Shakespeare Company Sues LA County
Monday, 23 February 2009
Topanga, CA
Los Angeles Shakespeare Company founder Geoffrey Forward went public Friday with an announcement that he has filed an $11.9-million negligence and inverse condemnation claim against Los Angeles County, claiming that 80 “outrageous acts” on the part of various county departments over the course of several years caused construction delays that led to the foreclosure sale of the company theater, the Globe, in Topanga.
Founder of Los Angeles Shakespeare Company files $11.9-million claim against L.A. County | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times
Ian Garrett, a Commenter on the original article said:
You mean the guy that build an outdoor Shakespearean theater about half a mile from the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, a shakespeare theater that has existed for most of the last 50 years in some form and as a company for nearly 40?
I’m sorry, but this guy had it coming, maybe if he has tried not to build the Los Angeles Shakespeare Theater a stone’s throw from one of the oldest shakespearean company’s in the county I’d care, but it looks like he tried to capitalize on someone else’s fortune and lost.
By the way, the Theatricum Botanicum 2009 auditions are coming up. Click here.
What are your opinions about this issue? Do you live in that region, and can shed light on the legitimacy of the lawsuit, or the need for more than one Shakespeare company in the county? Let us know.
RSS Feed
No. 1 — April 3rd, 2009 at 10:04 pm
In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that Ian Garrett, works for the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.
I’m not sure what Mr. Garrett is complaining about. Was LASC harming Theatricum Botanicum in some way?
For my own part, I believed and still believe that having several good theater companies in close proximity brings more audience to all of them. For example, Broadway, London’s West End, LA’s NoHo District, and the gathering of theaters in Hollywood.
If both the Theatricum and LASC operated at full audience capacity, they would have drawn only a tiny fraction of the potential audience for their productions. There was no danger that one theater would steal business from the other. There was great potential for attracting new and loyal fans to see theater under the stars.