{"id":2118024,"date":"2025-10-27T10:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2118024"},"modified":"2025-10-27T10:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:06:12","slug":"how-new-theater-hollywood-built-a-following-on-a-tiny-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/how-new-theater-hollywood-built-a-following-on-a-tiny-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"How New Theater Hollywood built a following on a tiny budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Five minutes before showtime, the lead actor of \u201cThe Story of Johnny Lightning\u201d \u2014 billed as a fusion of stage play, musical and rock documentary \u2014 was standing in quiet panic at the end of a long line. The problem wasn\u2019t nerves; it was the bathroom.<\/p>\n

New Theater Hollywood, a 49-seat black box on a corner of Santa Monica Boulevard, has just one, tucked behind the stage curtain. To reach it, audience members must cross the stage itself, brushing past the set before the play begins. \u201cI highly recommend not going to the bathroom during the performance,\u201d co-founder Calla Henkel warned the crowd, half in jest. But when the line grew long, the performers peeked out in horror, and the audience kindly let them cut to the front. It was, in miniature, the theater\u2019s whole ethos: a porous boundary between art and life.<\/p>\n

In a city where the so-called Theater Row has more \u201cFor Lease\u201d signs than marquees, New Theater Hollywood feels improbable. Yet since opening in early 2024, it has already become something of a small cult phenomenon. Co-founded by artists Henkel and Max Pitegoff, the theater hosts an ever-mutable lineup of plays \u2014 with titles like \u201cThe Mommy Leaks the Floor\u201d and \u201cA Hole Is a Hole\u201d \u2014 featuring everyone from first-time performers to Kaia Gerber. Every production, which typically ranges between $25 and $35, has sold out. The theater\u2019s merch, screen-printed by hand in the founders\u2019 backyard onto Hollywood Boulevard tourist T-shirts, circulates like insider currency: Addison Rae\u2019s creative team, local stylists and art-scene fixtures have all been photographed in it.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/picture>\n
\n

New Theater Hollywood owners Max Pitegoff and Calla Henkel pose in their theater\u2019s greenroom.<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Earlier this fall, the Hammer Museum gave New Theater Hollywood a spot in its Made in L.A. biennial, premiering their episodic film \u201cTheater\u201d \u2014 a work that interweaves documentation from real rehearsals with a fictionalization of their lives as theater owners \u2014 inside a room evoking the theater\u2019s lobby, with its red carpeting and sparkly tassels. In just over a year, curator Essence Harden said, \u201cthey\u2019ve expanded our understanding of how performance and collectivity can coexist.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I visit the venue, Henkel and Pitegoff greet me at the door with the warmth of people who\u2019ve made hospitality part of their art. At their feet circles Bertolt, the mutt they rescued from the street and named, with on-the-nose affection, after the German playwright and director Bertolt Brecht. \u201cHe\u2019s not allowed at performances,\u201d Henkel says, as Bertolt barks on and on.<\/p>\n

Opening post-pandemic, at a time of rising costs, dwindling audiences and little financial aid, New Theater Hollywood feels like an anomaly. It\u2019s an intricate support system for practitioners to hone their craft in a space dedicated to original theatrical work. New Theater Hollywood has no institutional funding, and only recently secured its first small grant. The theater survives on ticket sales and the founders\u2019 patchwork of side projects, including a $30,000 payment from Yves Saint Laurent, which screened their film \u201cParadise\u201d in a Paris boutique. \u201cThe ticket sales have sustained us so far,\u201d Pitegoff says. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to support the artists, but it\u2019s hard when we\u2019re all splitting the same small pot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Posters of previous shows are displayed in the theater\u2019s tight lobby.<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Bold meets kitsch in the black lobby adorned with gold tassles and large red posters.<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Henkel and Pitegoff\u2019s arrival in Hollywood began as something of a joke. During the pandemic, their previous space, TV Bar in Berlin, was shuttered, leaving them suddenly unmoored. They toyed with the idea of making a film about two artists opening a theater in Los Angeles. Driving along Santa Monica Boulevard scouting locations, they spotted an \u201cAvailable\u201d sign on an old black-box theater. \u201cWe both looked at each other and said, what if we just bought it and called it \u2018New Theater Hollywood\u2019?\u201d Pitegoff recalls. Pooling all their artist commissions together, within a week, they had. \u201cThere was this looming threat that someone would turn it into a hair salon,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe thought, absolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Henning, who served as artistic director of the Blank Theater while it occupied the building before closing in 2022, says the venue \u2014 originally known as the Second Stage \u2014 first opened in 1984. Its inaugural performance was a play based on English punk musician Sid Vicious, starring a then-unknown actor named George Clooney.<\/p>\n

Almost every night, Henkel and Pitegoff hear historical stories like these about the theater from a patron who was once part of the Hollywood scene. Another example: Amy and David Sedaris\u2019 \u201cBook of Liz\u201d played here for an entire year in 2005, Henning said.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Sandi <\/picture>\n
\n

Sandi Denton, left, and Michelle Mae perform during \u201c\u2018The Story of Johnny Lightning\u2019 A Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Documentary Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Today, the red seats, lighting rig and four chandeliers remain from the theater\u2019s former life \u2014 features chosen by Henning. He said he had wanted to create a \u201ctiny Broadway\u201d in Hollywood but had not yet worked up the courage to revisit the space. Henkel and Pitegoff\u2019s only additions are a borrowed piano, a red carpet in the lobby and a few glittering tassels by the bar. \u201cIn Berlin,\u201d Henkel explains, \u201ctheater is the closest art form to the people. If they don\u2019t like the play, they yell at the stage, and everyone argues afterward about what was said.\u201d New Theater Hollywood, she says, is an attempt to marry the rigor and civic engagement of German theater with Hollywood\u2019s feverish pursuit of charisma.<\/p>\n

