Gaslamp, Ensemble Arts Reunite for ‘Lady Macbeth’

Was Lady Macbeth having an affair with Macduff? Was she trying to get herself pregnant before her biological clock finished ticking? And was that, perchance, why bloody Mr. Macbeth was a bit peeved at his fellow Scotsman?

Those are the questions behind the American premiere of “Lady Macbeth,” the newest co-production between the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company and the Ensemble Arts Theatre.

The play, by British playwright Jean Binnie, will open a five-week run April 26 at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre’s smaller space.

This latest collaboration continues a relationship between the Ensemble Arts Theatre and the Gaslamp that began last year with their co-production of “Dusk to Dawn at the Sunset.” It’s a match that makes sense for both companies.

The Ensemble Arts Theatre, a company with shows but no permanent stage, gets a venue and an opportunity to tap into the Gaslamp’s subscription base. The financially strapped Gaslamp, which is pouring its efforts into producing at the Hahn Cosmopolitan, the larger of its two stages, gets shows for its smaller space at minimal expense.

And, since the Gaslamp owes many of its 1990 subscribers as many as three shows at that space because of cancellations during the company’s fiscal crisis last year, “Lady Macbeth” will give it an opportunity to further fulfill its obligations.

So far, the arrangement seems to be suiting both theaters just fine.

“At this point, I think it’s an unstated understanding that we will continue to explore this relationship,” said Steve Bevans, the Gaslamp’s managing director. “They obviously need a venue, and we have a venue that we’re not prepared to put a lot of resources into. It’s a way for us to be involved in some projects at a much lower commitment of resources. It allows us to focus on the Hahn.”

For Ginny-Lynn Safford, the artistic director of Ensemble Arts, it gives her company the exposure a new company needs. Ensemble Arts entered its third year Feb. 7 and is becoming known for its focus on new material, some of which Safford has found at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where the company has toured shows for the past two years.

“We were able to play to full houses for our entire run (of “Dusk to Dawn at the Sunset”) because of the portion of the house that was their (the Gaslamp) subscribers,” said Safford. “While we weren’t getting a financial benefit from that, we were able to create good word of mouth.”

Safford was also able to create good will with the Gaslamp management. She was hired to direct the Gaslamp’s current production of “Woman in Mind” at the Hahn Cosmopolitan. And she has arranged for her company to produce a free monthly staged reading series Tuesday nights at the Gaslamp. The series begins Feb. 19 with “Little Glimpses” by Chip Davis and continues March 19 with a musical piece by Kurt Weill (tentatively “Johnny Johnson”) and in April with a new piece commissioned by Ensemble Arts from Terry Dodd, the playwright of “Dusk to Dawn.” Two more readings will be announced for May and June.

Safford said she plans to tour the Dodd piece at the Fringe Festival this August with the idea of bringing it back to San Diego for a full production in the fall. And who knows? It might even become the company’s next co-production with the Gaslamp.

The Old Globe has filled one of its two to-be-announced summer slots with George Kelly’s 1924 comedy, “The Show-Off.” It will star Old Globe associate artist Sada Thompson as the show-off’s mother-in-law, Sept. 5-Oct. 13. Jack O’Brien, the Old Globe’s artistic director, will direct.

The San Diego Actors Coop, which recently presented a festival at Sushi Performance Gallery of one-act plays chosen, performed, directed and, in some cases, written by its members will follow up the event with a best-of-the-festival Friday through Sunday, beginning at 7 p.m. each night at Sushi. The shows for Thursday and Saturday are: “Mom and the Razor Blades” by Wendy Hammond, “Lindbergh: A Hero’s Journey,” by Philip Charles Sneed, “Art Police,” by George Weinberg-Harter and “Susan at 14” by Christine Sevec. Friday and Sunday the group will present “A Freedom Unknown,” by Elmo Terry-Morgan, “I’m a Stranger Here Myself,” a collaborative piece by Jim Peck with Susan Gelman and Susanna Thompson, “Cecil Without Artie,” by Annie Hinton in collaboration with Scott Rubsam and “The Principles of Self-Defense” by Mack Owen.

In addition, “How will This Fudge? Or Don’t Quit Your Day Job,” one of the plays not chosen to be reprised at Sushi, will be performed in one of San Diego’s newest little performance venues: upstairs in the 26-seat loft of the North Park Coffee Company at 3028 University, near 30th Street. The work by local actor Luther Hanson is a one-woman piece about a comic audition written for his wife, actress Christine Nicholson, and is based on the “How will this fadge” (as in “How will this turn out”) speech from “Twelfth Night.” It will play March 15, 16, 22 and 23.

Sweetooth Comedy Theatre just got itself a home and is wasting no time announcing a season. The 2-year-old company, which named itself after the rich desserts it serves during intermission, just signed a one-year lease at the Maryland Hotel at 630 F St. The season will begin March 1-April 6 with William Mastrosimone’s “The Woolgatherer,” a story about a shy girl whose life changes when she meets a cynical truck driver. It continues with Christopher Durang’s “Baby with the Bathwater,” about a couple that has no idea how to bring up a child May 3-June 8 and the West Coast premiere of “Insignificance,” a play by Terry Johnson about a fictional meeting between Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein. Company director Thomas Overland said he is looking for a musical for the fall and the return of Sweetooth’s “Christmas Lights” for December.

PROGRAM NOTES: KPBS-TV explores “Crisis in the Arts: Politics, Censorship and Money,” airing Wednesday from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee will serve on the panel commenting on these issues. . . .

The London Small Theatre Co. will perform Aristophanes’ comedy, “Frogs,” at 8 p.m. March 1-3 in the UC San Diego Price Center Theatre. . . .

Theatre Sans Fil, a Montreal-based theater, will bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” complete with 48 giant puppets, to the Poway Center for the Performing Arts March 6 at 7:30 p.m. . . .

Tickets go on sale Sunday for “Les Miserables,” a San Diego Playgoers presentation of the Tony award-winning musical that will run July 9-14 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. . . .

Coming Soon to Diversionary Theatre, a gay and lesbian theater company, is “Coming Soon,” subtitled “A Sapphic Sudsaga.” An American premiere by British playwright Debbie Klein, the show is a parody of a “Dynasty”-like soap opera focusing on the entangled sexual relationships of six women. It opens Friday and will play Fridays and Saturdays through March 23 at the company’s theater on 23rd Street and Broadway.