Rains rout Ford’s theater program

Los ANGELES homeowners weren’t the only ones inconvenienced by January’s heavy rains. Thanks to water that ran down the hillside into the John Anson Ford Theatre interior space -- known as [Inside] the Ford -- a program for small theater companies has been postponed.

That program, etc@ITF, was to allow six companies without spaces of their own to hold workshops, training sessions and seminars at the Ford, starting this winter. While the water is now cleared out, according to Dave Pier, the Ford’s managing director, the program will have to begin in the fall. (Summer programs at [Inside] the Ford, including a reading series devoted to Latino plays, will take place this year as usual.)

“We just felt it was better to do the work now and do it right, rather than bring an audience in when it’s not up to par,” Pier says. He says the repairs, to be paid for by the county, may include making the space more flexible for a variety of uses.

The January floods, which damaged the lobby carpets as well as the wooden stage and seats, caused the first real problems since the ITF theater was created out of a black box in 1998, Pier says. “The little landslide plugged the drains, so the water was just running through the theater, especially the backstage area. We had to sandbag it to control where the water was flowing.”

Pier plans to build a retaining wall on the adjacent hillside and replace some of the waterlogged wooden elements with metal ones “so if we would have a flood in the future it wouldn’t shut us down.”

He’s also hoping he’s seen the last of heavy rains this year. “But you never know: With global warming, it could become an annual occurrence.”