Henkel and Pitegoff\u2019s working relationship began at Cooper Union, a college in New York City, where they studied art and began collaborating on projects that blurred performance, installation and social practice. \u201cWe were interested in theater as a way to avoid the screen,\u201d Pitegoff explains. \u201cWhen everything was going online, we wanted to bring people together in a room.\u201d In the decade that followed, they became known for creating venues as art projects: spaces that hosted performances, conversations and collaborative experiments. Their ethos, inspired by collectives like the Kitchen and Art Club 2000, centers on art as community infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Camila <\/picture>\n
\n

Comedian Camila Doring gets ready in New Theater Hollywood\u2019s greenroom.<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

That philosophy finds its fullest expression in New Theater Hollywood, a venue that treats the mechanics of theater-making \u2014 the sweeping, mopping, restocking of lime LaCroix \u2014 as sacred acts. \u201cTheater is maintenance,\u201d Henkel says. \u201cEven mopping the stage is a beautiful act.\u201d Across the street, five former theaters have been gutted. Of the 20 that once dotted the neighborhood, only two remain: New Theater Hollywood and the Hudson, whose artistic director welcomed them by teaching them to use the lighting rig and gifting them their first mop.<\/p>\n

New Theater Hollywood is conceptual and faintly chaotic. \u201cI don\u2019t like the term \u2018experimental theater\u2019 because I think it\u2019s diminishing,\u201d says Henkel. \u201cWe\u2019re about pushing forms and letting forms relax and expand.\u201d Watching \u201cThe Story of Johnny Lightning,<\/i>\u201d a meta-documentary about the messianic complex of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, was both camp and grandiose, narrated by a visibly drunk British writer who downed numerous glasses of wine while reading from his script.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Theater Hollywood is home to some of the most experimental, free, wild, weird works of live art I\u2019ve seen in L.A. for a while,\u201d says artist and playwright Asher Hartman, who staged a play there this summer. For actors, too, it offers a reprieve. \u201cThere\u2019s always one moment in every play,\u201d Pitegoff says, \u201cwhen someone looks out and says, \u2018This should be a movie, right?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Comedians <\/picture>\n
\n

Comedians Dante Capone, left, and Paul Gellman perform during \u201cThe Story of Johnny Lightning.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

In Hollywood, tension usually revolves around the elusive \u201cbig break\u201d \u2014 that fantasy of sudden transformation. New Theater Hollywood, by contrast, is built for the meantime. Actors come to talk about the long, nerve-racking Ubers to auditions, the endless waiting. Here, they get to make something in real time, with agency and immediacy. \u201cTheater is like rehab for actors,\u201d Henkel says. \u201cYou can get so big that you have to come back down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerber, who was last seen on the big screen in \u201cSaturday Night,\u201d performed at New Theater Hollywood in December in Stephanie LaCava\u2019s adaptation of Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini\u2019s \u201cThe Gospel According to St. Matthew.<\/i>\u201d It ran for one night only. \u201cThat really leaned into the lore of \u2018you had to be there,\u2019\u201d says Pitegoff. Musician Kim Gordon, once of Sonic Youth, recently came in to record a voice-over for regular New Theater Hollywood collaborator Jasmine Johnston\u2019s film. \u201cIt\u2019s all a kind of gasoline,\u201d Henkel says. \u201cThey add fuel to the fire of this city\u2019s star power. It\u2019s an energy, a force. It makes people want to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re booked until summer 2026, their inboxes overflowing with scripts and proposals. \u201cWe don\u2019t do revenge,\u201d Henkel laughs when asked about their acceptance criteria. \u201cYeah, and we don\u2019t do irony,\u201d adds Pitegoff. Over the next two years, the theater will produce roughly a dozen projects annually and commission new works by artists Aria Dean and Marie Karlberg, as well as rapper Mykki Blanco.<\/p>\n

At every turn, Henkel and Pitegoff are omnipresent \u2014 sweeping floors, tending bar, sitting in on rehearsals. They rarely work with finished products; instead, they nurture embryonic ideas. \u201cYou\u2019re living inside another person\u2019s megalomania,\u201d Henkel says. \u201cSometimes we\u2019ll sit in our cars and realize we\u2019ve been speaking in dialogue from someone else\u2019s play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Guests <\/picture>\n
\n

Guests arrive for a show at New Theater Hollywood, which conjures a see-and-be-seen scene. <\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

In the process, they\u2019ve cultivated not just a venue but a scene \u2014 no small feat in Los Angeles. Every night, the crowd gathers: artists, stylists, musicians, first-timers, veterans, all dressed in their own registers of fabulousness. There are usually a few excellent hats. No two haircuts are alike.<\/p>\n

In a city overflowing with people who make a living pretending \u2014 but rarely in a theater \u2014 New Theater Hollywood proposes another kind of stage: new, and somehow still Hollywood.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five minutes before showtime, the lead actor of \u201cThe Story of Johnny Lightning\u201d \u2014 billed as a fusion of stage play, musical and rock documentary \u2014 was standing in quiet panic at the end of a long line. The problem wasn\u2019t nerves; it was the bathroom. New Theater Hollywood, a 49-seat black box on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2118025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2118024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/How-New-Theater-Hollywood-built-a-following-on-a-tiny.com2F1b2F2a2Fcbddfe594c17bd9965ca644e.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2118024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2118026,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118024\/revisions\/2118026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2118025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2118024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2118024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2118024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}