Amen preparing laugh fest with ‘Sly Fox’

Tom Titus

If you liked “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” says

Golden West College’s theater director Tom Amen, you’re going to love

“The Sly Fox.”

Amen, who recently completed his first year as a Golden West College

theater instructor, compares the upcoming show, which opens July 6, to

“Forum” with some credence. Both have their roots in classical theater.

“Forum” was based on the ancient Greek plays of Plautus, while “Fox” is a

modern treatment of Ben Jonson’s “Volpone.”

And, he adds, both plays were created by the comic genius of Larry

Gelbart, who also was responsible for a little TV series called

“M*A*S*H.”

“Rather than put on a Shakespearean piece, we wanted to do something

different,” says Amen, 37, who’ll get his fill of the heavy stuff next

season when he stages “Dancing at Lughnasa” followed by Sophocles’

“Oedipus Rex.”

“This one is just fun,” he grins, underscoring the last two words.

Amen is relatively new to Golden West, but hardly to Southern

California. Born in San Bernardino, he picked up his bachelor’s degree in

acting from UC Irvine in 1992, graduating with honors, then received a

master’s degree in directing in 1995 from the University of Utah, where

he also taught acting.

Returning to California in the fall of 1995, Amen started his teaching

career in rather scattershot fashion. Over the last six years, he taught

a variety of classes in the theater departments of Orange Coast College,

Cypress College, Irvine Valley College, Mira Costa College, Riverside

Community College and the Orange County High School of the Arts.

He became the artistic director of Fullerton’s Vanguard Theater

Ensemble in 1996 and mounted successful productions of “The Diviners”

and “Oleanna.” All in all, he’s appeared in or directed more than 45

productions in California, Arizona and Utah, including such classics as

“The Crucible,” “Our Town,” “The Glass Menagerie,” “As You Like It,” “The

Diary of Anne Frank” and, yes, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the

Forum.”

Amen seems to have found a home at Golden West.

“I love the idea of members of the community becoming involved in

shows with our students,” he says. “The kids really can learn from

someone like Mike Bielitz,” who’s in “Sly Fox” and has been acting in

local theater for more than 30 years.

As for the show itself, Amen promises a laugh-packed evening with

sight gags reminiscent of Abbott and Costello and the Marx Brothers.

“It’s an old style of comedy that still works,” he grins. “It’s got a

bawdy type of feeling to it.”

When “The Sly Fox” winds up its two-weekend engagement, Amen will be

off to Greece, where he will spend five weeks studying Greek theater in

preparation for his directing duties on “Oedipus”’ next spring -- which

he promises will be more accessible to audiences than traditional

stagings of the tragedy. He’s also working on a new textbook for student

actors, which he hopes to complete in the near future, along with several

playwriting projects.

And, lest audiences miss the central theme of “Sly Fox,” Amen says the

settings for the play will establish a central theme.

“They’ll all be the color of money,” he said, slyly.