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| prestigious Mark Taper Forum. Our inception was inspired by – and formed partly in reaction to – European ensemble companies presenting their work on the Taper Stage. Founding Artistic Director Dakin Matthews felt strongly that Los Angeles actors could form an ensemble theater company equal to any other in the world – and set out to do just that.
With the support of Center Theatre Group, Dakin asked a remarkable group of 36 actors to embark on this ambitious project. This esteemed group of award-winning artists came together every Monday night to read, study and rehearse great classical plays. 18 years later, the Antaeus ensemble includes directors, designers and other theater artists, along with nearly 100 actors dedicated to the wellspring of live theater and classical plays in particular. |
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| Our first production, presented by Center Theatre Group on the Taper stage was Chekhov's little known masterpiece The Wood Demon. It was then that we began our experiment of double casting all roles in the production. This strategy, initially developed to encourage working actors to recommit to acting in the theater when they command much higher fees on camera, eventually became an invaluable technique for honing our ensemble. Actors sharing a role collaborate, compete, support, inspire, teach and learn from each other. Because two actors of equal talent and experience share a role in every production, Antaeus' audiences never see an understudy in a performance. Every performance features a different grouping of great actors in a play that becomes more alive and more immediate by nightly cast changes. Audiences revel in coming back two or three times to see the same play as interpreted by different sets of actors. |
In our quest for excellence, we sometimes spend years working on one play, and as a group we've presented over 300 classics in the form of readings, workshops or productions. Our wildly successful revival (the first in the U.S. since 1948) of Arthur Miller's first Broadway Play The Man Who had All The Luck created a nationwide buzz in 2000. In 2004 Chekhov X 4 received the L.A Drama Critics Circle award for best ensemble and best translation/adaptation, and was an L.A Times Critic's Choice production. Our range includes everything from Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, Shaw's famous comedies, Bertolt Brecht's epic war poem, Mother Courage and Her Children, plays of the Spanish golden age and new plays with period theme and language such as our award winning Pera Palas (which featured a double cast of 20 playing 42 different Turks, Americans and Brits over the course of 100 years)… to developing an original script on Charles Dickens' early life and of course… Shakespeare, Shakespeare, and more Shakespeare. |
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In 2002, Antaeus enlarged its reach by establishing The Antaeus Academy, a training program for early-career professional actors. In 2004, A2: The Academy Company, comprised of the crème de la crème of our Academy students was created to give younger actors the chance to present their own projects. In 2003 Arts Education programs were formalized, consisting of periodic Shakespeare monologue contests, open to high school students across Los Angeles; "Shakes Alive!" which brings Antaeus artists directly into the classrooms in middle and high schools; and "Project 29," a program for at-risk youth integrating creative writing and performance, influenced by a character in Shakespeare. In 1995 Dakin moved the company to a space on Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood, and we incorporated as a non-profit organization. In 2003 Dakin, who remains a member of the ensemble, stepped down as Artistic Director, passing tbe leadership to ensemble members John Apicella and Jeanie Hackett. In 2005, when the Vineland space was sold to condominium developers, Jeanie and John got serious about professionalizing the administrative and fundraising areas of the organization in order to secure a permanent home. |
2007 was a watershed year for us. The company took residence at Deaf West Theatre, also in North Hollywood. Earned and contributed income more than doubled, we achieved our first paid staff, enlarged our Board of Directors to include community members of various backgrounds, were chosen for support by the City of Los Angeles' Community Redevelopment Agency's Arts Retention Program and we presented a two-part production of Noël Coward's Tonight at 8:30 that featured 44 (double-cast!) actors. In 2008 we presented a world premiere musical based on short stories by Mark Twain and Hermann Melville called American Tales, and our 4th biennial Classics Festival. In 2009, Jeanie became sole Artistic Director of the Company, and now shares the company's artistic and administrative leadership with Associate Artistic Directors Anne Gee Byrd, Arye Gross and Kitty Swink. In 2010, Antaeus launches its first full season of plays, continues to grow professional actor training and educational outreach programs, and advances toward realizing our dream of achieving a permanent home in the heart of the NoHo Arts District, The Antaeus Center for the Classics. |
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