Fountain Theatre to offer live outdoor performances

Wave Wire Services

HOLLYWOOD — The Fountain Theatre has received approval from the city of Los Angeles to install a temporary outdoor stage for the purpose of presenting live performances and other events during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pandemic permitting, we hope to open our first outdoor production by late spring or early summer,” said the theater’s artistic director, Stephen Sachs. “We’re planning an exciting Los Angeles premiere that dramatizes urgent social issues using the Fountain’s signature bold and theatrical approach.”

Installed in what is now the theater parking lot at 5060 Fountain Ave., the new performance area will be able to accommodate 50 to 84 audience members. It will feature seven rows of chairs, each six feet apart, as well as a dozen high-top tables positioned six feet apart for use by patrons from the same “bubble” households.

Every aspect of the outdoor performance area will meet COVID-19 safety guidelines, Sachs said.

The most painful aspect of the past 10 months has been the separation from our patrons and the disconnection from our art form,” he said. “Until our indoor theater reopens, the outdoor stage will be a thrilling performance venue and a hub for our educational and community engagement programs. The outdoor stage will be the centerpiece as we re-emerge in 2021. It galvanizes our vision moving forward.”

Sachs and Deborah Culver co-founded the Fountain Theatre in 1990 to create, develop and publicly produce plays that reflect the diversity of Los Angeles, to serve young people through educational outreach programs, and to enhance the lives of the public with community engagement activities.

The theater been honored with more than 200 awards for artistic excellence and is a leader in the L.A. theater community

In addition to being a Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs grant recipient for decades, the Fountain launched a ground-breaking program that brings celebrity actors to L.A. City Hall to perform one-night free public readings in the City Council chambers.