L.A.’s long-running Circus Theatricals troupe changes name, has new venue
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Circus Theatricals is now the New American Theatre and expects to open its 42-seat stage -- also called the New American Theatre -- this spring or summer. It’s on the second floor of the historic Hayworth Building, 2501 Wilshire Blvd.
Click here for the full story on why the old name had special personal significance for founder and artistic director Jack Stehlin -- and the new ambitions that have prompted him and his wife, Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin, the company’s managing director, to part with it. Circus Theatricals had existed 12 years in New York City and 15 more in L.A.
Stehlin is serious about this ‘New American’ thing -- for the past two years, he says, he has been working on a book called “The New American Actor,” which aims to restate Konstantin Stanislavsky’s principles in an acccessible way, along with a helping of inspiration intended to instill a belief in acting as a calling rather than a means to fame and fortune.
“What we really [need] to say to actors is spiritual,’ Stehlin says. ‘That there is a quest involved that has meaning and is worth your time and your spirit. Too few actors are inspired by the art.”
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-- Mike Boehm
