Serendipity Theatre Company

The general manager and the youth theater artistic director of the Laguna Moulton Playhouse are leaving to head up a newly created full-time, year-round resident professional children's theater in Los Angeles, the city's first in a permanent space. Jody Davidson announced that she will leave her post as general manager of the Laguna Beach theater as of Dec.

Here's a math quiz: Q: How can $250 in rent get you $50,000 in debt in three years? A: According to your lease, you were supposed to be paying $1,600 a month. That's what happened to the Serendipity Theatre Co., a professional children's troupe that operates the city-owned Burbank Little Theatre. The Burbank city attorney sent Serendipity a letter March 20 stating that the company had breached its operating agreement, owes $49,500 in back rent and must pay up by April 19 or move out.

Here's a math quiz: Q: How can $250 in rent get you $50,000 in debt in three years? A: According to your lease, you were supposed to be paying $1,600 a month. That's what happened to the Serendipity Theatre Co., a professional children's troupe that operates the city-owned Burbank Little Theatre. The Burbank city attorney sent Serendipity a letter March 20 stating that the company had breached its operating agreement, owes $49,500 in back rent and must pay up by April 19 or move out.

Frog, Lizard and Field Mouse are planning a surprise birthday party for their friend, Toad. But that unhappy amphibian, made aware by his friends' laughter that he looks like "a large, lumpy, foolish toad" in his swimsuit, goes off alone to sulk. "Frog and Toad," Arnold Lobel's whimsical children's book, has been smoothly adapted for stage by Belinda Acosta, but the Serendipity Theatre Company's uneven production at the Coronet Theatre makes it a bumpy ride. Problems abound.

Frog, Lizard and Field Mouse are planning a surprise birthday party for their friend, Toad. But that unhappy amphibian, made aware by his friends' laughter that he looks like "a large, lumpy, foolish toad" in his swimsuit, goes off alone to sulk. "Frog and Toad," Arnold Lobel's whimsical children's book, has been smoothly adapted for stage by Belinda Acosta, but the Serendipity Theatre Company's uneven production at the Coronet Theatre makes it a bumpy ride. Problems abound.

After a recent Serendipity Theatre Company production of "Doors," exhalations of relief were heard from adults in the audience. The subject matter is that strong and that personal. Suzan Zeder's play is a serious look at a disintegrating marriage and divorce, as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy. (The work is probably best suited to ages 7 and older.) It's a gutsy offering for a commercial theater--this is not the usual children's theater fare.

When a Chinese dragon parades down the aisle, lured by a flower dangling from a bamboo pole, audiences are alerted that this may not be the usual children's theater fare. It's the opening of the Serendipity Theatre Company's "Nightingale" at the Coronet Theatre. The play, based on Hans Christian Andersen's classic, is performed with a nod to the Peking Opera, using stylized movement, masks and onstage gongs, drums and flute.

Family An exhibition of winning entries from school-age children in the citywide "5th Annual Billboard Project" closes Friday at the Children's Gallery at the Junior Arts Center, Barnsdall Art Park, 4814 Hollywood Blvd. The project's theme was "Imagine a Great City . . . What I Love About L.A." Today-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tony Chang, 6, of La Crescenta was the top winner. (213) 485-4474. Family Mildred D.

The general manager and the youth theater artistic director of the Laguna Moulton Playhouse are leaving to head up a newly created full-time, year-round resident professional children's theater in Los Angeles, the city's first in a permanent space. Jody Davidson announced that she will leave her post as general manager of the Laguna Beach theater as of Dec.

There is indeed a vacuum in L.A.'s mid-sized theater, and that vacuum is apparently reflective of the dearth of insightful theater criticism available in Calendar. Don Shirley intimates in his Stage Watch column (Nov. 28) that the Coronet Theatre, seemingly because it primarily houses the Serendipity Theatre Company (a professional company devoted to theater for young audiences), does not present "challenging new work." Nothing could be further from the truth. Youth theater is a viable and important aspect of the local theatrical community.

I write with sadness on the upcoming loss of Los Angeles theater: Serendipity Theatre Company, in the Coronet Theatre, is about to close. Actors should take heed, this was an Equity company. Parents should take heed, this was legitimately thoughtful, honest, family entertainment. Schools should take heed, this was a bastion of learning, making its productions available to thousands of students every year. And Los Angeles corporations should take heed, this theater company built itself over four seasons on the wings of its own ticket sales by sacrificing salaries for any, and I mean all, of its management.