Interview: David Hunt Stafford on PLAYS IN REP & READING SERIES at Theatre 40

David Hunt Stafford is the Artistic Director and Managing Director of Theatre 40, posts he has proudly held since 2000 at the professional theater company located on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. Active for almost 50 years as an actor and theater producer, most likely David welcomed you to Theatre 40 during the opening curtain speech or in the lobby when you first walked into the theater he considers his home away from home.

I decided to speak with David (pictured) about the current plays running in rep during July and August: Doris and Ivy in the Home, in which he appears, and One Moment of Freedom which he produces; and the group’s ongoing Reading Series showcasing new and well-known plays read by company members.

Hi David. Thanks for talking time out of your busy schedule to speak with me. First, tell me how you first got involved with Theatre 40.

I joined Theatre 40 as an actor in 1989. I had done a lot of theater around Los Angeles, mainly at the Los Angeles Actors Theatre and at the Deja Vu Coffeehouse, among other places, and I joined Theatre 40 so I could do plays and get involved with an established theater company.

How did the company establish itself on the campus of Beverly Hills High School? And was it always located there?

 The theatre company was founded in 1964 as a group of actors who got together to read classic plays at the home of the late Susan French. Her address was 40 Haldeman Road in Santa Monica Canyon. They called themselves Theatre 40 named after her address. The group did a play in MacArthur Park and in an auto repair garage in Hollywood and Reuben Cordova became familiar with the group. Mr. Cordova, at that time, which was the early 1970s was the Deputy Superintendent of the Beverly Hills Unified School District. He wanted to see the group have a permanent home, so he convinced the Board of Education, at that time, to allow Theatre 40 to be given a room, that, was then, a room for custodial supplies. The founding fathers contracted Ming Cho Lee to design a small theater in the room. Private donations funded the construction of the room and Theatre 40 had a permanent home.

David Hunt Stafford and Ann Hearn in Doris and Ivy in the Home, now playing at Theatre 40. Photo credit: Warren Davis

Do you work with a Board of Directors who run the theater?

Oh yes, very closely and on a regular basis.

 How do you go about finding plays to produce?

 I read plays - many plays are sent to me - I read about plays - I have relationships with prominent playwrights - and try to secure interesting, challenging, entertaining, current, as well as classic plays for the theater if I think they will appeal to our audience and our membership of actors. 

 How do you decide on your technical team for plays?

 Our technical team are experts in the field and all are award-winning theater designers. I like to keep them artistically satisfied, challenged and working on a regular basis so they stay with us. I do not want to have to search for new technicians for each production.

Kristal Dickerson (l.), John Combs, Catherine Bruhier in One Moment of Freedom, produced by David Hunt Stafford for Theatre 40
Photo credit: Ryan Rowles

When you look for plays to select as productions, do you often see yourself in one of the roles? Or do you audition like everyone else?

 I audition like everyone else.

How many active members are there at Theatre 40? Are how does one become a member?

We have close to 150 members both active and non-active members. Normally, we audition for new members by way of having actors come in with prepared audition monologs of 2-3 minutes in length. Sometimes actors may come in and audition for a role in a production that we cannot cast from within the company and they are admitted to membership by being cast and doing a great job in a production in which they are cast.

There was a name change to the theater space where Theatre 40 performs from the Reuben Cordova Theatre to the Mary Levin Cutler Theatre. What’s the story behind that change?

Ms. Cutler gave a generous donation and the Board wanted to rename the theater after her.

Tell me about the two plays running in rep this summer. Let’s start with Doris and Ivy in the Home, in which you appear, and then One Moment of Freedom. 

Doris and Ivy in the Home centers on retired prison guard Doris Mooney who has just moved to Paradise Village, a retirement home in Canmore, Alberta. She quickly befriends Ivy Hoffbauer, a former world champion skier who’s taken aback by Doris’ brash cheerfulness. And I am thrilled to play dapper Arthur Beech, who has designs on Ivy, in this comedy by Norm Foster, whose plays Theatre 40 has frequently produced. Norm Foster is considered the “Neil Simon of Canada” and we have had good success with doing his plays. The audience and the critics love his plays, and many times we produce their American premieres at Theatre 40. We have done 6 of his plays and each one has been quite popular.

Who are the two actors playing Doris and Ivy? And how does Arthur interact with them?

 Ann Hearn, Diana Angelina, and David Hunt Stafford in Doris and Ivy in the Home.  Photo credit: Warren Davis

Ann Hearn and Diana Angelina are the two actresses who play Ivy Hoffbauer, former world champion female skier and Doris Mooney, former prison guard. Both characters are residents of Paradise Village Retirement Home, and Arthur has fallen in love with Ivy and is wooing her. The play is all about love and friendship in your senior years.

How was Theatre 40 company member Warren Davis selected to direct it?

Warren Davis (pictured) is a member of our theatre company and an accomplished director for many years around Los Angeles. He is very experienced and a tremendous guy to work with bringing insight into the material and providing a positive rehearsal environment. He is quite wonderful to work with; very easy going, detail-oriented and wonderful with both the actors and the technical staff. 

And now, let’s talk about One Moment of Freedom.

It’s Marion J. Zola’s first full-length play, centering on the little-known story of Bet, a courageous enslaved woman who sued her enslaver in court in 1781 for the basic human right to be free, ultimately leading to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts.

Is it based on a true story?

Yes, and Marion Zola, the playwright has done a tremendous amount of research into the subject making it quite historically accurate and a powerful story, to be sure.

Why did you decide to produce it now?

