Company of Angels

Founded in 1959, Company of Angels, now known simply as CoA provides a space for actors and other theater artists to work at their craft free of commercial constraints. The original company, incorporated by entertainment attorney Bertram Fields, included actors Richard Chamberlain, Leonard Nimoy, Vic Morrow and Vic Tayback. Company of Angels is the oldest not-for-profit repertory theater in Los Angeles. Along the way the company has received almost every Los Angeles theatrical award, including the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama-Logue Award, the LA Weekly Theater Award, and the Ovation Award. During this time the company has been sustained solely by its membership.

Location

The very first theatre of the Company of Angels was located on Vine Street and Waring Avenue in the heart of Hollywood (Los Angeles, California). However, on April 27, 1988, fire destroyed that building. In 1989, the Company relocated to the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, at 2106 Hyperion Avenue, today's Lyric Hyperion Theater Cafe. Seventeen years later, the Company left Silver Lake for the re-developing downtown Los Angeles area. After a brief stint at The Grand Avenue Club, Company of Angels resided for 8 years in the historic Alexandria Hotel at 501 S. Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles above Palm Court (Alexandria Hotel)

When Company of Angels took up residence in the Alexandria, they were pioneers in this yet to be gentrified part of downtown. Company of Angels was soon followed to the Alexandria by Top Chef, Ilan Hall’s restaurant The Gorbals and the Two Bits Market together they were instrumental in transforming the building into a cultural and gastronomic destination.

With its move Downtown and in anticipation of its 50th Anniversary Company of Angels dedicated itself to a new mission: depict Los Angeles (as a place and a concept) in all its multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-lingual, multi-gendered glory. Since then, Company of Angels has featured new work by Los Angeles based playwrights. These plays depicted communities as diverse as West Hollywood, Montebello, Culver City, Thai and Latino Immigrants and Skid Row. During these years a group of diverse playwrights have developed new work in Company of Angels Playwrights’ Group. Company of Angels Mutual Education Theater Academy has worked with low-income residents in Boyle Heights, high school students in El Sereno, and residents of Skid Row by teaching them how to use theater to tell their stories. Company of Angels work in service of their new mission received government and private foundation grants, a first for the Company. Their move seven years ago to Fifth and Spring played a vital role in the Downtown Los Angeles arts revitalization. Along with that they acquired a grant from the CRA to refurbish the Alexandria space to the company’s specifications. During its residency at The Alexandria, Company of Angels produced 42+ plays and established an ongoing collaborative relationship with the residents of the Alexandria Hotel where they conducted ongoing free theater workshops and developed 4 plays in collaboration with both Alexandria and Skid Row residents.

In 2017, Company of Angels moved and is now in residence at Legacy LA in the Hazard Park Armory in Boyle Heights. Company of Angels new theater black box space inside the Armory will allow Company of Angels to deepen their work with the residents of Boyle Heights and adjacent Ramona Gardens Housing Project.

Founded in 2007, Legacy LA is a community based non-profit organization focused on youth development in Boyle Heights. Our mission is to make positive interventions in the lives of young people by offering alternatives to gangs and violence. We build youth's capacity to reach their full potential and equip them with the tools to transform their lives and their community.

Past productions

  • 2009
    • Dias y Flores
    • Black Women: State of the Union
    • LA VIEWS II- Tales of Present Past
    • Downtown Voices: Standing in the Gap
    • BigBro/LilBro
  • 2008
    • L.A. Views: Ten Minutes at a Time
    • Sissy
    • The Chalk Boy
    • Lost
    • Los Peregrinos del Este
  • 2007 Productions
    • Bare Naked Angels 2: Angels Unmasked
    • 365 Days/365 Plays
    • Bare Naked Angels 3: Angels Uncovered
  • 2006
    • Colored Contradictions
    • Beneath Rippling Water
    • La Puta Vida
    • Bare Naked Angels: Angels Unleashed
    • Arlington
    • Naked Tales
    • Made in America
    • The Two Gentlemen of Verona
    • The Lark
    • Playing Juliet/Casting Othello
  • 2005
    • The Colored Museum
    • Dust
    • The Normal Heart
    • The Waiting Room
    • Song of Juke
    • Hello Hello
    • The Eight: Reindeer Monologues
  • 2004
    • We Had a Dream
    • The Virtual Adventures Of Riff Cat Polito
    • Tomorrow
    • Life During Wartime
    • Blackberry Love
    • Drive
    • Featuring Loretta
    • The Disposal
    • Problem Child
    • The Pizza Man
    • Happy Christmas Merry Chanukah
  • 2003
    • Sylvia
    • Vegas Blues
    • Blood Relations
    • The Maids
    • And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little
    • People Doing Beckett
    • The Sugar Bean Sisters
    • Lucifer's Lament
    • Minor Demons
    • The Memory of Water
    • Midsummer Night's Dream
    • Chamber Music
    • Angels Unwrapped: Five Holiday Themed Plays
    • Colors: Sixteen Five-Minute Plays
    • 'Maid to Love
  • 1988
    • LATC Fundraiser
    • Coarse Acting Show
    • Twelfth Night
    • Hidden in the Laughter
    • Plus-One
    • Midnight Madness
  • 1987
    • The Exile of Ezra Pind
    • Happy End
    • Talking With..
    • Partners
    • One Acts to Grind
    • Midnight Madness
  • 1986
    • Midnight Madness
    • Street Scene
    • Confluence / Cabin 12
    • Mortal Deities
  • 1985
    • Who Am I This Time
    • Dusk Before Fireworks
    • New Rotics
    • Threads
    • Butterfaces
    • Curse of the Starving Class
  • 1984
    • Paradise / The Day the Lake Turned Over
    • Twilight Doubleheader
    • The Memorandum
    • My Life
    • Rocket to the Moon
    • Winterset
    • Bury the Dead
  • 1983
    • The Championship Season
    • Nothing Immediate
    • Avenue of Dreams
    • The Meeting
    • Dannie and Lawrence
    • King Stag
    • Flowers for Algernon
  • 1982
    • Waiting for Lefty
    • The Collected works of Billy Armadillo
    • The Mummy and The Armadillo
    • Time Will Tell
  • 1981
    • The Throphy Hunters and Tigers
    • Killing Game
  • 1980
    • Three Penny Opera
    • All My Sons
    • Home
    • Bad Habits
    • Thieves
  • 1979
    • Seven Keys to Baldpate
    • Cat Among the Pigeons
    • The Shortchanged Review
    • Reruns
    • Entertainment at Home
    • Who Killed Cory
  • 1978
    • Henry II Sits in Judgement
    • Vanities
    • The Balcony
    • In Celebration
  • 1977
    • The Oldest Living Graduate
    • Prisoner of Second Avenue
    • Saturday, Sunday, Monday

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