Chewing the Scenery

L.A. WEEKLY

April 19-25 1985

by

Laurel Delp

Dramatic Pedagogue

with

Acting Coach Milton Katselas

Director of films, television and theater, a painter who sells his work and one of the pre-eminent acting teachers in Los Angeles, Milton Katselas would appear to be a man to good to be true.

“Milton’s a gene-yuss!” cries one of his students.

“He’s one of my gods,” says another solemnly.

He was mentioned in Hollywood Wives.

“Actually, it’s like an in-joke.” According to one of many friends who does celebrity interviews. “Whenever I get a press release on some up-and-coming star, it says they were blah-blah- and they were in blah-blah and they’re honing their craft with Milton Katselas.”

But forget all that. The really interesting piece of information is that Katselas, through his Beverly Hills Playhouse Productions, headed by Eric Leonard, is quietly building an empire.

Katselas is a mover, quietly beating back the hounds of self doubt with boundless enthusiasm and the sort of stamina that allows him to function on three to four hours of sleep a night.

Five years ago he bought the Beverly Hills Playhouse, saving the little theater where he had taught his classes for years from the awful certainty of becoming office space. Since then the Playhouse has rarely been dark. There are classes, of course, and occasional plays and productions such as the recent one man tribute to Tennessee Williams, but most of the work that finds its way onto the boards originates from students projects.

A little less than ten years ago, Katselas took a ten year lease on the Skylight Theatre, tucked back on the block of Vermont Avenue occupied by the Los Feliz movie theater. After extensive renovation, the Skylight opened with a Katselas-directed production of Romeo & Juliet. The reviews were mixed, but the audience loved what they saw, and the run has been extended through April.

“My plan for the producing arm of The Beverly Hills Playhouse is to do one-acts and Sunday brunch and Three O’Clock Theatre and Sox O’Clock Theatre and major productions and eventually television and films,” says Katselas. “And cabaret theater at

midnight and kinky theater at two in the morning…my dream is that those two theatres, and maybe more in the future, will be occupied all the time and that people will not be sitting around complaining about agents or Hollywood – they’ll be producing and performing one acts.”

Already one play developed in class has been sold to cable, which Katselas sees as a potential steady outlet.

“I don’t think money is ever the problem,” the director explains. “You can always get people interested if you’re really committed and excited. The problem is to find something worthwhile and do it”

Do it could be his motto. If he were to write a self help book, that would have to be the title.

Katselas is the kind of man of might have walked into an art show in New York in 1965 and said to himself, “I can do that,” and then went home and started doing it in a 72-hour burst of activity. One of his early works won an award in a painting competition that had more than 400 hundred entries. This is the kind of story that sends artist into a homicidal rage, but Katselas is oblivious. He wants to paint so he does. And people buy his work.

Katselas also believes in seizing the moment. Once on the street in the west village he introduced himself to the great sculptor David Smith, who invited the young Greek actors to apprentice with him in Upstate New York. Before Katselas could take him up on his offer, Smith died in a car crash. On a street further uptown, Katselas collared Elia Kazan, and that meeting did led to apprenticeship.

Katselas began teaching more than 25 years ago. He was walking down the street with an actress in New York, and he remembers the street and the corner and what the buildings looked like when she suggested that rather than try to hook up with one of the established acting studios, he should begin his own classes. Well of course! Why not? Katselas called ten people to announce that he would be teaching. They all signed up.

Katselas worked as assistant director with greats like Kazan and Joshua Logan. He directed small out-of-town productions until he was tapped to direct the New York premiere of the then-obscure playwright Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story. He followed this success with more avant-garde plays Off Broadway, then surprised everyone by taking on the Broadway premiere of Butterflies Are Free. If friends cautioned him it might be a bad career move, Katselas took no heed, plunging enthusiastically into his first mainstream comedy. It ran for six years.

Katselas has directed the films Butterflies Are Free, 40 Carats, Report to the Commissioner, and When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? For Television he’s done Strangers, for which Bette Davis won an Emmy, and The Rules of Marriage, staring Elliot Gould and Elizabeth Montgomery.

Katselas is a stocky man of medium height. He cropped his beard gray, his dark head of hair growing whiter and thinning, but still leonine. He garbs himself in loose fitting overalls-he can weld, he can paint, work on his cars (a ‘67 Jag and maroon’49 De Soto convertible) and cook his 20-minute spaghetti sauce without stopping the flow to change outfits.

This endless flow of positive energy acts like a magnet. Katselas’ refusal to be stopped the rumbling winds of negativity is something after which most people can only yearn. So, although he disclaims the idea completely, Katselas is a bit of a guru to his students.

The classes are not cheap. Nor are they small. There are two classes that meet twice a week in the evening and also by-invitation-only Saturday morning class geared toward students too busy and successful to be able to attend the evening sessions.

Tuition is $ 220 a month whether you’re there or not, classes average around 60 students. Furthermore, you’re expected to cough up tuition even if you’re off on location for three months. If you do not pay, you lose your place in class. If you cannot pay, it means you aren’t taking positive actions.

Students are expected not to drink or use drugs for 24 prior to attending class, and illness are not a valid excuse for failing to show up. Katselas wants students to view his class as if it were Warner Bros., which also takes a dim view of absenteeism.