NewPlace

"We can be sure that Shakespeare...compounded his elevation to gentleman by buying Clopton's old house--New Place."

--Anthony Burgess

4916 Vineland Avenue, NoHo, CA 91601

As of early 2005, the New Place Theatre Center has been sold to a developer, who plans to build either condos or multi-use commercial / residential structures sometime in 2006. In the meantime, Antaeus will be able to lease space here while we continue our search for a permanent home for our study, workshop, production, and Academy activities, as well as space for our offices and our Library.

With the help of our energetic Board of Directors, the NoHo Neighborhood Council, the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, the office of our City Councilman Matt LaBonge, and the office of Mayor James Hahn, we have high hopes we'll be able to settle in a suitable space in the NoHo Arts District by mid-2006.

We'll miss NewPlace -- we've had many terrific adventures here and enjoyed it longer than Shakespeare lived to enjoy the original New Place -- but we know Antaeus is made up of its people, not its buildings, and we look forward to new adventures in a new home.

NewPlace Quicktime Animation

A vision (now never to be) of New Place in the 21st Century, upon completion of PHASE TWO

Map & Directions to New Place

This model of the proposed plan for the theatre was originally created by designer Linda Johnston,
and was adapted for a later concept designed by Terry Evans.

CLICK HERE to see a Full-Size Photo (NEWPLACE.jpg 67Kb)

At the completion of Phase Two construction, the rear wall of New Place would have had a permanent grid to which various modular sets could be attached. Michael R. Cook created this design for the initial New Place modular set, an Elizabethan stagehouse based on the latest research available through London's new Globe Theatre. The working doors and practical upper level would have allowed great flexibility and creativity in staging Shakespeare and other classical plays.

Dakin Matthews gave a few Antaeans an early tour of the warehouse section of the future New Place.

Terry Evans had his hands on the reins of the demolition phase, as the interior walls come tumbling down.

What was once three rooms was eventually one large room -- the next step was to be the removal of the pillars and installation of cantilevered beams to support the roof. Supporting wall were erected to begin the process -- making the space unusable except as a storage facility for the past three years. Now, the temporary walls will come down to permit the space to be used one final time under special permits to produce MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN in the spring of 2005.

Computer rendering of the Phase Two plan for the interior, looking from the house right corner. The colors are fanciful, but the murals on the walls were to be a part of the overall plan.

This "marquette," or demonstration panel created by Muralist DEAN CAMERON, shows how figures from theatre history were to be mingled among the audience. A number of patrons sponsored a particular figure of their choice, and Antaeus will find a way to honor those patrons in some way in our eventual home theatre.

Transforming this venerable commercial space into a thriving and vital theatrical performance, workshop and research center turned out to be more difficult than the landlord expected, but NewPlace provided a haven for The Antaeus Company for nearly a decade of exciting and challenging work.

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