LAByrinth Theater Company to partner with L.A.’s Elephant Theatre

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One of the more adventurous companies working off-Broadway, the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York, is embarking on a new partnership with the Elephant Theatre Co. in Hollywood that will see the two organizations collaborate on various stage projects.

The first collaboration will begin Nov. 9 when the Elephant presents the West Coast premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ ‘The Little Flower of East Orange,’ which the LAByrinth premiered at New York’s Public Theater in 2008. The playwright is a co-artistic director of the LAByrinth.

At the same time, the LAByrinth will present ‘Intríngulis’ at Elephant. The new solo show by Carlo Alban will run concurrently with ‘Flower.’ Both shows will be staged at the Lillian Theatre, which is the largest of Elephant’s three spaces at its home on Santa Monica Boulevard.

As part of the new partnership, the two companies said that ensemble members from both coasts will work together on writing workshops, play readings and master classes.

The companies became acquainted in 2006 when the Elephant produced Guirgis’ ‘In Arabia We’d All Be Kings.’ David Fofi, artistic director of the Elephant, said in a statement that the ‘idea for this collaboration began to take shape when Stephen and I were riffing about our aspirations for our companies, and about our desire to work together and have a presence in each other’s cities.’

The Elephant, on Hollywood’s Theater Row, consists of more than 100 actors, directors, designers and playwrights. The company was founded in 1995 in downtown Los Angeles and moved to Hollywood a couple of years later.

‘Flower’ has its premiere at the Public Theater in a production starring Ellen Burstyn and Michael Shannon. It was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is a LAByrinth board member.

-- David Ng

[Updated: the last name of writer Carlo Alban contained a typo in a previous version of the post.]

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