LOS ANGELES — The day after her house burned down, Lara Ganz sent a group message to the youth theater troupe she runs: They would not let the Los Angeles firestorm stop their upcoming show.
Despite the devastating Jan. 7 fire that gutted every inch of the 125-seat Pierson Playhouse, leaving behind only a mangled steel skeleton, Ganz was determined to continue with rehearsals. She wrote to her young castmates, many of whom had lost everything in the fire, that she was confident they would find a stage to perform on.
And they did just that. Last weekend, a two-week run of the musical Crazy for You opened in a nearby school auditorium, marking a triumphant return to the stage for a community determined to see its theater rise from the ashes. Five more shows are scheduled for this weekend.
For the young performers of Theatre Palisades Youth, the experience was a lesson in the healing power of art in the face of disaster. Callum Ganz, 17, the director’s son who plays a tap-dancing cowboy in the show, shared, “The first time I felt happy after the fire was when I walked into that first rehearsal. When I’m singing or dancing, I forget about everything else. I don’t think about the fire. All I feel is happiness.”
But the fire didn’t just destroy the theater’s performance space, it also took away the homes and schools of many of the young actors. More than 6,800 homes and other structures were flattened in the Palisades fire, leaving behind a trail of destruction and loss. Places of worship, shops, and schools were destroyed, along with favorite student hangouts like the local skate shop, a pizza place, and the Yogurt Shoppe, where the young performers would walk after shows for a celebratory treat.
The idea of rebuilding may still be a distant dream for the community, but the outpouring of generosity from the artistic community has been overwhelming. Parents took to social media, posting pleas for donations, and were met with support from Hollywood to Broadway.
Emmy-award winning hairstylist Joy Zapata saw one of the posts and reached out to the mother who wrote it to make sure it wasn’t a scam. She then put out a call to her friends in the business, and together they held a tutorial for the cast during dress rehearsals and returned for opening night with a team of seven Hollywood hair and makeup artists. Zapata shared, “I have done horror films with 100 extras running down the Pacific Coast Highway. But this time, the story was real, and it blew me away.”
Broadway actress Kerry Butler, a Tony-nominated star of Beetlejuice, also reached out to the kids and invited them to sing with her during a concert in Orange County. She then spent a day leading them in a master class on character development and vocal technique. Butler shared on Instagram, “I will never forget my time with them. I met people who lost their homes, schools. But they told me when they heard the theatre was gone — that was when they felt the deepest loss.”
The group also received wireless mics from Guitar Center and costumes from neighboring schools. The Paul Revere Charter Middle School has become the troupe’s temporary home, a word that holds a special meaning in a community where so many have lost theirs. But for these young actors and their families, “home” is not a physical thing, it’s the people they have come together with to create something beautiful.
Scarlett Shelton, a 16-year-old from nearby Culver City who has been part of the theater since middle school, shared, “I’m learning that a home is not a physical thing. It’s the people.” This small-town playhouse, where kids join young and stay until high school, is a rare gem in today’s world. About half of the kids in the cast lived nearby in Pacific Palisades, and the rest came from all over the Los Angeles area.
On opening night in a new venue, the pre-show jitters and rituals felt the same. The older kids helped calm the nerves of “the littles,” as the young actors are affectionately called. Before the show, the entire cast circled up behind the curtain and took turns giving inspirational pep talks. “Knock their socks off!” said one child. Another stepped up to say, “Everyone
