Theater Review

Tom Titus

For theatergoers to truly get into the Christmas spirit, sometimes it

takes a little more than the traditional holiday offerings found at local

playhouses. Sometimes you need something unfamiliar, even offbeat, to get

the job done.

Costa Mesa’s New Voices Playwrights Workshop offers the unfamiliar, the

offbeat -- even the downright bizarre -- in its third round of original

one-acts with a holiday theme, “Another 10-Minute Christmas,” being

presented this weekend at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse.

In 10 playlets -- actually nine since one is presented in two parts --

New Voices approaches the yuletide season from as many angles. With

different authors, directors and actors for each, the level of

enjoyability varies considerably.

The doubleheader, written and directed by New Voices artistic director

Christopher Trela, is “Deck the Malls,” a whimsical, meet-cute tale of a

man and woman taking a rest from their holiday shopping. Both are

divorced, he has a little girl, she has a boy, so they decide to shop for

each other’s kids. Greg Lipford and Karen Clark handle their assignments

with delightful ease.

Another wickedly funny piece is “It’s a Chemistry Thing” by Jack Stanley,

also directed by Trela. Here, an overconfident salesman (David Shein)

attempts to pick up a striking lady (Della Lisi) at a bar who seems more

than willing, by falling for her story about a tattoo in a tantalizing

location. There’s one born every minute.

“Hanging Santa” shifts the focus to cultural contrasts as a brother and

sister (Rudy Orlando Jurado and Gina Shaffer, who also wrote the piece)

attempt to explain the significance of Christmas to a

Castro-indoctrinated Cuban emigre (Paul Vidales). The question springing

to mind is, “You mean Cubans, devout Catholics, don’t celebrate

Christmas?”

In “Bear Went Over the Mountain,” a strange but involving play by Richard

Freedman, a man and woman (Alex Dorman and Debbie Gerber) endure an

unhappy Christmas and their younger selves (Sean Legaspi and Nicole

Metzger) illustrate how they got that way. What’s lacking here is a sense

of closure, or completion.

The most impressive element of the first half of the program is Tom

Swimm’s “Merry Christmas, Miss Norton,” which owes an inspirational debt

to Rod Serling. Sara St. James is riveting as an impatient airline

traveler, stuck in an airport on Christmas Eve, while Michael Buss exerts

an other worldly calming influence under Michael Ambrosio’s able

direction.

Satire reigns in “Far North, Inc.,” John Lane’s whimsical piece placing

Santa Claus in a corporate atmosphere. Scandal magazine reporter Autumn

Browne grills Santa (David Shein) and his press agent (Joseph O’Melia,

resembling a reincarnated Fred Clark) about the “inside story” at the

North Pole. Buss directs the tongue-in-cheek tickler.

A more working-class Santa is depicted by Ralph DiFiore in John Bolen’s

“Nothing for Christmas,” placing St. Nick in a seedy tavern on Christmas

Eve, debunking the holiday myth. The best element of this one is the

vocalizing by the bartender, Rovin Jay.

“Hope for the Holidays,” another whimsical contribution from

writer-director Trela, pairs Lisi with Tom Swimm in a budding Christmas

Eve romance between strangers.

Programs like this usually end on an uplifting note. Unfortunately, the

finale, Stephen Ludwig’s “Gift of the Beast,” is an allegorical mishmash

in a post-apocalyptic setting that appears to have been created under the

hallucinogenic spell. It borrows from Yeats and the Roman Catholic Requim

Mass to spin its dark, discomforting message.

The latter piece, obviously, is the bottom of the New Voices barrel, but

richly crafted stories like “It’s a Chemistry Thing” and “Merry

Christmas, Miss Norton” make the overall holiday visit a merry one.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear

Thursdays and Saturdays.

FYI

WHAT: “Another 10-Minute Christmas”

WHO: New Voices Playwrights Workshop

WHERE: Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, 611 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa

WHEN: Final performances today at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

HOW MUCH: $10-$12

PHONE: (949) 225-3125