Characters

Elia Powers Craig Kausen still remembers the sound of film flipping through a 16-millimeter projector. He recalls the excitement of sitting on his grandfather's couch and watching his favorite cartoon characters come to life on a screen before they came to television screens nationwide. That's life when your grandfather is Chuck Jones, the well-known animator/director who was co-creator of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and sole creator of Marvin the Martian and Pepe Le Pew. Kausen said there was never a dull moment around the Jones household.

Helena Modjeska, one of the most influential people in Orange County history, made a name for herself as a Shakespearean actress on the American stage after emigrating from Poland. Despite being a foreigner with an accent and an imperfect (albeit impressive) command of the English language, Modjeska won the hearts of the American public, performing the leading lady roles in Shakespeare’s tragedies. During her life she attracted the attention of the likes of playwright Oscar Wilde, who reprinted one of her poems at the beginning of his manuscripts, and novelist Willa Cather, who designed a character after the actress in one of her books.

Families wanting to get into the Halloween mood without the spooks and spirits can head over to a fairytale-themed haunted house. The Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort & Marina is hosting its first family-friendly Haunted House that takes children through the story of "Snow White," complete with dwarfs and prizes throughout. "It's a story basically," said Executive Director Thomas Giulioni. "It's patterned off the story 'Snow White,' but we threw in some fun wrinkles. " The Haunted House is less haunted and more a show, with six scenes featuring more than 20 characters, Giulioni said.

He created Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird and Sylvester. Animator Chuck Jones dreamed up cartoon characters whose comic personalities are vivid American cultural icons. Jones, 87, now calls Corona del Mar home. He spent many of his youthful years shuttling between a rented Newport Beach home and Hollywood studios where he watched Charlie Chaplin. Jones learned his trade while handling the grunt work of washing up celluloid sheets for other animators.

There have been a few shows (“Noises Off” comes to mind) in which one gag is piled onto another and the cast quickly establishes and sustains an atmosphere of perpetual pandemonium. One such play, which curiously has seen little attention locally, is George Furth’s early 1980s howler “The Supporting Cast.” It’s now holding forth (as a replacement vehicle) at the Newport Theater Arts Center under the inspired direction of Michael Ross. Furth wove some sure-fire location chuckles into his mix. Four of the five characters are New Yorkers transplanted briefly to the Malibu beachfront in the midst of California’s fire and earthquake seasons.

Tom Titus Motherhood occurs in many varieties and under myriad circumstances, three of which are alternately examined in Kathleen Tolan's seriocomic study "Approximating Mother," the current production at Orange Coast College. This extended one-act (only 75 minutes without intermission) focuses on women who are either a) married and having a second baby, b) single and yearning for one or c) young, unmarried and "in trouble." The three women involved are the focus of the play, but there are a half-dozen supporting characters and another seven "atmospheric" actors who drift in and out of the scenes functioning solely as background pieces.

June Casagrande CORONA DEL MAR -- To one Corona del Mar resident, as to countless millions worldwide, Chuck Jones embodied the American spirit. And Laura Dietz, for one, says the city should recognize that spirit. Jones, a longtime Newport Beach resident, was the creative influence behind some of the never-say-die cartoon characters that illustrated to the world the tenacity and optimism that's synonymous with America. "The Roadrunner always seems to be able to avoid the disaster of the old coyote.

Characters whose destinies had previously been determined by playwrights and authors get to try their luck in the three-dimensional world in "The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler," a world premiere play running through Jan. 29 at South Coast Repertory. The play was commissioned by South Coast Repertory and gained notoriety at last year's Pacific Playwright's Festival. Playwright Jeff Whitty earned critical acclaim for writing the book to the musical "Avenue Q." Director Bill Rauch said he was sold on the script at first glance.

Although the set included the familiar bucolic trees, a blue sky sparsely spotted with clouds and a barn-red doghouse, the "Peanuts" gang was almost unrecognizable. The Corona del Mar High School's play "Dog Sees God" depictsCharles M. Schulz' beloved characters as expletive-spouting high school students dealing with issues often untalked about: drugs, suicide, sex and sexual exploration, bullying, depression and abortion. The play follows the high school students as they learn the serious, and potentially fatal, consequences of bullying.

