THEATER -- Tom Titus

If two local theaters were presenting plays by Neil Simon

simultaneously -- which often happens -- no one would think much about

it. There are a number of playwrights whose works have overlapped

locally.

But Horton Foote? When was the last time you saw one Horton Foote play

at a local theater? And now we’re getting two of them in the space of

three weeks.

The first one, “The Young Man From Atlanta,” opened last weekend at

the Newport Theater Arts Center, but I was busy playing father of the

bride (for real, not the show) and won’t get to check it out until this

weekend. Then next weekend, Foote’s “Getting Frankie Married -- and

Afterwards” arrives in its world premiere on the Mainstage at South Coast

Repertory.

Newport’s “Young Man,” which won Foote the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony

award, involves parents struggling in different ways to deal with the

suicide of their son. The father, Will Kidder, throws himself into his

work while the mother, Lily Dale, takes refuge in religion and the

comfort of Randy (the young man from Atlanta), who assures her that her

son died possessing her faith.

“Both parents face their own mortality and realize their life’s core

has been only an illusion,” explains theater publicist Jack Millis, who’s

taking his own crack at Southern comfort with “Steel Magnolias,” the play

he’s directing at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse. Phyllis Gitlin is

staging the Newport drama.

Jack Messenger and Harriet Whitmyer are playing the leading roles of

Will and Lily in the Newport show, with Brian Burns, Valerie Harness,

Becky Hughes, Darren Nash, Patricia Newman, Simon Panczyk and Seymour

“Sy” Schwartz completing the cast.

Foote’s most recent play, “Getting Frankie Married,” sees its first

light of day at SCR under the direction of Martin Benson. It’ll mark the

return to the SCR stage of Nan Martin, who’s been featured in a

half-dozen shows at the theater, most notably “Once in Arden” and “The

Road to Mecca.”

Martin plays a woman on her deathbed who’s not about to cross over

until she orchestrates the long-overdue marriage of her son Fred (Joel

Anderson) to his longtime girlfriend Frankie (Juliana Donald). Unlike the

grimly serious “Young Man” at Newport Theater Arts Center, “Frankie” is a

warmhearted comedy from the same Texas territory that’s been the

inspiration for so many of Foote’s stories.

Others in the SCR cast will be Linda Gehringer, Jason Guess, Annie La

Russa, Hal Landon Jr., Kristen Lowman, Randy Oglesby, Jennifer Parsons,

Sarah Rafferty and Barbara Roberts.

The playwright -- who has also won two Academy Awards for his adapted

screenplay of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and his original screenplay “Tender

Mercies” -- has had a plethora of plays produced on and off Broadway and

at regional theaters such as SCR. But for some reason, local theaters

haven’t taken an interest in them until now.

“Young Man From Atlanta” will play 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays

and 2:30 p.m. Sundays until April 21 at the Newport Theater Arts Center,

2501 Cliff Drive, Newport Beach. Reservations are being taken at (949)

631-0288.

“Getting Frankie Married” occupies the Mainstage at SCR, 655 Town

Center Drive, Costa Mesa, through May 5 with performances 8 p.m. Tuesdays

through Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 230 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays.

Call (714) 708-5555 for ticket information.

* TOM TITUS writes about and reviews local theater for the Daily

Pilot. His stories appear Thursdays and Saturdays.