Calendar Feedback: Readers react to Center Theatre Group’s programming pause

Dark days for Center Theatre Group

As a longtime supporter of the Center Theatre Group, I was distressed to learn of their current problems [“Center Theatre Group cuts 10% of staff,” June 18], but not surprised.

Jessica Gelt’s excellent article covers the theater world’s problems in great detail. Sadly too many theaters have abandoned the lessons learned during the pandemic. Wearing masks indoors prevents COVID from spreading, and requiring them makes theater audiences feel safer.

Keep the audiences safe and they will return.

Steve Purvis

Santa Monica

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While Gelt’s article clearly depicted the present post-pandemic L.A. theater state, as a longtime member of A Noise Within’s board of directors I would have liked to have seen them mentioned in the article and, in general for The Times to recognize A Noise Within as part of the L.A. theater ecosystem.

As with the other theaters mentioned, COVID and post-COVID times have been challenging to A Noise Within as well.

While cost savings has been a focus, fundraising has performed very well despite the post-pandemic drop-off in ticket sales/subscriptions.

As a midsize theater in L.A., just want to make sure our voice is heard.

Robert Israel

Pasadena

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As a loyal subscriber to the Mark Taper for more than 20 years, I did not resubscribe to the current season as a protest against the Taper’s virtue-signaling decision to limit plays it would stage to those written by women or gay or bisexual playwrights or whatever other politically popular subgroup ticked the diversity/equity/inclusion boxes. Even plays by August Wilson would not be contenders.

I wrote to the Taper that as a longtime subscriber I wanted plays chosen by virtue of excellence, not politics. Nobody responded to my letter.

The loss of the Taper (hopefully only temporary) is a great loss to theater in Los Angeles. But it was a self-inflicted loss.

Janet Weaver

Huntington Beach

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I’ve been a theatergoer my entire adult life beginning when my parents took me to UCLA to enjoy student performances in the campus’ 99-seat theater. Later, I would become a season ticket holder at the Long Beach Playhouse and the Mark Taper while occasionally catching plays at the Schubert, Pasadena Playhouse and smaller venues in Hollywood and Sierra Madre.

The last theater I patronized regularly was the Candlelight Pavillion Dinner Theater for both its delightful musical theater and summer midweek tribute bands.

It closed last year and now I truly have a hole in my life that I have not been able to fill.

Ron Garber

Duarte

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What strategies does management plan on implementing to head quickly and effectively toward a retooling and restart of the enterprise? What business survival considerations were made by the board of directors and management that resulted in this most risky of decisions? What will those who remain on staff actually be doing during the pause? How will the Taper maintain subscriber and community visibility so loyalists in its audiences return to their seats?

I retired in 2021 after 30 years of building and leading a large, very successful and enduring nonprofit organization. Pausing the services that defined us — even in the face of extraordinary circumstances — would have been comparable in my mind to the L.A. Times pausing publication “for the foreseeable future.”

I’ve got to believe that Taper management has a detailed plan to keep showing us that the theater is alive, present and producing dramatic art in our civic culture. What’s the plan?

Paul Vandeventer

Los Angeles
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As a long-term subscriber to the Center Theatre Group as well as the Geffen, I think this article, while important and otherwise excellent, missed a key issue: The Center Theatre Group has long had a dysfunctional culture that treats patrons in a transactional mode, while the Geffen has been relationship-oriented since its founding.

From personal experience, as well as horror stories from friends who once were very significant contributors to the CTG, the administration has undermined its relationship with at least some patrons by a cavalier attitude that bordered on arrogance.

Sadly, this dysfunctional culture has now culminated in harm to its productions, artists, and staff. A good corporate culture is an asset. A dysfunctional culture is a true liability.

Eric Flamholtz

Los Angeles

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After the social deprivation of lockdowns, and the societal fractures made worse by the fact that we have fewer encounters with strangers in our daily living, the restoration of live theater feels like a critical need.

Emily Faxon

San Francisco

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As a former subscriber to the Ahmanson Theater as of last year, I am not surprised to see the problems that are coming out of the decisions being made by entertainment organizations.

They are now dictating to the public what they should want and who they should see perform. This is not the way to keep or attract an audience. You add the spiraling cost of attendance, the traffic, gas, parking, etc. Then you see this narcissistic approach to the art, here is the result.

Old-line producers understood that you had to give audiences what they wanted, you might preach along the way, but you gave the audience what it came for.

Earl C. Adams

Granada Hills

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I’m absolutely gutted to hear that Center Theatre Group will be pausing programming at the Mark Taper Forum as they try to navigate the treacherous path ahead through the wake of COVID-19, the always looming audience cliff, the ever-increasing and outrageous cost of producing even the most basic of plays onstage, a long-diminishing culture of donor and subscriber support across all regional theaters, and a general devalued sense of this most special of art forms.

This isn’t an isolated incident in Los Angeles. Theaters across the country are hemorrhaging all levels of lifelines, from audiences to grants and everything in between. Organizations like Center Theatre Group were only possible because of government support and a shared belief across our country that theater was an intrinsic and vital ingredient in the cultural lifeblood of a city. My own reason for leaving the theater industry — I had previously worked as Center Theatre Group’s director of communications — was due, in part, to the realization that extremely turbulent times were ahead, and that the entire industry was near broken, financially, and otherwise.

I’m rooting for Center Theatre Group and for all the other regional theaters that are probably weeks if not months away from making similar announcements. A cultural pandemic is upon us, and there is no miracle vaccine waiting in the wings. Buckle up and show up. It’s theater’s only hope.

James Sims

Middletown, Conn.

A pan of ‘The Flash’

Why do you continue to let Justin Chang review superhero movies as if they are meant to be anything other than summer entertainment [“‘The Flash’ is stuck in the past,” June 16] ?

It’s like a Pulitzer Prize-winning author trying to write a critical review of a third-grader’s book report. All of the other third-graders like and understand the subject matter, which is really all that matters, isn’t it?

One thing is for certain, if Chang doesn’t like a superhero movie, then I most certainly will.

Chris Wrenn

Carlsbad

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You refer to Ezra Miller as “their” in “The Flash” review, and in an article about him the other day, as “they.”

This is extremely confusing. If Ezra wants to be known as a “they” shouldn’t you point it out in the article, instead of making us scratch our heads wondering who else you’re talking about?

Jefferson Graham

Manhattan Beach

Joni Mitchell, master songwriter

Regarding “‘Joni Jam’ for the ages at the Gorge” [June 12]: Joni Mitchell is a once-in-a-civilization talent.

“Both Sides Now” tops my list of the best lyrics ever written. And the underappreciated “Cactus Tree” isn’t far behind.

John Whiteman

San Diego

Inspiring awards show

Regarding “Tonys find meaning off script” [June 13]: Writing holds a mirror up to our minds. The dramatic arts lift that mirror onto society to provide a reflection of who we are and who we may become. From Oedipus Rex and Jocasta to Hamlet and Gertrude to Willy and Linda Loman to Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois, we learn from the imaginations of writers and from the courage of performers who embody those characters and their conflicts, as well as the directors who lend aesthetic guidance to them in their creative process.

Indeed, this year’s Tony Awards gathering was an inspiration to all.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach