Whitefire Theatre: A Gem in the Heart of Sherman Oaks

Sherman Oaks' Whitefire Theatre started life as a corner pharmacy.

But since 1982, it has dispensed a different kind of tonic: easy, walk-to entertainment of all sorts, right in the neighborhood.

"If you're a neighbor here, you can walk to the Whitefire and see something different every night," the theater's owner-manager Bryan Rasmussen told Sherman Oaks Patch.

"Being right on Ventura Boulevard, we're around a lot of great restaurants. So after our shows, people can walk across the street to eat or have a glass of wine, then walk home," Rasmussen said.

The intimate, 99-seat Whitefire offers plays, multimedia shows, big-screen films and jazz festivals, along with acting classes and auditions, he said. In November, the theater is scheduled to host the Valley Film Festival, a three-day event showing hundreds of films, he said.

"Since I took over the theater in 2005, my plan is to keep the place busy. So far so good," he said. "We're the only small professional theater in Sherman Oaks, versus NoHo's 22 theater venues, so we serve our neighbors in a special way."

Sitting in his small office in the theater building, Rasmussen described the space's origins as a pharmacy, prior to 1982.

"See that window on that wall? It used to look down over the sales floor, so that's why the high ceilings. This was the store manager's office, now it's mine. Now I look into the audience.

"The side door on Sunnyslope and Ventura used to be the pharmacy's front door."

Rasmussen recalled some of the Whitefire's famous alums. "I heard that Penn & Teller did one of their first shows here. A young Luke Perry took acting classes here. Fred Willard taught here, and Mariette Hartley did a one-woman show here.

"We're continuing all those traditions," he said.

On Aug. 6, Counter Men, billed as "a play with music" and directed by Richard Kuhlman, opens at the Whitefire. The dramedy is about a group of war veterans who congregate at a neighborhood diner to share their lives, interact with the salty waitresses, support each other and air their issues. A reception will follow the opening-night performance. The show is scheduled to run through Aug. 27.

Kuhlman, a Chicago native who began his career in the Second City company, talked with Sherman Oaks Patch about working at the Whitefire.

"I'm really impressed with the amount of acting firepower we attracted for this play. Among others, we have Marion Ramsey, who appeared in six Police Academy films, and Bart Braverman from ABC's VEGA$. The play has really nice arcs for characters ... with plenty of insights about life and love."

Kuhlman himself is an all-purpose show-biz veteran who directs, writes, teaches and acts. He shyly admits he is immortalized for a small acting role in a Seinfeld episode, in which Kramer is deluged by Pottery Barn catalogs and tries to stop the mail. "I play the guy who arrests him on the street. It was a lot of fun, especially the residual checks," the director laughed.

Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Counter Men runs Aug. 6-27, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. For information or tickets, call 323-960-5521 or go to plays411.com/countermen. Prices: $10 for Aug. 5 preview; $20 for
general admission. Parking on Ventura Boulevard (metered until 8 p.m.); free parking on Dixie Canyon and Fulton avenues.