Better Than Topic A

In Manhattan, when repertory theater is being discussed, Topic A is always the disappointing record, to date, of the Lincoln Center company. But Manhattan does have a first-rate repertory troupe; and at the fringes of the Lincoln Center noise, disaffected optimists are quietly championing New York's other company, the Association of Producing Artists.

More simply, it is known as the APA, but on its way to excellence its title has grown longer. This season it be came the APA at the Phoenix, having joined forces with Manhattan's venture some Phoenix Theater production company. All three of its current productions, Man and Superman, War and Peace, Judith, are critical successes; performances in the 299-seat off-Broadway theater are sold out nearly every night, and last week the APA extended the three-play offering to September. Beginning next season, it plans to become the APA-Phoenix at the Lyceum. That is Broadway's Lyceum Theater. And it means that the APA will be the first repertory group in residence on Broadway since 1947.

Being a Bemoaner. For all that, APA is only five years old, the inspiration and creation of Actor-Director Ellis Rabb, 34. Born in Memphis, Rabb studied drama at Carnegie Tech, where his Southern accent graduated sounding British ("The inflection patterns are very similar, if you think about it"). Small parts on and off Broadway followed until, in 1959, he was struck by Tyrone Guthrie's comment in A Life in the Theatre that anyone bemoaning the lack of first-rate classical actors should "take more energetic action."

Rabb wrote to 78 acquaintances in the theater--actors, directors and designers--told them that he was starting a troupe; there would not be much money in it, but it would be creatively fulfilling. Not exactly a new concept, but Rabb was lucky. He found enough people who agreed with his dream and were willing to take the chance.

Way of the Worthy. Starting out in Bermuda, the association proved instantly to be a plague of problems in administration. When Princeton University's McCarter Theater offered them a 1960-61 fall and late-winter season, part of the deal was to put on a play a week, which left hardly any time for rehearsal. A completely unsatisfactory engagement at the Fred Miller Theater in Milwaukee nearly finished them off. In fact, early in 1962, the principal members of the company had agreed to disband, only to regroup hours later when a chance to play in New York off Broadway opened up. They decided, said one, to "massage the heart," and though the engagement lost money, the troupe was offered a three-year contract for an annual 20-week stand (with proper rehearsal time) at the University of Michigan.

In the meanwhile, New York's Phoenix Theater, under the leadership of idealistic Producers T. Edward Hambleton and Norris Houghton, had been putting on everything from Oh Dad, Poor Dad ... to the Western premiere of Russia's The Dragon, a banned-at-home critique of Stalin and Khrushchev. In the way of the worthy, the Phoenix had run on a healthy yearly deficit. Joining with the APA seemed a natural evolution. The Phoenix yearned for a permanent repertory group--their own efforts to establish one having failed--so they could eliminate the traumas of one-shot productions, plan whole seasons in advance. For the APA, the Phoenix offered a home in the drama mecca of New York plus a carryover subscription list from previous seasons.

A Married Asset. The result was a merger of the Phoenix's administrative acumen and the APA's artistic excellence. And for the APA, the new security has spread a tone of smooth confidence. "Five years of percolating is better than instant," says one actress. Having done 30 productions (predominantly classical) since its start, the APA is now a well-integrated, well-trained troupe, one-third of whom have been in the company all five years. They are beginning to reflect Rabb's maxim that a rep company should be made up not of chameleon-like actors but of a group of stars who leave their individual mark on each role.

Among the APA's growing assets, the greatest is the emergence of a first-magnitude star among them. One month before forming APA, Rabb presciently married her. Rosemary Harris, 34, has played Desdemona to Burton's Othello, Ophelia to O'Toole's Hamlet, Elena to Olivier's Dr. Astroff and Redgrave's Uncle Vanya. In the U.S., she played opposite Jason Robards in the 1958 Broadway production of The Disenchanted. The British-born, India-reared actress stars in War and Peace and Judith, plays Violet in Man and Superman at alternate performances, and she has left her mark. Her throaty, caressing voice purrs its way through her lush figure and emerges with girlish guilelessness from Natasha and passionate intensity from Judith, all the while giving the impression that it never really changed at all. .

Despite her undimmable presence, however, the company can stand alone, and in proof of that, Rabb and three other troupe members, not including Miss Harris, performed the hour-long "Don Juan in Hell" scene from Man and Superman last week for TV's non-network Esso Repertory Theater. The fine hour-long performance should build the group's following just when it needs it. With a larger capacity next year in the Lyceum, the aim is to build this year's 7,500 subscribers to 20,000. At Michigan in late September the company will break in three new productions: the world premiere of Archibald MacLeish's Heracles, Ibsen's The Wild Duck, and the Kaufman-Hart comedy You Can't Take It With You. All will be added to the current repertory for the Broadway season next year, if they work. "We are very catholic," says Rabb. "We want a diverse audience, not a select and artsy one. This is not a commercial venture; it is popular theater."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.