L.A. Arts Endowment Brushes Off Shakespeare / LA

There were some surprising omissions from the L.A. Arts Endowment’s annual round of grants, made public last week.

Shakespeare Festival/LA, for example. At first glance, this group is “politically correct” to the max:

* In each of its shows, several roles are “non-traditionally” cast with minority actors. Thirteen of the 16 cast members in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (opening July 12) are union members, working under an Actors’ Equity contract.

* Program notes are printed in Spanish and Japanese as well as in English.

* Everyone can afford to attend, for there is no admission charge. A Times critic noted last year that the audience was “a lot more democratic than the usual stage audience,” thanks to this policy.

* Audience members bring non-perishable food items, which are matched by Vons and then donated to the Salvation Army, which estimated the dollar value of the food donated last year at more than $50,000. This prompted the LA Weekly newspaper to give the group its annual humanitarian award earlier this year.

* Productions are staged in two different L.A. communities: Hollywood and downtown.

* A branch of the festival toured two shows in at least 20 inner-city schools during the past year, bringing lesson plans and activity books with them.

Last year, the festival received $22,000 through the endowment’s peer panel procedure. This year, producing director Ben Donenberg expected at least as much.

He got nothing.

In a letter to Donenberg, Cultural Affairs Department general manager Al Nodal summarized the comments of the endowment panel that denied funding to the festival:

“There is no support documentation of a culturally diverse cast . . . which would reflect the community audience that the organization purports to serve. Free admission does not imply the existence of a culturally diverse or under-served audience.

“There is no indication of how these productions are to be made relevant to the community audience which the applicant claims will be served. There is no explanation of how Shakespeare will be integrated into the experiences of the under-served community. The project needs to show evidence of including lesson plans, dialogue and/or follow-up with the students. Mere exposure to the artwork is not sufficient.”

Donenberg admitted that he didn’t include documentation of the group’s school tours, but he said the application covered everything requested of him. He acknowledged, however, that he wasn’t sure how to document his cast’s “cultural diversity.”

Asked that question, theater panelist Jose Luis Valenzuela replied that the panels rely on reviews of productions, which may (or may not) indicate the ethnic makeup of a cast, as well as reports from panel members who are familiar with the applicant’s work.

However, Valenzuela couldn’t specifically recall the Shakespeare Festival/LA application. And he said he missed the panel’s second and final day of deliberations last fall because of car problems.

He denied Donenberg’s speculation that perhaps Shakespeare’s work itself just wasn’t multicultural enough for the peer panel. He said the panel would be “delighted” to support Shakespeare, “especially if it’s multicultural.”

This may be good news for Donenberg, who plans to appeal the panel’s decision and said he is “optimistic” about the outcome.

Stages, in Hollywood, is another group that received nothing this year, after a spate of annual grants including $15,000 last year. And again, it’s a group with impressive “culturally diverse” credentials: It has presented shows in Spanish and French as well as English, has “non-traditionally” cast minorities, and hosted a production by the Homeless Writers’ Coalition earlier this year.

“I’m very, very hurt” by the city’s rejection, said Paul Verdier, artistic director of Stages. “It makes me wonder if we ought to go to France, where people appreciate our work.” The French government earlier this year granted Stages $20,000 to present the works of Eduardo Pavlovsky in a French production, which Verdier hopes to do in 1992.

Nodal’s letter to Stages, summarizing panel comments, acknowledged that “artistic merit is high” but said “there is no strong community support and there is no evidence to support the multicultural claims.” Like Donenberg, Verdier plans to appeal. Through a spokeswoman, Nodal declined to discuss decisions that might be appealed.

Probably the most remarkable increase for any group this year was registered by We Tell Stories, a heavily multicultural touring group primarily involved in children’s theater, which saw its grant rise from $7,500 last year to $36,800. That ranks We Tell Stories second in the theater panel’s 1991-92 funding, following Center Theatre Group’s $40,000.

Los Angeles Theatre Center, which received $68,000 from last year’s panel, won $30,000 this year. However, the endowment’s parent, the Cultural Affairs Department, is granting an additional $38,000 to LATC’s Theatre as a Learning Tool program.

LATC also will benefit from a $7,500 city grant to the San Francisco Mime Troupe to present a show at LATC next April. The Troupe has slated its “I Ain’t Yo’ Uncle--A New Jack Revisionist Production of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ ” for LATC, following earlier stops for the same show in Lancaster on Oct. 4-5 and at San Diego Repertory Oct. 12-Nov. 9.

Hip-Hip: “Reza Abdoh gives us proof of indisputable genius. . . .” So wrote Jean Beaunoyer of La Presse in Montreal, reviewing the LATC production of Abdoh’s “Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice” at Montreal’s Festival de Theatre des Ameriques, earlier this month.

LATC’s first expedition to an international festival yielded more critical praise: Pat Donnelly of the Gazette referred to the production’s “breathtaking speed,” “devastatingly witty” script and “awe-inspiring” cast. Robert Levesque of Le Devoir found “Hip-Hop” “flabbergasting” and wrote that Abdoh “succeeds simultaneously in moving, surprising, seducing and upsetting, as if he had a provocative performance genie fixed at the end of each of his fingers.”

Abdoh received a $12,500 L.A. Endowment grant this year--but it’s for a film, not for theater. His next stage production, “Bogeyman,” will open Aug. 29 at LATC.