Editor’s Note: Several producers/artistic directors of Los Angeles intimate theatres responded to our question: “What to Do With a Hit Show…Extend It or Move It?” This is the third response to LA Stage Blog’s question.

To extend or not to extend… that is the question…And a very difficult one too. By design, The Production Company creates extraordinary challenges and opportunities for Artistic Director August Viverito when a particular production is a hit and merits an extension. Since our company produces all the work presented at its theatre itself, I have allowed for the possibility that productions jockey around the schedule to allow for changes and extensions. That said, a measure of reasonability and a few powerful constraints limiting that ability must be considered.

First, it may sound simple but you have to identify that a given production will continue to generate interest into the extension. There’s little more to say about that than you make an educated guess and hope you are right. Next - if the quality of the presentation is genuinely primary to you - keeping a great cast for an extension can be challenging. You have to remember they’ve actually been working on this particular show for 12 or more weeks by the time an extension would begin. So a producer whose focus is quality may well decide that someone is just too important — or difficult — to replace. And in our intimate space, our revenue realities don’t allow much wiggle room for increasing salaries.

The decision to extend is further complicated when you run an on-going season as we do. You have to consider the cast of the play that follows this one, who are likely already in rehearsal. How long can you ask them to push back their opening without losing them? It’s a juggling act of many factors, some of which you are really only making educated guesses.

So we’ve created great art that is making money but we can’t afford to move the show to a larger rental space. What can we do? I’m trying to start a conversation that convinces the larger companies in town (and those with frequently empty stages) to actively monitor and evaluate the hit shows on smaller stages; to create a genuine opportunity for worthy productions to move to new localities and larger venues where the productions can grow. Then and only then, the artists can be given the increasingly larger contracts they have earned. To date, when I get a response to an inquiry about moving a show to a larger stage, even for a huge hit, the response is “the rent will be $XXX…” And there are always a LOT of XXX’s in that number. That sounds like real estate to me and it disappoints me every time.

Now I know there are indeed companies and individuals in town who can buoy that sort of expense and other operating costs but I have found the “pet projects” of these individuals aren’t regularly the best art in town. It seems to me that truly developing Los Angeles as a theatre town has to include the graduating levels of development available in New York and Chicago. There are several organizations here with the facilities, resources and under-utilized spaces to create just such an environment. We need productions to move from the equivalent of Off-Off Broadway and The Public to Off Broadway and Broadway if that’s what they merit. Our own Off-Broadway and Broadway. That’s been missing in this town for as long as I known.

So the enthusiasm from actors and designers to unlimited runs is really limited to a handful of talent who have a special love for the stage and who can afford to give their nights up for free. At this time, most actors in Los Angeles are looking for a showcase - and that’s reasonable without some real local program geared toward identifying and developing productions upwardly as a matter of course. I’ll be looking for your call, big-time producers. Until then, I’ll be making great art in the Valley. Please come take a look.

Article by August Viverito, Artistic Director of The Production Company