Theater search narrows

Three men have emerged as finalists to replace Gordon Davidson as artistic director-producer of Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum.

All three -- Gregory Boyd, Oskar Eustis and Michael Ritchie -- are the primary artistic leaders of resident theater companies in the U.S. Boyd is artistic director at Alley Theatre in Houston; Eustis is artistic director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I.; and Ritchie has the title of producer at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, a summer theater in Massachusetts.

Members of CTG’s transition committee have met individually with the three candidates in recent weeks, sources say. Center Theatre Group officials and the three candidates declined to comment.

The hiring of a new leader will mark a turning point in Los Angeles theater history. Center Theatre Group is considered the city’s flagship theater company, and the Taper has been an important contributor to American theater with such prize-winning plays as “The Shadow Box,� “The Kentucky Cycle� and “Angels in America.�

Davidson, 70, has led the Mark Taper Forum since it opened in 1967; he took over the direction of the Ahmanson in 1989. Davidson is slated to depart at the end of 2004, just after opening in Culver City the 320-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre for new plays and youth programs. A few of Davidson’s long-term goals have eluded him, such as the establishment of an ongoing classical theater company and the consistent development of original productions in the Ahmanson.

Of the three candidates, Eustis, 45, probably is the best known in Los Angeles. He worked at the Taper from 1989 to 1994 as resident director and, shortly before he left, as associate artistic director. He commissioned “Angels in America� in his previous job at San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre and co-directed the first complete production of Tony Kushner’s epic -- probably the most acclaimed American play of the ‘90s -- at the Taper in 1992. He has run Trinity since 1994.

Boyd, 52, has been artistic director at the Alley since 1989. He has developed productions with artists as disparate as Vanessa Redgrave, Horton Foote, Robert Wilson, Edward Albee and Frank Wildhorn. He directed the original production of Wildhorn’s “Jekyll & Hyde� and co-wrote two other musicals with Wildhorn, “Svengali� and “The Civil War.�

Before Ritchie, 45, became producer at Williamstown, he was a stage manager with plenty of Broadway experience. Unlike Eustis and Boyd, he is not a director. However, since he took the helm of the celebrity-studded Williamstown festival in 1996, six of the organization’s summer productions, including the U.S. premiere of Arthur Miller’s “The Ride Down Mt. Morgan,� later moved to Broadway.

The range of responsibilities of the CTG job led to some talk that Davidson’s position again would be divided into two jobs, one for the Ahmanson and one for the Taper. But a job posting on the Web site of Management Consultants for the Arts, the head-hunting firm that conducted the search, included both theaters in the listing.

In addition, the posting described the development of new plays as CTG’s “primary thrust.� In terms of new plays and playwrights, Eustis has an edge over the other candidates. Besides “Angels in America,� he has directed premieres by such important young or mid-career playwrights as Suzan-Lori Parks, David Henry Hwang, Philip Kan Gotanda, Ellen McLaughlin and Eduardo Machado. He hasn’t been as active in this area at Providence as he was earlier in his career, but he is very well connected to America’s new-play network. Of course, new plays are inherently risky; Eustis directed Machado’s poorly received “Floating Islands� at the Taper not long after “Angels in America.� The relatively few new plays that Boyd and Ritchie have helped develop have been, for the most part, by famous older writers such as Albee, Tennessee Williams and Miller.

Ritchie has a slight edge over Boyd in working with younger writers. In 1998, Boyd said in an interview in The Times: “To do a new play just to do a new play means that nine times out of 10, you do a bad play. But yes, I think we have to commission new works.�

Boyd’s work with Wildhorn might give him an edge in development of new musicals, though that experience is somewhat checkered. He was replaced as director of “Jekyll & Hyde� before it went to Broadway, and the shows he co-wrote with Wildhorn weren’t well received. Under Ritchie, Williamstown sent the musical revue “One Mo’ Time� to Broadway, and Eustis staged the musical “Thunder Knocking on the Door� for Trinity and again off-Broadway.

Boyd and Eustis have directed their share of classics, including some unorthodox Shakespeare. One of Boyd’s first signature pieces at the Alley was a black leather “Measure for Measure,� and Eustis directed a controversial modern-day “Julius Caesar� at the Taper in 1991. Ritchie has produced classics for Williamstown, including a “Hedda Gabler� that went to Broadway.

Eustis’ Taper experience and family ties (his wife is from L.A.) give him points regarding knowledge of Los Angeles and the more general challenges of running the most important theater in a big city, though Boyd’s Alley Theatre is the Houston equivalent of the Taper. Both men also have experience in the San Francisco Bay area.

Ritchie grew up in Worcester, Mass., near Williamstown, and lives in New York during much of the year. Although he has often worked in New York, he hasn’t run a big-city theater.

Still, Ritchie has by far the most Broadway credits. This criterion counts a lot more at the Ahmanson, which primarily has presented Broadway tours, than it does at the Taper.

Another focus for any artistic director is CTG’s youth theater and education programs, which will be headquartered at the new Douglas Theatre and which are key for many funding organizations.

Boyd’s Alley, like the Taper, tours youth productions to schools, although they’re not as ambitious as the Taper’s, which has a long tradition of producing multi-actor touring productions under the banner of P.L.A.Y. (Performing for Los Angeles Youth).

Eustis’ Trinity concentrates on bringing school groups to student matinees and also has a graduate school partnership with Brown University. Both theaters offer in-school workshops.

Ritchie’s Williamstown offers summer workshops to kids and gives free admission to children for one performance of each production.

One candidate who has considerable experience in both commercial and nonprofit theater, Daniel Sullivan, took himself out of the running after an initial round of interviews. The Broadway director and former artistic director of Seattle Repertory Theatre told The Times that he decided not to proceed “for extremely personal reasons. It’s a wonderful job, but it’s not the time of my life to do it.�

For many years, Robert Egan -- since 1993 the Taper producing director, associate artistic director before that and previously an associate of Sullivan’s in Seattle -- was considered Davidson’s choice as heir apparent for his job, or at least for the Taper half of it.

But Egan’s CTG prospects had dimmed enough by a year ago that he accepted a job as artistic director of ACT Theatre in Seattle -- only to withdraw his acceptance a few months later after he became more aware of ACT’s financial straits. Egan now is working as a freelance director.