‘Twin Peaks’ ’ Ashbrook Might Know, but Don’t Ask

One San Diego actor just might know who killed Laura Palmer on ABC’s murder mystery “Twin Peaks,” but he isn’t telling even his parents--and they know not to ask.

Dana Ashbrook, who plays Laura’s moody boyfriend, Bobby Briggs, on the series, is the 23-year-old son of Buddy Ashbrook, a Palomar College drama department associate professor, and actress D’Ann Paton. Paton most recently was seen in the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company production of “Blithe Spirit.”

After a cliffhanger ending in which several key characters were shot or left for dead, “Twin Peaks” resumes with a special two-hour episode Sunday. And everyone, Ashbrook’s parents included, is curious about the outcome.

“They don’t make me talk. Every once in a while they will ask what’s going to happen and I realize I can’t tell them,” Ashbrook said by phone from Los Angeles early this week, shortly before he was due back on the “Twin Peaks” set.

“I definitely wouldn’t tell my dad. He’d spill the beans. As it is, he makes his students watch all the shows. I feel sorry for them.”

It’s an accusation Buddy Ashbrook acknowledges with a laugh.

“Yes, I’m a talker. I would tell my classes,” he said.

As for Paton, who has visited Dana on the set, she said she would hate to know, because if anything did leak out someone might point a finger at her. But she does admit to being “a ‘Twin Peaks’ fanatic,” replaying the tapes of the shows over and over again in search of clues.

But could Dana tell if he wanted to? Does he even know?

“Maybe,” he said cryptically.

He did admit that something explosive may be in store in coming weeks.

“This season is going to blow a lot of people’s minds. I am hoping they will tell us who killed Laura Palmer, because I sure would like to know. But I don’t know if they will.”

Can there still be a show after Laura’s killer is identified?

“Absolutely. There are so many people you are going to want to know more about. We hope everyone is going to be addicted to the characters. Like Bobby.”

He acknowledges that although he’s signed a five-year contract, that’s no guarantee of his character’s longevity.

“If they get mad at me,” he said of David Lynch and Mark Frost, the series’ creators, “they can kill me off at any time.”

Dana, a graduate of Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, grew up in Spring Valley, El Cajon and La Mesa. He said he has never met anyone “so intense or as full of judgment against hypocrisy” as Bobby. After a day of getting worked up for his part, he said he is like “Jell-O” when it’s time to go home.

Dana Ashbrook’s parents were divorced more than 20 years ago, but Dana retains strong ties to both, as well as to his actress sisters, Daphne and Taylor, who moved to Los Angeles before he did in 1985. Bobby Briggs may have trouble relating to his “Twin Peaks” parents, but not Dana. He chose his mother as his date to the Emmy awards show, and she went in a brand-new gown purchased by sister Daphne. He grew up performing at Palomar College, and in 1984 co-starred with his mother in “Miss Margarida’s Way,” an independent production at the Gaslamp.

The lessons he learned from his parents about “respect and etiquette and dedication for theater” are standing him in good stead now, he said.

“I’m close with all my family. It’s just a normal, healthy, all-American divorced family,” Ashbrook said with a small laugh.

In San Diego theater, the Haves and the Have-Nots need to do a better job of getting their acts together.

A growing group of homeless troupes are looking for a full-time home, but on a part-time basis. And a growing number of theaters are looking for tenants on a full-time, part-time basis.

The ranks of homeless companies that regularly produce quality theater include the San Diego Actors Theatre, the Ensemble Arts Theatre, Sledgehammer Theatre and the Southeast Community Theatre. And then there is Lamb’s Players Theatre, which is actively searching for a downtown space in addition to its National City venue.

None of these companies have expressed interest in a space where they would have to produce and pay rent 12 months a year. Three or four productions, for a total of three to four months, are probably the maximum that any one of them could handle.

So where does that leave them? In a position to share.

Teatro Mascara Magica, San Diego’s professional Latino theater company, just made a home for itself by striking a deal with the financially strained Progressive Stage Company to share its space. Sledgehammer Theatre is renting that same space for two back-to-back shows, “Seduced,” and a play yet to be announced.

Why not start more sharing arrangements--and why not make those arrangements permanent?

The scramble for renters has been frustrating even for the San Diego Repertory Theatre this year. The Gaslamp Theatre has been renting its space and could use a regular renter, while the popular Lyceum Space went begging this summer when plans to rent to the local team producing “When Friends Collide” collapsed.

And then there are the spaces that lie vacant month after month. The Spreckels Theatre, for example, is rented only occasionally, and the Marquis Public Theatre’s two stages have been bare for nearly a year. The Theatre in Old Town gets sporadic use, while United States International University, which manages the space, has moved three of its four theatrical productions to the Poway Center for the Performing Arts. The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre is unused in the evenings.

Theaters looking for space. Spaces looking for theaters. What’s wrong with this picture?

PROGRAM NOTES: Singer Michael Feinstein will kick off a three-show season at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Feinstein will perform a concert of songs Dec. 26-31, followed by “Meet Me in St. Louis” sometime in June and and “Les Miserables” July 8-21. But don’t be surprised if “Grand Hotel” and “City of Angels” pop up later. . . .

Soprano Deborah Davis, a professional singer and a former Muppeteer for Jim Henson, will join the cast of “Nunsense” at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse, replacing Pamela Tomassetti as Sister Mary Amnesia beginning Oct. 3. The show has been extended through Oct. 14. . . .

Teatro Mascara Magica will present Mexican television, film and stage actor Carlos Bracho in a one-man show, “Confieso que he Acutado” (I Confess That I Have Acted) in Spanish for two performances only on Oct. 13 at the Lyceum Space. The company begins its residency in the Progressive Stage Company space with readings of new plays Oct. 1 and 8, followed by “open mike” nights to showcase local talent Oct. 15 and 22. . . .

The San Diego Public Theatre may be fading from memory, but company founders Steven Pearson and Robyn Hunt will be reunited in a new two-person play, “Flight to Borneo,” written for them by Michael Erickson, a 1989 graduate of the playwrighting program at UC San Diego. It will play Oct. 5-7 at UCSD’s Warren Theatre. . . .

“The Undead,” a story about six gay men in their 20s looking for love, plays at the Sushi Performance Gallery through Sunday. The collaborative project by five artists, including acclaimed choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones, is the one event from the Los Angeles festival to come to San Diego. . . .