Mrs. Stevenson meets the 21st century

‘Natural’ is the byword for keeping the Ford true to its origins.

BY LINDA CHIAVAROLI

Ford Theatres Park Superintendent Michelle Hazlett is sitting in her favorite spot, on what she calls “the stairway to nowhere,” on the stage right-audience left part of the Ford Amphitheatre stage. “I like the ambiance back here,” she says looking at the hillside behind her and the planter beside her, containing a ‘Ray Hartman’ wild lilac, her favorite plant among the many that grace the Ford grounds. “And I like that the planters are made from the natural rock from the hillside.”

Christine Wetherill Stevenson

The rock — called ‘Jerusalem’ stone — harks back to the amphitheatre’s earliest days as the Pilgrimage Theatre. The theatre, which opened in 1920, was built by Mrs. Christine Wetherill Stevenson to house her “Pilgrimage Play,” based on the life of Jesus Christ. What are perhaps the Ford Amphitheatre’s most notable features, the crenellated towers that flank the stage, were built to resemble the gates of Jerusalem.

Mrs. Stevenson, who was the heiress to the Pittsburgh Paint fortune, intended the play as the first of a series based on the lives of the founders of the world’s religions but didn’t live to write the others. She chose the then sparsely developed Hollywood Hills site for the theatre because of its spiritual quality. Even today, with the bustle of Hollywood & Vine only 10 minutes away and the 101 freeway hard by, the Ford casts a spell over those who enter its gates, stepping into an oasis of calm and tranquility.

On a daily basis the responsibility of maintaining Mrs. Stevenson’s spiritual haven belongs to Hazlett, Production Manager Arthur Trowbridge and the crews who work with them. They know every square inch of building that houses the 1200-seat outdoor amphitheatre and 87-seat indoor [Inside] the Ford theatre as well as the 45 acres on which it sits.

Gesturing toward the ‘Snow White’ New Zealand tea trees and ‘Magic Lantern’ Grevillea that flank the Ford entryway stairs and paths, Trowbridge says, “The trick is to make the landscaping look like it’s part of the wild environment.”

Arthur Trowbridge and Michelle Hazlett near ‘the stairway to nowhere’

And there’s still plenty of wild to be experienced at the Ford. Trowbridge used to work in a space that offered a panoramic view of the whole amphitheatre. “I could see everything from there. One day I saw a hawk swoop down and carry off a squirrel.”

Another time he stepped onto the stage and beheld a 12-point buck standing on the stairs to the hillside. “I stopped. We both stared at each other for about 10 minutes. As soon as I left, a doe and three baby deer – they still had their spots – appeared. All of them went scampering up into the hills.”

That was his first encounter with the Ford’s deer families. Trowbridge has also, with the help of park staff, rescued deer on the grounds and brings apples and birdseed for them.

The natural environment of the Cahuenga Pass helps give the Ford its unique character, but the elements are always a factor to be reckoned with. Sun, heat, damp, water, soil erosion — all need to be kept in mind and dealt with. Few theatres were designed to have water run through them, regularly use a 100-foot diameter parachute or have been confronted with what the crew calls the ‘Indiana Jones’ boulder.

Ford landscaping blends with the natural setting

The kind of drama no theatre needs happened at the Ford in January 2005 when Los Angeles experienced heavy unrelenting rain for three days. “I came into work and I heard a waterfall,” Trowbridge recalls. He opened the door to [Inside] the Ford at the top of the entryway and was immediately up to his waist in water. The rain had washed soil and rock off the hillside behind the amphitheatre stage, clogging the drains and forcing the water to find other pathways, flooding the dressing room areas beneath the stage and the indoor theatre.

The Ford sustained more damage than any other County Regional Park was a result of the storm. Through tremendous will and hard work, the theatre was ready to host the 2005 amphitheatre summer activities by April 15.

The Ford was, however, spared the ‘Indiana Jones’ boulder. “If that huge rock had come all the way down the hillside, I think it would have punched a hole in the base of the stage right tower,” says Trowbridge. The boulder had to be jackhammered into pieces and carted away.

If rain is a winter danger, sun is a summer challenge. Some rehearsals and the Ford’s 8-event family series take place during the day, when the temperature in the amphitheatre can rise to three digits. Large military parachutes are used to protect the performers and audience. “In their military life they are used to drop very heavy equipment like jeeps and tanks,” says Trowbridge.  

The combination of hot days and cool nights can hasten the deterioration of audio equipment, so sound setups have to be struck every night, even if the same show is playing the next day.

Dealing with wear and tear in a historic facility is particularly challenging. In 2008, 10 sets of 12-foot-high doors, dating from 1931 when the theatre was rebuilt after a fire, were replaced. “I joked that the only thing holding them up was the termites holding hands,” says Trowbridge.

New doors were handcrafted after the originals from 1931

No two doors were exactly the same dimensions and the new ones were to look just like the old ones. “They had to be handcrafted,” says Hazlett. “Weston Gorin and his company, Weston Woodworks, made them from kiln-dried Douglas fir.”

The historic integrity of the Ford is a major consideration in developing the master plan for the future of the facility, a process which has just begun. The experience of Brenda Levin and Levin & Associates with historic structures such as the Griffith Park Observatory was one reason the firm was chosen to do the plan.

Trowbridge recalls that about 5 years ago he was alone on the stage one day when an older gentleman came up to him. “He asked me if this was the location of the original Pilgrimage Theatre. He remembered coming here with his parents and brothers for the ‘Pilgrimage Play’  and that were all sorts of animals in the play, donkeys and so forth, that came down from the hillside. He said ‘I wanted to come back again before I die’ and asked me if I would mind if he sat in the theatre. I said no, and he sat there for some time looking at the stage and hills.”

Linda Chiavaroli, Director of Communications for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission/Ford Theatres, has worked in marketing and pr for dance companies, orchestras, individual artists and arts centers, and as a journalist covering the performing arts.

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