When the calendar turns to September, theatergoers undergo a unique
reinvigoration -- at least this one does -- shedding the languor from the
dog days of August in anticipation of new adventures under the
spotlights.
The official opening of the 2000-01 stage season will arrive this
weekend as Vanguard University in Costa Mesa mounts a musical revue
titled "The Road Most Traveled." It's a tuneful trip through the pitfalls
of childhood, high school and college, directed by senior student Rachel
Hart. It will play two engagements spaced five months apart --- this
weekend and Feb. 21-24.
South Coast Repertory inaugurates its short season Friday with "The
Circle," an oldie from W. Somerset Maugham described as a "breezy
commentary on one generation's inability to learn from another's
misfortunes."
History repeats itself through Oct. 7 as SCR mounts a new slate of
plays on one hand and builds a brand new theater adjacent to the existing
complex on the other, thus necessitating a shortened season.
Orange Coast College's theater department -- which will be kept busy
with 11 productions during the new season -- will kick off its schedule
Saturday with several short comedies by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov
in OCC's Studio Theater. The program will run through Sept. 16.
After a pause of a week and a half, the greasepaint really hits the
fan as four productions open locally in the space of three days. Starting
things off will be the outrageous spoof "Forbidden Broadway," arriving
Sept. 19 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center for a brief,
five-day engagement.
I've had occasion to witness this irreverent troupe in action on three
occasions (including its offshoot, "Forbidden Hollywood"), and it's
always been a tremendous comic kick, with newer shows satirized each
year.
"The Lion in Winter," James Goldman's look at one of England's past
royal families that makes today's princes and princesses seem almost
normal, kicks off the new season Sept. 21 through Oct. 20 at the Newport
Theatre Arts Center. King Henry II and his imprisoned queen, Eleanor of
Acquitaine, battle both each other and their three contentious sons in a
power struggle laced with broad doses of comedy.
SCR's Second Stage will be open for business that weekend also,
starting off with the world premiere of "Hold Please" by Annie Weisman, a
play commissioned by SCR that delves into the psyches of women in the
workplace and questions just how far they've come. An all-female cast
will propel the modern comedy through Oct. 21.
