UCLA’s James Bridges Theater is one of the few theaters in the United States that can accommodate both nitrate and safety film stock, as well as a multitude of video formats, including the latest digital projection of films and presentations in high definition.

L.A. Theatre Works, BY Experience and the National Theatre Live have come together to bring a series of live, high-definition performances and films to UCLA throughout the year. This Sunday, L.A. Theatre Works will be screening Arnold Wesker’s 1950s production of “The Kitchen,” performed and produced by the National Theatre London.

According to Susan Loewenberg, founder and producing director of L.A. Theatre Works, the James Bridges Theater is the only HD exhibition space for theater on the west side of Los Angeles.

“They film (the performance), and then it gets beamed by satellites all over the world. When you want to see (the performance) over broadcast, you go to a theater in your own city that is doing the broadcast and you watch it like a movie,” Loewenberg said.

Wesker’s production is set in a restaurant’s basement kitchen where a German chef, Peter, falls in love with an English waitress, Monique, which creates drama throughout the play. Chefs and waitresses are preparing lunch while discussing the meaning of life, dreams and current status.

Professor Michael Hackett, chair of the theater department, said the play has a connection to a post-World War II period of reassessing class system.

“This sort of dealt with workers and the backstage of the restaurant. It deals with issues that are still relevant now,” Hackett said. “It has to do with the whole issue of the workers and their power in relationship to the owner of the restaurant.”

Loewenberg, who watched “The Kitchen” when it was off-Broadway in New York in the late ’60s, said she felt like she was in the production herself. With the 35 actors it boasted, she said the recreation of the kitchen was mesmerizing.

“It’s the combination of precision, chaos and egos. … Chefs still have big egos and the waitresses are still overworked. (What went on in the play) is the same today,” Loewenberg said.

“And you know, love stories are love stories. They never change. The people change, but the circumstances are usually the same so it’s a timeless production.”

Julie Borchard-Young, UCLA alumna and co-owner of the production’s distributor BY Experience, said that “The Kitchen” has a universal theme of human dramas and challenges that one could watch and still relate to in 2011.

Borchard-Young said that as a former student it was easy for her to find opportunities, whether it was live music events or cultural activities, but she spent half the time looking off campus.

“It’s wonderful now that this gorgeous James Bridges Theater exists to be able to serve the student population now,” Borchard-Young said.

In comparing “The Kitchen” to other performances, Borchard-Young said that Wesker’s production is not as dialogue intense as other plays but is more visual.

Both Hackett and Borchard-Young said that the series of screenings gives students and Los Angeles communities an opportunity to view international productions in high quality without having to travel too far.

“It’s just a quality that is unmistakable. In today’s world, to have a quality theater presentation available without having to get on a plane and travel 8,000 miles is amazing,” Borchard-Young said.