Strength in Numbers : Valley theater companies discuss forming a coalition to promote their work and build audiences.

“We’ve got to get organized!”

That’s the idea behind David Cox’s drive to form a coalition of theaters in the San Fernando Valley.

Cox is managing director of North Hollywood’s American Renegade Theatre. Since he took over the space--a former mortuary on Magnolia Boulevard--about a year ago, Cox has felt the need for a network to connect the burgeoning population of theaters spreading across the Valley.

At Cox’s invitation, theater directors met to discuss creating such an organization at his theater on Aug. 23. The group, tentatively named the Valley Theatre League, is having a second meeting at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Acme Comedy Theatre in North Hollywood.

If he could get the theaters together, Cox felt, the ideas would follow. And at the first meeting, “they really did,” he says. “A lot of good stuff came out.”

Eleven groups were represented, including Road Theatre Company, the Actors Company (at Burbank Little Theatre), Actors Forum and Theatre East.

“We discussed the formation of the group,” Cox explains, “and what we wanted to achieve. No. 1 is a creative relationship with the newspapers. Secondly, a way to reach the large population in the Valley, so that we can apprise them of what kind of theater they have in their own back yard. Most of them are entirely unaware of it.

“Thirdly, to have our own award system and our own hot line, to have a working relationship with each theater so we don’t compete--so we create.”

Among other ideas brought up was a coupon book with two-for-one discounts on Valley productions.

Among theaters that have shown interest in the formation of a league are the Gnu Theatre, the Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood, Third Stage and Alliance Repertory Theatre in Burbank. The West Valley contingent includes the Richard Basehart Playhouse and Ed Gaynes’ West End Playhouse and Center Stage.

Dan Hirsch, owner of both Sherman Oaks’ Whitefire Theatre and the new Limelight Playhouse in North Hollywood, says the group’s formation is a sign of the proliferation of stages in the Valley and the need for a community.

“Oftentimes when you’re running a theater, you feel insulated from everybody else. You’re in your own little world.

“Hopefully, it will provide a unified resource center for people in the business of theater in the Valley. We haven’t tapped into the Valley audience. The numbers are growing every day, and they’re only now becoming aware of the type of theater that’s offered in the Valley. People are no longer flocking to Hollywood.”

WHERE AND WHEN

What: Valley Theatre League organizational meeting, the Acme Comedy Theatre, 5124 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

Time: 7 p.m. Sunday.

Call: (818) 753-0650 to RSVP; organizer David Cox can be reached at (818) 763-1834.