Theater

Tom Titus

Thirty-five years is a considerably long time by anyone’s yardstick.

People who spend three and a half decades in the same vocation or

avocation must either really enjoy it or be in one hell of a rut.

The recent 35-year celebration by South Coast Repertory and the upcoming

35-year anniversary of the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse served to remind me

that next week will mark a personal observation of the same vintage -- 35

years of writing about the theater for the pages of the Daily Pilot.

It certainly hasn’t been a rut. In fact, it’s been quite enjoyable --

for the most part. Oh, there have been the occasional stinkers, the ones

you wish you could exit surreptitiously at intermission, but on the

whole, reviewing a play is a pretty nice way to spend an evening.

How did it all begin? How did a kid from a backwater Pennsylvania town

get so enamored of the stage? I suppose you could blame Uncle Sam for

that. Back in the early ‘60s, while stationed in New Jersey about 50

miles from Manhattan, I spent most weekends taking advantage of the USO’s

free Broadway and off-Broadway tickets until the Army told me I could go

home again.

I went home long enough to say goodbye and packed my bags for California.

I’d been here a little over a year when a fellow reporter on the Daily

Pilot staff handed me a pair of tickets and asked if I’d like to review a

play at the Laguna Playhouse. The show was “A Thousand Clowns” and the

leading actor was one Mike Farrell, who later became familiar in most

living rooms as B.J. Hunnicut on “M*A*S*H” and now doctors dogs on

“Providence.”

I enjoyed the experience and started covering other plays, and in that

same month -- February 1965 -- there came a visit from a fellow about my

age who was starting his own theater company in Newport Beach and was

looking for a little publicity.

As you may have guessed, the guy was David Emmes and his theater was

South Coast Rep, and I caught the opening show, a wild and crazy version

of “Tartuffe,” made wilder and crazier when actor Don Took (who spelled

his name Tuche back then) threw my name into the dialogue. We hadn’t met

at the time, so it was more than a little startling.

I’ve been privileged to see every SCR show since, the only person besides

Emmes and co-founder Martin Benson who can say that. The South Coast

Repertory success story has been a marvelous ongoing scenario, and I’m

happy to have been able to comment on the company’s 35-year progress.

That first year, 1965, also saw the birth of the Costa Mesa Civic

Playhouse and the genesis of my avocational romance with the theater. I

started acting in the first Costa Mesa show, “Send Me No Flowers,” began

directing three years later, and since 1972 I’ve expended countless hours

as artistic director of the Irvine Community Theater.

Over the years, I’ve encountered some superb talent in local theater,

both from a seat in the audience and as an actor and director.

I’ve admired people like P.J. Agnew and Adriana Sanchez who possess all

the talent and dedication required for a professional career, but remain

on the local stage scene to elevate the caliber of community theater.

With SCR’s two theaters and the neighboring Orange County Performing Arts

Center on the professional end, and community theaters like the Costa

Mesa Civic Playhouse, Newport Theater Arts Center and the new Trilogy

Playhouse -- not to mention Orange Coast College’s ambitious theater arts

department and the promising program at Vanguard University -- our

two-city area is richly endowed theatrically.

Hopefully the semiprofessional Theater District, which drew its curtain a

month ago, will relocate in our midst as well.

It’s been a long and interesting haul from 1965 to the new millennium,

and for me the only thing more enjoyable than watching theater is doing

it. Having a now-grown son and daughter who have shared many of those

memories makes it even more of a treat.

But, while acting and directing probably are the most fun one can have

with one’s clothes on, writing about the theater remains my main gig, and

will be long after I’ve hung it up on the production end.

I’d enjoy nothing better than being able to spend another 35 years

sharing my theatrical thoughts with Daily Pilot readers.

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

Thursdays and Saturdays.