On Theater:

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third and final column reviewing 2008 in local theater.

The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse has been around just as long as South Coast Repertory — both were inaugurated in 1965, the former as a community theater organized and operated for its first quarter century by its founding director, the late Pati Tambellini.

Following Tambellini’s retirement two decades ago, the playhouse has succeeded under various stewardships, the latest including some supremely dedicated individuals who delight in pushing the envelope, offering a sort of off-Broadway experience in comparison to South Coast Repertory’s professional and well-funded operation.

Two people whose contributions have been particularly noteworthy of late are the theater’s president and artistic force of nature and an actress whose work on the Costa Mesa stage has been exemplary. They are Ryan Holihan and Laura Lindahl, the Daily Pilot’s man and woman of the year in theater for 2008.

Holihan has a plethora of impressive and contrasting stage credits in Costa Mesa, including a wimpy clerk (“She Loves Me”), a sadistic drill sergeant (“Biloxi Blues”) and a repressed homosexual (“Sordid Lives”).

The actor, though, hit his zenith recently in the title role of “Bat Boy” as a wild child striving to adapt to civilization.

“Holihan develops his character, ‘Charly’-like, from a savage predator into a warm and caring, intelligent human being stung by the community’s rejection of him,” is the way this column assessed it.

He also choreographed the show.

Local audiences also have glimpsed Holihan in his various guises in “Urinetown” and “The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild.” He’s also an accomplished director, staging Costa Mesa’s productions of “An Ideal Husband,” “The Secret Garden,” “Play On” and “Bus Stop,” among others.

As if that weren’t enough, Holihan also has a string of movie credits, among them “The Addams Family” and its sequel “Addams Family Values,” “Ed Wood,” “Apollo 13” and “Airheads.” Television appearances have included “Saved by the Bell,” “The Wonder Years,” “The Drew Carey Show” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”