TOM TITUS -- Theater

Sometimes life has a way of telling you to slow down. But if you’re

someone like Terri Miller Schmidt, that just means you do four shows a

year instead of five.

The gregarious director, who has staged productions at a fever pitch

for the last two decades, had taken a rare acting assignment earlier this

year as one of the two seasoned actresses in “Legends” at the Huntington

Beach Playhouse. Halfway through rehearsal, however, on her first visit

to New York City with friends, she found herself starring in her own

version of “ER” after passing out on a subway.

“They said it was high blood pressure, but I’ve never had that trouble

before,” she said. “I think it was just fatigue, nervous exhaustion. That

and the strange environment. I’d never been to New York before.”

Whatever it was, it put Schmidt out of “Legends” on doctor’s orders.

That was in April, and Schmidt has “slowed down” to the extent that

she’s directed two other shows -- “The Cemetery Club” at Costa Mesa’s

Jewish Community Center and “My Emperor’s New Clothes” at the Newport

Theater Arts Center -- since then, and is preparing to put “Mornings at

Seven” on the boards at Newport on Sept. 15.

The six weeks of rest the doctor ordered were whittled to two, and

there won’t be too much kicking back for Schmidt during the next few

months, either.

After “Mornings,” she’ll direct “O Henry’s Christmas” in San Clemente,

“Wind in the Willows” in La Habra, then it’s back to Newport to stage the

June musical “Sweet and Hot.”

Theater seems to be a tonic for Schmidt. Now in her mid-50s, she got

her start as Wendy in a grade school production of “Peter Pan” back in

her hometown of Compton. She is, she declares proudly, a

fourth-generation Californian, which may explain the New York culture

shock.

She was a theater major in college, but opted for marriage over a

degree -- she and husband Dick have been wed for 35 years.

When her two children were born, she gave up the greasepaint for a

career in motherhood, then connected with the Fountain Valley Community

Theater in 1981 as a backstage parent. The theater specialized in

children’s shows, and later became the Orange County Children’s Theater.

Terri Miller Schmidt arrived at Newport in 1990 for a supporting role

in “Come Back, Little Sheba” and joined the theater’s board of directors

the following year. She’s been a Newport regular ever since, directing

such shows as “The Price,” “Bells Are Ringing” and “The Pajama Game.”

She, her husband and son-in-law Chris started their own set-design

company, 16th Street Design, and have built more than 15 sets in the last

four years for productions in Newport and elsewhere. Dick Schmidt is

building the set for “Mornings.”

“Dick decided that if he wanted to spend more time with me, this would

be a good way, and swinging a hammer is a good stress reliever too,” she

said.

Earlier this year, her set-designing talents were tested when she

directed “Coastal Disturbances” at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse -- and

wound up transporting several tons of sand into the theater for the beach

setting.

“The set strike was really interesting,” she quipped. Like many

directors, Schmidt is fascinated with the rehearsal process, the “putting

it all together” and watching actors grow in character. Then watching on

performance nights, gleefully, as the audience responds to the work she’s

done.

And, little setbacks like the one in New York notwithstanding, she’s

planning to keep on doing it for a long time to come.

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

appear Thursdays and Saturdays.