Musical Recalls an Early Satchel Paige

Baseball great Satchel Paige is remembered in “Satch,” a nine-character musical--set in a Tennessee dugout, circa 1927--opening Friday at the Center City Theatre (at 4415 W. Adams in the Crenshaw district). It’s the maiden production of the newly revived PASLA--a.k.a. Performing Arts Society of Los Angeles.

Defunct since 1979 (“It happened,” says artistic director Ron Daniels, “primarily because of diminished arts sources on the state and federal levels--and other stuff I don’t want to get into”), PASLA re-emerged in Aug. 1988. “I began to revitalize the organization,” Daniels said. “We did the show two nights at Variety Arts Center to re-establish our visibility in the community--and we got a very good response, based on very little PR and budgetary restraints. Actually, we were lucky to get it done.”

“Satch” is an attempt to expose a piece of sports history its authors feel was overlooked in the 1981 Paige TV bio, “Don’t Look Back.”

“My uncle was the owner of the Chattanooga Black Lookouts at the time when Satchel was just beginning to get famous,” Daniels said. “That’s not the reason my brother (John Daniels) and I wrote this--it’s not a family thing, wanting to push my uncle’s name in the limelight. But he did have a major participation in Satchel’s life: not only in his physical ability but on his social consciousness.”

That consciousness, Daniels added, was tested in an incident depicted in “Satch.” During the era when baseball was rigidly segregated, “Strand Nigglan, the owner of the Chattanooga White Lookouts, asked Satchel to pitch for him--and if he would, he’d pay him $500 a game. The only condition was that he’d have to go out on the mound in blackface.” Paige refused the offer.

Rai Tasco directs.

THEATER FILE: Bruce Kirby and Gary Frank are actors from different generations sharing a dressing room and a stage in David Mamet’s “A Life in the Theatre,” opening Thursday at the Gnu Theatre. The production, directed by Gnu artistic director Jeff Seymour, marks the initial entry in the theater’s first subscription season; next up is Daniel Faraldo’s “How Did It Feel?” (Dec. 7-Feb. 25, 1990), followed by T.L. Rogers’ “The House on the Corner” (March 15-June 3), Lauren Berris’ “The Retreat” (June 21-Sept. 9) and an as-yet-unchosen “wild card” production (Sept. 27-Dec. 16).

“Thinck Clearly,” a “musical spectacle” by the Thunderbird Theater Company, is joining the sidewalk revelry on Venice Beach at the corner of Ocean Front Walk and Brooks Street. Running 15 minutes in length, the two-character-plus-chorus piece begins Saturdays and Sundays at noon, repeating every 45 minutes until 4 p.m. Admission is free; the run is indefinite.

“The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” which played the Long Beach Civic Light Opera last May, resurfaces at the Pantages Theatre on Sept. 19. Harve Presnell and the unsinkable Debbie Reynolds are the topliners once more.