Everything you need to know about Tatum Norton can be found in the recent decision she made for college. Alabama had offered the Newport Harbor High senior a scholarship to play volleyball for the Crimson Tide. She said it was a three-year scholarship, something rare when it comes to the position Norton plays. Norton is a libero, a defender who must also provide accurate passing. An NCAA Division I scholarship for a libero? It almost seemed too good to be true. Apparently it seemed to be too easy for Norton.

IRVINE - Standing on a grassy hilltop overlooking the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, filled with overgrown fields and abandoned runways, developers on Wednesday pointed to where the first of 5,000 new homes will open by early next year. "If you use a little imagination, you can see what this area can become," said Emile Haddad, president and chief executive of FivePoint Communities, the Aliso Viejo-based developer of the Great Park Neighborhoods. With the groundbreaking of the first 726 homes Tuesday, the project, which has been marked by challenges, is finally underway.

NEWPORT BEACH - Chase Valentine, 3, wanted something for Christmas that's little difficult to come by in Orange County: snow. "It was so cool. On the way over here he said, 'Mom, the twee is so big,'" said Chase's mom, Tiffany Valentine, while nestled on a blanket with the shy tyke at Fashion Island's annual tree-lighting ceremony Friday night. The Valentines from Newport Beach showed up at 4 p.m. to grab prime real estate in front of the stage where students from Laguna Beach's Musical Theatre University performed alongside Mickey, Minnie and Goofy from the Disneyland Resort.

Families wanting to get into the Halloween mood without the spooks and spirits can head over to a fairytale-themed haunted house. The Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort & Marina is hosting its first family-friendly Haunted House that takes children through the story of "Snow White," complete with dwarfs and prizes throughout. "It's a story basically," said Executive Director Thomas Giulioni. "It's patterned off the story 'Snow White,' but we threw in some fun wrinkles. " The Haunted House is less haunted and more a show, with six scenes featuring more than 20 characters, Giulioni said.

Among the works of literature recognized as classics finding their way to the stage, it would be difficult to find a more overrated example than Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice. " Yet it continues to enjoy its 200-year shelf life, with two local colleges having produced it over the past few years. Now South Coast Repertory has given this well-ripened chestnut the full-blown professional treatment, adding a modern character to the mix and mounting a visually entrancing version as the opening production of its 48th season.

Editor's Note: This column originally appeared online at National Football Post. I fell in love with the NFL in the late '50s and '60s because my father took my brothers and I to Rams game at the Los Angeles Coliseum. They were nosebleed seats, which necessitated telescope-strength field glasses to follow the action, but we loved the Rams. The Fearsome Foursome defensive line eviscerated opposing quarterbacks, wreaking havoc on offenses throughout the League. Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy and Roosevelt Grier were devastating and colorful, but my favorite was the "gentle giant" Merlin Olsen.

NEWPORT BEACH — Reading, writing and arithmetic form the heart of education. But what about kindness, friendship, hard work and the other character traits that are also important to becoming a well-rounded individual? "If the child's behavior isn't in check, they can't learn," said Pamela Coughlin, principal of Mariners Elementary School. Every elementary school uses some kind of character education program, but about a third of those in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District have jumped on board with one program adapted from former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden's children book "Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success.

Editor's note: This corrects the spelling of Julie Karges' last name. I once had a neighbor who made a living as a tree trimmer. And every so often, he would dig up an unwanted but valuable tree — usually some kind of palm — and plant it haphazardly in his front yard. His property turned into a mismatched forest of odd trees, the new arrivals taking the place of the ones he sold whenever he was short on cash, which was often. The tree trimmer's property became very quirky and very un-Irvine, which was part of the reason I moved to Eastside Costa Mesa.

COSTA MESA — David Baida's heard it hundreds of times by now: "You were born to play that part." But it nearly took a miracle for the actor to audition for the role. After a run at Los Angeles' Pantages Theatre, Baida and the rest of the touring cast of the hugely successful Broadway musical "In the Heights" will debut at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Aug. 3. Set in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood, "In the Heights" brings three days in the life of its Dominican and Puerto Rican community to colorful, euphoric existence.