What Fantasy Production Would L.A. Artistic Directors Put On If They Had Unlimited Money?

Comments (0) By Steven Leigh Morris Thursday, May 17 2012

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Rivera notes that this piece can only be done with proper funding, and imagines it occurring in a classic hotel such as Hollywood's Roosevelt, or the Culver Hotel in downtown Culver City.

Up Pasadena way, classics are on the collective brain of Pasadena Playhouse's artistic director, Sheldon Epps, and his colleague the next town over in South Pasadena, James Reynolds, who co-runs the Fremont Centre Theatre with his partner, Lissa Reynolds.

PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ

Dreams of Shakespeare in Pasadena: Antony and Cleopatra at A Noise Within

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"Most people don't know it," Epps says, "but the Playhouse in its early years had a strong tradition of doing Shakespeare's plays. In fact, that mad dreamer [and original Playhouse producer] Gilmore Brown actually produced all of the plays in the canon, quite a feat in an American theater at that time — and a challenge now, given the size of the company and the number of Equity contracts that are required in most of the plays."

Epps says he yearns to bring Shakespeare back to his stage, "in the grand manner, with a large cast and an original score commissioned just for the production. Both The Tempest and Twelfth Night come to mind. The cast, of course, would be made up of all of the classically trained and highly experienced Los Angeles actors who are also hungry for and eager to grapple with the Bard's beautiful language. And of course, I would love to find a concept for the play that allowed the casting to reflect the rich diversity of our fair city." (Epps' vision of staging Shakespeare with local actors is being at least partly accomplished by A Noise Within, an Equity theater near his, also in Pasadena.)

James Reynolds says he'd love to direct Julius Caesar, starring Morgan Freeman. Lissa Reynolds, however, says she'd "bring back the original play we did about Jackie Robinson, called National Pastime, by Bryan Harnetiaux. ... With all the money in the world I wouldn't change the cast we had. They were perfect. I would use the money to tour it around the country so more people had the chance to see it."