L.A. Theatre Works Moves in to New UCLA Home

A new class of performers is taking the stage at UCLA this fall. L.A. Theatre Works will call the university's James Bridges Theater home as its season opens this week.

"It was time for us to make a change," said Susan Loewenberg, the company's producing director. LATW called the Skirball Cultural Center home for about 10 years.

LATW produces plays for a live audience and records the performance for broadcast on public radio stations across the country. LATW's productions are performed without costumes and sets, as its website reminds ticket buyers. The company also maintains a recordings library of more than 400 plays.

The company and the university community envision a symbiotic relationship, said Michael Hackett, who has directed LATW productions and chairs the theater department at UCLA.

"I was so excited when I heard they would be coming here," Hackett said. "In addition to enriching the UCLA community with these events that will happen on campus … students in our undergraduate and graduate programs will serve as interns, assistant directors or assistants to directors."

The company hopes that new audience members will come with the new neighborhood.

"We're excited about bringing in younger audiences and having a closer relationship with the departments at UCLA and working with the students," Loewenberg said.

Young sound designers specifically will benefit from the James Bridges Theater's "NPR-level" technology, Hackett said.

In the search for a new home theater, superb sound quality was a must-have, Loewenberg said.

"Ultimately, in the final analysis, we have to get a great recording," she said. "That comes first."

LATW's season opens Thursday at the James Bridges Theater with Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House, starring Calista Flockhart, JoBeth Williams, Tim DeKay and Gregory Itzin. For more information, click here.