Pigeon Feed?

I read with some dismay your article profiling Garry Marshall’s new Falcon Theatre (“Following His Heart,” by Jan Breslauer, Oct. 17).

While I am grateful for Marshall’s obvious respect for live theater and the actors who toil therein, my gratitude is somewhat undermined by the fact that he has decided to open a 99-seat (i.e. salary-challenged) theater. I don’t think I would be too presumptuous to assume that Marshall possesses the wherewithal to open his own airport, let alone a theater. Couldn’t he respect actors enough to compensate them to the degree that even a minimum Equity contract requires?

Perhaps it will be argued that appearing in such a high-profile venue as the Falcon, where an actor is likely to work with and be seen by powerful people in the industry, is compensation enough. I don’t agree. Though the celebrities who will no doubt tread the Falcon’s boards would hardly benefit from an extra few hundred dollars a week, the average working actors could pay the rent and derive the priceless feeling that they are being recompensed for a job well done, like anyone else.

I applaud and appreciate Marshall’s commitment to live theater in this town. He has certainly put his money where his proverbial mouth is. I just wish his bite equaled his bark.

MATTHEW K. MILLER

Los Angeles