Theater

Tom Titus

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When the stage on which

you’re scheduled to present an evening of original plays is covered with

sand, you create a collection of “Beach Plays.”

The New Voices Playwrights Workshop found itself in such a sandy

situation Sunday night, since its base of operations, the Costa Mesa

Civic Playhouse, has been turned into a beach for the production of

“Coastal Disturbances.” But the New Voices folks are nothing if not

adaptable.

“The Beach Plays,” a half-dozen vignettes situated on the shoreline,

demonstrated the skills of the playwrights’ group in creating theater for

specific venues. They had written for such occasions previously with

plays centered on Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

Of the six short plays presented Sunday night, the blue- ribbon

winner, at least from this corner, was “The Sands of Discontent” by the

newest of the New Voices, John Bolen, and directed by his wife, Lynne.

The play examined the age-old theme of lost love and potential

reconciliation without becoming either trite or overstated.

The man and woman involved (played by Carl Kline and Karen Chapin)

have just finished a movie project and, as they stroll the beach outside

the site of the cast party, they reminisce on their earlier, failed

relationship with honesty and believability.

Additionally, both actors were “off book,” lending further credibility

to the piece in a night of staged readings. “Beach Baby,” written and

directed by New Voices founder Christopher Trela, is a witty account of a

directionless guy (Greg Lipford) and a pregnant, but unmarried, woman

(Kimberly Wind) who meet and chat, without any semblance of flirtation,

yet with a hint that they’ll meet again. Her line concerning her departed

lover, “I didn’t think he was the man I wanted visiting my kid every

other weekend,” sums up her view of the permanence of romance.

Playwright Stephen Ludwig takes a big page out of David Mamet’s book

with “Big Al at the Beach,” which appears quite derivative of the final

scene of “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.”

Here the loquacious, hedonistic Al (David Beatty) revels and drools

over the pulchritudinous beach scenery, but it’s his reticent buddy (Eric

Eisenbrey) with his one-syllable responses who ultimately scores with

beach bunny Rachel Davenport.

In “The Naked Truth,” playwright John Lane presents a similar

situation, two guys on the prowl, but this time it’s at a nude beach. How

to approach the situation and the shy guy’s apprehension at baring his

own manhood are the chuckle-inducing situations plumbed by Lipford and

Rudi Jurado.

“Hourglass” by Tom Swimm contains tragic overtones, as the couple

involved (Michael Buss and Lisa Liken) appear to be the sole survivors of

a boating accident. The apparent infidelity of one of the parties

heightens the solemnity of the occasion.

Finally, “Ring of Truth,” written and directed by Buss, focuses on a

honeymooning couple whose bliss sours when his wedding ring turns up

missing. Both the conflict and the resolution are somewhat manufactured,

but the performances of Jurado and Theresa Reid are lively and involving.

The New Voices Playwrights Workshop is conducting a fund-raising drive

in the hopes of becoming the New Voices Playwrights Theater, with a home

base in which to produce both short and full-length plays. Those seeking

further information can contact the group at (949) 225-4125.

For now, the Civic Playhouse is home, and the next New Voices project

will be a two-weekend engagement titled “The Bed Plays,” stories centered

around that particular piece of furniture. Performance dates are March

25-26 and April 1-2.