was an evening of scenes and songs from over 80 productions in Co-Op history, performed by members and alumni.

Former producing artistic director Nan McNamara began the evening with a tribute to co-founder David Schall, who started the group with 11 other actors in 1987. (Of the twelve, Brenda Ballard and Rebecca Hayes are the only members still active.)

Co-Founder David Schall

“When David first came to Hollywood from New York,” McNamara explains, “he wanted to continue his acting career. And he wanted a support group of other Christians, while he was pursuing his acting.  One of the first Sundays he was in Los Angeles, he came here to the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. He struck up friendships with other actors and the original 12 formed a support/prayer group. They started to get together on a weekly basis.”

“For the first couple of years of our existence,” McNamara continues, “they did what we would now call second stage productions, where they would get together and try original works or do cabarets.  This grew over the years until we began our first season of full productions.”

“The church was very much behind having a group of actors on campus,” McNamara explains. “That was in the days of Pastor Lloyd Ogilvie. Pastor Ogilvie went on to become the United States Senate chaplain.  I think Pastor Ogilvie recognized that art and storytelling is what the Bible is all about. Certainly, Jesus used the parables.”

“Excellence was at the forefront of everything David did,” McNamara says. “He asked, how can we marry our faith with our art and create stories that everyone can appreciate, stories that can change people’s hearts and minds, stories that are produced with excellence ultimately for God’s glory? He saw it as a supreme and perhaps divine challenge. David knew that doing plays that were strictly Christian was not big enough for God. He knew that there was potential to tell stories that would move and touch everyone. That perhaps this Christian theater company could be taken seriously by others in Hollywood. “

2000 production of "Godspell"

Schall attended every performance and formed relationships with the patrons.  He knew everyone by name, including subscribers, and greeted each one personally. McNamara says, “I think you need that kind of tenacity to forge something that 20 years later is still around.”

Schall also founded other Christian-based support groups for members of the entertainment industry before his untimely death in 2003, hours before he was to appear on stage in the opening night performance of Uncle Vanya at the Co-Op.

A critic who came to see the first show produced by the Co-Op snapped that “the premier production smacked of militant propaganda.”  On Schall’s passing, that same critic wrote “through Schall’s guidance, Actors Co-Op and its membership of Christian artists have gained respect throughout the larger theater community for the intelligence, discipline and passion behind each stage work.”

Nan McNamara

The company’s choices of material aren’t Christian-specific, but there are a few restrictions. “There are some things that out of respect for where we are and respect for our faith we don’t want to say on stage,” McNamara says. “Although we’ve pushed that envelope a bit. As we’ve been on the campus, the church has seen that we mean to do things to educate and to move people, that we’re not trying to be disrespectful, but that we’re trying to affect people.” Still, as an example of something that’s off-bounds, McNamara notes that “we’re not going to do Mamet plays that tend to have language in them that we would not be able to say on our stages due to our location on a church campus.  And it would not be a Mamet play without that language, so we just wouldn’t be able to produce that kind of show.”

Some audiences members have been attending Co-Op productions for all 20 years. Supplemental funding comes from family and private foundations.

McNamara has been a member of the group since 1997. She was producing artistic director from 1999 to 2002.  In 2011 she won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Award and an LA Weekly Award for her lead performance in the Actors Co-Op production of Wit by Margaret Edson.

"The Nibroc Trilogy" makes its world premiere at Actors Co-op. The three-play cycle by Arlene Hutton included "Last Train to Nibroc", "See Rock City" and "Gulf View Drive"

When asked what keeps her coming back to the company, McNamara says with a smile, “Well, it’s not the money.  There’s camaraderie and a connection here that may be at other theater companies, but coupled with the kind of work, the kind of plays that we do, make it a really special place. And I love a membership company.  I love the fact that you’re acting a part in one season and in the next season you could be playing something completely different.  But I think the basis of us being all of one mind in terms of being a Christian company, I think that’s a big part of what keeps people coming back.”

Currently there are over 40 company members. Auditions are held regularly. “When members audition for our company,” McNamara says, “they are made aware in advance that we are a Christian-based company.  There isn’t really a pledge. There is, though, a requirement that to be a member, one does follow the Christian faith – whatever denomination that may be. In addition to performing, members serve on committees, attend regular meetings and pitch in for every production by painting sets, or whatever needs to get done.

Nathan Bell, Kimi Walker, Michael Downing and Jeffrey Scott Parsons in "The 1940's Radio Hour"

“We hire outside designers and directors,” McNamara continues, “based on their artistic vision for the show. Since they aren’t members, we don’t ask them to agree to anything other than the normal professionalism they would exhibit at any other theater company. Our process is like any hiring process. We want the best person for the job. We want artists, who we can learn from, who will care about the final product with the same passion we do.  The same is true for guest artists who are acting alongside our members.”

I ask McNamara if she thinks the mission of the company is still viable today. “I do in terms of the way it brings us together. It also gives us a framework for working together. I think in terms of the art that we produce, our goal is that it be for everyone. Certainly we’re not trying to just reach a Christian audience. I think there’s something meaningful when you have that kind of unity of purpose.  I think we can create something really deep and beautiful, that can affect people of any denomination or non-denomination.

“There’s a committee that picks our season. It’s always about the content for us. It’s about the story — is it a story of hope? Is there something we can learn from the story? Those are just some of the questions we ask when choosing a play, not the faith of the playwright.”

McNamara is directing the 20^th season premiere production, The 1940’s Radio Hour. “After many discussions we felt it was the perfect play to kick off the 20^th season. The company had done it previously.  We felt it would be a wonderful tribute to David Schall.”

"The 1940's Radio Hour" from Actors Co-op's 1994-1995 season. It ran 10 months and allowed the company to expand into a second 99-seat theater.

“Everything is original in terms of the sketches that are done during the broadcast,” McNamara says. “The author, Walton Jones, was somehow able to get the rights to the music from the big bands like Glenn Miller. However he was able to do that, that part is reproduced directly by a six-man live band. We also have a Foley cart on stage, reproducing sound effects in full view of the audience.”

“It seems to be a light little musical but it means more for me,” McNamara says. “What I want people to take away is to remember a time in this country when we were all on the same page and how that affected people. What they were willing to sacrifice. I’m not saying that that’s not possible again, so I hope this play will be a reminder.  And I feel the story still resonates for us today. I don’t think of it as a quaint little reflection back on the history of radio or big-band music.”

“Each character really has their own story,” she explains, “each character has a specific struggle, some not as overt as others.  I think you see each of them coming to terms with different conflicts in their lives. And in the end, with World War II being the backdrop, there are some profound moments. They could be glossed over because you look at it as a little musical. I’m hoping we can draw those out. I believe we can with the cast of 14 that I have.”

The 1940’s Radio Hour, Friday September 23 through November 13. Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2:30 pm. Sat Oct. 8 2:30 pm. Actors Co-Op Crossley Terrace Theatre, 1760 N. Gower, Hollywood, on the campus of Hollywood Presbyterian Church. 323-462-8460.  www.ActorsCo-Op.org.

All The 1940′s Radio Hour production photos by  Lindsay Schnebly