Playwright Marion Zola.  Photo credit: Full Moon Photography

Marion is a major supporter of Theatre 40 and a board member as well as an accomplished screen and book writer. The story is an important story and little known, and now felt like it was the right time since Theatre 40 wants to present more socially important stories. And we felt that this was quite a strong story and play.

Catherine Bruhier (l.), John Combs, Katyana Rocker-Cook, Jeffrey Winner in One Moment of Freedom, which David Hunt Stafford procudes for Theatre 40.
Photo credit: Ryan Rowles

Who is in the cast?

Michael Robb, John Combs, Mandy Fason, Kristal Dickerson, Catherine Bruhier, Jeffrey Winner, Diane Linder, David Westbay, Michael Kerr, Katyana Rocker-Cook and Joe Clabby. 

Have you worked with director Linda Alznauer on other Theatre 40 productions? And how was she selected?

Linda Alznauer (pictured) is a very committed director and eager to work with Theatre 40. She has worked quite a bit at Group Rep in North Hollywood among other places, and she loves the play. This is her first assignment at Theatre 40.

Why was the decision made to run them together in rep since they seem so different in subject matter and do not seem to have a common message or theme?

The two plays would easily go on the same set was the main reason for pairing them together.

Tell me about the creation of the ongoing Reading Series productions. How and when did it get started?

We have two separate play reading series. One of them is conducted for the BHUSD for the Adult Education program. It has been going nonstop since the mid-1970s. It is called the Monday Night Theatre Appreciation Play Reading Series, and we have done it for approximately 47 years, doing approximately 1250 play readings for the adult students who enroll in the class. The second play reading series we do is for ourselves to read and hear both new plays and old. It gives us a chance to consider all kinds of plays for future productions. It is not on a regular basis but rather sporadically, most done by company members. 

Tell me about the upcoming Reading Series selections.

John Leslie is planning and runs the fall semester of the Monday Night Series and he is still selecting the titles and plays we will read, mainly new plays (but not always) and usually socially relevant. We do read many new published plays in the Monday Night Seminars. 

If someone has a play they would like read in the series, how can they submit it to you for consideration?

They can send it to me at Theatre 40. But there are a lot of plays on the stack at the moment so we are not actively seeking more at this time.

It’s probably a difficult question, but do you have any favorite productions in which you have been involved at Theatre 40? And why those?

We did a play several years ago titled The Voysey Inheritance, which was about a British family operating a Ponzi scheme, and the production was running at the exact time when Bernie Madoff was being arrested, protected, and convicted - that was great! 26 Pebbles was one of the most brilliant plays I think we have ever done, in my opinion, about the Sandy Hook School shooting and how the community reacted to and dealt with and recovered from it.

I remember 26 Pebbles so well. It was quite a moving experience being in the audience. (/los-angeles/article/Review-26-PEBBLES-Shares-True-Tales-from-Sandy-Hooks-Accidental-Activists-Working-Together-to-Heal-20180929)

KIN was a fantastic play that was quite brilliant in its structure and message. I have produced over 180 plays and have performed in over 85 plays, so it is hard to select a single one. Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help was awfully good.

There are so many, but The Manor ~ Murder and Madness at Greystone, of course is a favorite.

The 2020 cast of The Manor at Greystone Mansion. At the far right is John Leslie who plans and runs the Monday Night Reading Series at Theatre 40.

The Manor is a favorite of mine as well, as you know. I hope you bring it back again next January. What are some of the future plays on Theatre 40’s schedule?

September 21- October 22. Towards Zero, written by Agatha Christie. When a house party gathers at Gull's Point, the seaside home of Lady Tressilian, Neville Strange finds himself caught between his old wife Audrey and his new flame Kay. A nail-biting thriller, the play probes the psychology of jealousy in the shadow of a savage and brutal murder. A carefully unpeeled investigation before our eyes brings the story to a pointed ending. 

November 16- December 17. The Half-Light, written by Monica Wood. A chance encounter presents a tantalizing question for a college secretary: Can anyone be trained to see the dead? Her dogged pursuit of an answer leads to a far more earthbound challenge when a colleague is felled by grief.

January 18- February 18, 2024. Strangers on a Train, written by Craig Warner. Two young men meet on a train; one an ambitious architect, the other a playboy with a taste for danger. As the train takes them to their destination, the two travelers speculate on what would it be like to commit the perfect murder. With a private investigator on their case, little do they know that their lives will soon become fatally linked forever.

March 21- April 25. A comedy by George Brant. Running in repertory with:

March 28 - April 30. Power and Light, written by John Strysik. About the tangled relationship of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla and how these two amazing but flawed geniuses created our modern electrical world.

May 23- June 23. The Explorers Club, written by Neil Benjamin. In London 1879. the prestigious Explorers Club faces the worst crisis in their history: their acting president wants to admit a woman, and their bartender is terrible. True, the female candidate is brilliant, beautiful, and has discovered a legendary Lost City, but the decision to let in a woman could shake the very foundation of the British empire, and how do you make such a decision without a decent drink? Grab your safety goggles for some very mad science involving deadly cobras, irate Irishmen, and the occasional airship.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I am enormously grateful and incredibly blessed to be in the position I am in. To be at the helm of one of the oldest and among the most respected of all the small theatre companies in Los Angeles is a dream come true for me. I work very hard at making Theatre 40 great and want to do more and see it succeed to even greater heights. While I am not perfect (and none of us are), I acknowledge my errors and try to do better at every turn, for the benefit of all involved.

For more information about Theatre 40 and its productions, and to order tickets, please visit https://theatre40.org/ or call (310) 364-0535.

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