At present, the Company is a non-profit membership corporation with about seventy members (mostly actors), a Board of Directors, and a management team. The Board oversees the general direction of the Company and acts as trustees of the organization. The management team administers Company affairs on a day-to-day basis and manages the Company's acting ensemble. Management decisions are made collegially, with recommendations solicited both from the Board and the membership.
Andrew Robinson awaits his entrance in the Company's 1993 workshop of Molierè's The Imaginary Invalid in the Mark Taper Forum Annex (Photomontage: John Apicella).
Because the Company is still mostly a study group--only two full productions and seven workshops have thus far been staged--most of its decisions have to do with the steps needed to develop into a performing ensemble--mostly decisions of two kinds: solving the unique logistical problems of maintaining a large ensemble in Los Angeles, and building and training the specific membership for the ensemble and establishing its repertoire. The acting ensemble is constantly working on plays from the classical repertoire. Sometimes it is no more than a quick Company reading of a single script, in order to acquaint both readers and listeners with an unfamiliar (or even familiar) play and its challenges. In the seven years of operation, the Company has done probably fifty such readings. At the next level, the ensemble may wish to work in more depth; then a six to ten week reading workshop is scheduled, in which a play (or a series of plays) is explored through rehearsal and discussion, and a somewhat more formal semi-staged reading is presented to Company and guests. The Company has done more than thirty of these. The next three levels all involve extended rehearsal and off-book performances: at the "studio" level, with no technical support other than rehearsal supplies; at the "lab" level, with a suggestion of costumes, properties and scenery as well as some design support (both these levels have invited audiences); and in full productions for a paying audience. The Company has done two full productions, two Labs, and five Studios. (Generally, the Company likes to move a project through all stages of development before producing it.)
	While building their Los Angeles Company, Antaeans have stayed active on America's classical stages: These photos are from South Coast Rep. (L) Harry Groener and Nike Doukas in Arms and the Man (photo: Cris Gross). (R) Dakin Matthews and Kandis Chappell in Shadowlands (photo: Ron Stone).
The primary purpose of this kind of activity is to discover and develop our classical repertoire, but the workshops and readings are also used to train current members in classical styles and to evaluate candidates for membership by inviting them to join as guests for a session or two. We also train ourselves and our guests thought masterclasses and training sessions, led by Company members or by guest teachers, in voice and speech, for example, in commedia techniques, in Shakespeare and verse speaking, in individual classical authors or periods, in movement and dance, and in music and style. We also use our workshop activities to test out possible solutions to certain logistical problems of building and maintaining an ensemble in Los Angeles--for example, how to keep a play in development over longer periods of time, how to involve more of the membership in the development process, how to double and triple cast a play and rehearse it, so that actors can stay active (and solvent) in their film and television careers without either abandoning their theatre work or damaging the theatrical project. Which brings us to the other kinds of decisions: those that deal with the realities of stage production in Los Angeles. The management and the Board of Directors also help to set policy for the Company, stabilize and evaluate the membership and the management, and guarantee that the Company is both artistically and fiscally responsible, develop. long-range plans both for production and fundraising, and generate, approve, and implement plans for everything from increasing public awareness of the Company and mounting full productions, to establishing it in the community and building its own theatrical home.
	(L) Lillian Garrett-Groag and Mark Harelik in Congreve's The Way of the World, at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre (photo: Ken Howard).  (R) Mary Stark, Frank Dwyer, and JD Cullum in Feydeau's A Flaw in the Ointment (translation by Lillian Garrett-Groag), a Taper/ Antaeus Classics Lab (photo: John Apicella).
Once we are a fully established ensemble with a season of plays every year, we do not expect our development activities to cease. Indeed, they are the backbone of the Company, the means by which productions are generated and perfected, current members are trained, and new members are introduced into the Company. Nor do we ever expect to cease the kinds of auxiliary activities that the Company has always involved itself in: offering its services to other theatres and organizations in the process of co-developing projects; encouraging its own members to expand their training and creativity through the maintenance of an extensive theatre library and a playwrights unit; educating the public not just by performances but by young audience programs, school visits, and supplementary materials and activities like study guides, lecture series, and play discussions. And unlike the kind of one-shot productions so common in today's commercial and even non-profit theatre, productions created in an ensemble and repertory environment--and their supporting activities--are never lost, because the stability of the Company guarantees the permanence of the artistic effort. Thus, artistry is continuously passed from masters to journeymen. And the great works, the masterpieces, survive as they were meant to survive--in rich, relevant, intelligent, and deeply felt productions, as vital to their audiences' needs as they are faithful to their authors' genius.

On to "Who are you people, anyway?"