TOM TITUS -- Theater

Comedy, as Steve Martin once observed, isn’t pretty. The four one-act

plays in Orange Coast College Repertory Theater’s annual Comedy Festival

-- including one by Martin himself -- certainly bear out the

comedian-playwright’s assertion.

They may not be pretty, but at least three of the four offerings,

ranging from snide to satiric to derivative, are nevertheless quite

effective. The fourth is strictly an exercise in sustained ridicule.

The classiest of the quartet is Martin’s “Wasp,” a scathing satire

focusing on a 1950s nuclear family approaching meltdown. Director Jessica

Hutchinson zeros in on the play’s razor-edged sendups, adding some

well-chosen period music to bridge the five scenes.

Travis Woods is excellent as the dad who expounds from his dining room

pulpit, oblivious to his family’s interjections. Heather Layton’s mother

is a splendid study in plastic-faced frustration, while the kids (Jessica

Seely and Sean Hesketh) function in their own worlds, Seely as a bratty

teen and Hesketh exploring imaginary worlds. Seely’s choir session,

veering in and out of reality, is beautifully delivered.

OCC’s resident student playwright, Chris Secor, contributes two

originals in the festival. The first, entitled “Theater,” strikes a blow

for authors who cringe under the control of censors and investors. As the

playwright (Ryan Gray) seethes, artistic directors Secor and Casey

Colliflower water down his script and money man Frank Miyashiro (who also

directs) completes the dilution process until nothing is left but

mindless repetition.

More ambitious is Secor’s “Life After Beth,” in which five young

campers find their friendships coming apart at the seams on an outing

where Murphy’s Law is strictly enforced. The gimmick here is it’s all in

rhymed couplets, Shakespearean style, inspired, most likely, by “A

Midsummer Night’s Dream.”Secor opens the show by reading a poetic saga,

then the cast continues to speak in verse.

Secor’s tale, which he also directs, is rambling and often sophomoric,

but his chosen format is tricky and a challenge to sustain.

Secor, Colliflower, Lauren Mora, Phi Le and Rebecca Muhleman comprise

a contentious crop of campers, while Miyashiro (garbed as a bear) and

Erin Holt (as a forest spirit with an attitude) spice up the procedure.

Finally, playwright Christopher Durang has created some fine caustic

comedies over the past few decades. So why do students invariably opt for

“Naomi in the Living Room,” an exercise in overstatement that should be

confined -- if disinterred at all -- to acting classes?

Isabella Melo launches a bombastic tirade to reduce son and

daughter-in-law Angel Correa and Nancy Troia to dust in this egregiously

over-the-top piece directed by Ramsey Schlissel.

The Comedy Festival is an ideal place for student actors and directors

to try out their wings, and some invariably succeed to a greater extent

than others. Directors Hutchison and Secor win high marks for their

efforts, along with actors Woods, Seely and Muhleman.

All the performers are given due appreciation, save for the mouse that

scurried across the stage floor during Friday’s “Theater” presentation,

then realized he was in the wrong show. The festival concludes this

weekend.

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

appear Thursdays and Saturdays.

FYI

WHAT: OCC Repertory Comedy Festival

WHERE: Studio Theater, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa

Mesa

WHEN: Closing performances 8 p.m. today through Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m.

Sunday

COST: $6

TICKETS: (714) 432-5640, Ext. 1