Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2000 - 74

BEA[H

hen it comes to the arts in southern California,
theatre is just part of the scene. Yes, there are
plenty of places to see plays in ule greater Los Angeles
area. Chief among these are the Mark Taper Forum
and the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown, ule Shubert Theatre in the Century City area, the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Orange County, and
the granddaddy of southern California theatre, the Pasadena Playhouse.
There are also some new developments, including the renovation of the
Pantages Theatre for the upcoming run of Tbe Lioll King, the new 99seat Eilison Theatre in downtown Long Beach, the International City Theatre's recent move to the Long Beach Center Theatre next to the Long
Beach Convention Center, and a company called A Noise Within producing its season at the Luckman Performing Arts Center on the campus
of Cal State Los Angeles.
As you look forward to heading "Back to the Beach" for USITT"s
upcoming Annual Conference & Stage Expo, you have many cultural opportunities in adilition to theatre. Long Beach is close to a wide variety of
museums devoted to art, history, and culture from around the world.
These resources prOl~de inspiration to theatre artists who live and work
in southern California. For SITT members visiting the area, southern
California's museums can provide enjoyment and enlightenment in a culturally diverse community.
Among the many museums in the greater Los Angeles area, probably none is more popular these days than the Getty Center. Kanled for
the famed oil magnate and art coUector, the Getty Center sits on a hill in
Brentwood, attracting thousands of visitors to its stylish architecture by
Richard Meier and its coUections of paintings, draWings, sculpture,
decorative arts, photographs, manuscripts, and antiquities. The Getty can
be reached by car, but you must reserve a parking spot in ad\'ance, unless you are a coUege student with a vwd coUege J.D. (Parking is S5, in
any case.) Long Beach conference attendees can also take a special bus,
which departs on Thursday, Friday and Sanlrday mornings from downtown Long Beach and returns in the late afternoon. The bus costs only
2, and admission to the Getty Center is (ree, no matter how you get
there. Once you anive, you take a tram to the top of the hill and then begin your wanderings through the many galleries.
WIllie ule Getty Center is new, Ule Los Angeles County Museum of AJ1 is
more comprehensive. LAC 1A is located in the middle of what is known as
the Miracle Mile on Wilshire Boulevard, west of downtown. The coUections, housed in several buililings, include ancient and Islamic art, European painting and sculpture, Asian aJ1 from many regions, and Anlelican

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painting and sculpture. LACMA's Japanese Pavilion is the only museum
buililing outside Japan devoted solely to Japanese art. Particularly noteworthy for 'SITT members, L.\CMA's department of costumes and textiles
includes more than fifty thousand objects from over one hundred culnlres and two thousand years of history. The coUection has a roughly
even balance between textiles and dress and is internationally renowned
for its scope and depth.
\~1llie \~siting LACMA, you can find a change of pace at two oUler museums witllin easy walking distance. One ulat should be of pal1icular interest to
stage designers is the Carole and BaiTY Kaye Museum of Miniatures. Located across Wilshire Blvd. from LACMA, this museum houses a fascinating coUection of contemporary miniatures, including representations of
elaborate homes, historic buildings, and ornate and often whimsical interiors. There are also doUs of all sorts, including some of historic figures, all dressed in elaborate, appropriately scaled-down costumes.
If you aI'e looking for someUting that is less art and more artifact,
you can walk halfway down the block from LACMA to Ule George C. Page
Museum, which houses the paleontological finds gathered from the adjacent La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park. The coUection includes the skeletal remains of Columbian malllmoths, saber-toothed cats, alld other Ice
Age allimals. It's a great place to feel young again, in more ways than one.
Besides the Getty Center alld the museums of the Mid-Wilsltire District, you Call find more art treasures in the City of Pasadena, where three
museums stand out for their ilistinctive coUections. The oldest of these is
the Huntington Library, Art CoUections, and Botanical GaI·dens. OriginaUy constructed as the elaborate estate of Heru)' and ArabeUa Huntington,
Utis is a wonderful place to spend ule day because it offers a valiety of sights
bOUl inside ule gallelies and outside in the sunshine. Historical documents
on ilisplay in the Library typically include ilIuntinated manuscripts,
Shakespeare folios, and a Guttenberg Bible. The library also serves as a
valuable resource for scholars from around the world. Blitish, French,
and American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts dominate the collections in the art galleries. (The museum's arguably most fanlOus work
is Thomas Gainsborough's Tbe BIlle Bo)'.) What make a visit to the Huntington truly special, however, are the extensive gardens. These range
from desert to tropical, from a rose garden to an herb garden, from the
Shakespeare garden to the especially beautiful Japanese garden.
Another Pasadena museum has been recently remodeled and is
now better than ever. The Norton Simon Museum, named after the California industrialist and art coUector, holds a fine coUection of painting
and sculpnlre from the RenaissallCe to the present, with an emphasis on

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2000