A.S.K. Now Looks to a Future That’s in Flux

Audrey Skirball-Kenis always wanted to remain behind the scenes.

“Audrey wasn’t about putting on airs or getting press,” said Kym Eisner, executive director of A.S.K. Theater Projects, the organization that philanthropist Skirball-Kenis co-created in 1989 to nurture new theatrical work.

Taking its cue from Skirball-Kenis, A.S.K. itself has also kept a low profile, offering public presentations primarily in the form of readings.

Once a year, however, A.S.K. sheds some of its anonymity to present Common Ground, a public festival of more fully staged workshop productions. This year’s Common Ground performances, Saturday and Sunday at UCLA, were thrust involuntarily into greater prominence than usual. In the last six months, A.S.K. has reevaluated its programming and has seen four of its 11 staff members exit, most of whom worked with local writers. That has prompted a wave of concern about the group’s focus. And then, on Wednesday, Skirball-Kenis died of natural causes at the age of 87.

She was memorialized at the weekend’s eight presentations with a statement from Eisner inserted into the programs and with a few remarks prior to the performances.

“Audrey was excited by the mere idea of trying something new, and she was not afraid to take risks along the way,” Eisner wrote. “She always knew that we could only help create great new work if we exercised that precious ability to take a chance.”

Skirball-Kenis nurtured risk-taking even though she and her husband, A.S.K. co-founder Charles Kenis, “acknowledged that maybe 95% of what A.S.K. supports may not be to their taste,” Eisner added in an interview between shows.

One of those at the workshop presentations on Saturday was Leon Martell, a playwright who has participated in so many A.S.K. programs over the years that “they thought I was part of the furniture,” he said. He credited Skirball-Kenis as “incredibly generous” and noted that “she trusted her staff.”

“I have no complaints about what A.S.K. has been,” Martell said. Speculation that the organization may turn more of its attention to partnerships with large theaters and companies outside L.A. has left him “up in the air, wondering how it’s going to shake down,” he said.

Only one program has officially been dropped--next fall’s readings of new plays. Eisner has noted that many other readings programs are available. But Martell said A.S.K. readings were “the dream that every playwright hopes a readings series would be,” offering “national recognition” to playwrights.

Regarding the idea that A.S.K. might spread more of its attentions outside Los Angeles, Martell said L.A. playwrights will “have to fight for our own space--and that’s probably a healthy thing.”

Actor Tom McCleister, standing in line to see a performance on Saturday, said L.A. actors are concerned about possible cutbacks in A.S.K.’s programs in L.A. because “they’ve kept us busy with paying jobs,” even at readings. He said he hopes that the outcry from local artists “will express to the powers that be that this is a good program to keep.”

Eisner said evaluations of specific A.S.K. programs are continuing, but she confirmed that the Common Ground festival will exist for at least another year. However, she had other priorities for the moment. She was slated to miss part of Sunday’s events at UCLA because they coincided with Skirball-Kenis’ funeral.