Tom Titus Not that it needs the...

Tom Titus

Not that it needs the titles to draw audiences -- the most recent show

played to sold-out houses -- but the Laguna Playhouse’s Youth Theater

has a pair of beloved American classics awaiting its audiences in

2002-03.

Highlighting the Youth Theater’s four-show season will be oldies but

goodies “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” slated for

performances in December and May, respectively. They’ll be joined by a

pair of lesser-known titles, “Anastasia Krupnik” in October and “The

Wrestling Season” in February.

The first three plays were selected by Youth Theater director Joe

Lauderdale for the subscription season. They are geared for audiences

ages 5 and older. The “The Wrestling Season,” the non-subscription

project, is recommended for kids 12 and up.

Lauderdale’s staging of “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No

Good, Very Bad Day” earlier this month drew SRO crowds for its

two-weekend run, and the playhouse added an extra Thursday performance to

handle the overflow. It’s a good bet they’ll have to do likewise when

“The Wizard of Oz” hits the boards, since it’s probably quite familiar to

anyone over the age of 2 who can handle Margaret Hamilton’s visage on TV

vowing to eliminate young Judy Garland “and your little dog, too.”

First up, however, opening Oct. 11, is “Anastasia Krupnik,” adapted

by Meryl Friedman from a novel by Lois Lowry. This play centers on a

young girl who chronicles her thoughts and opinions on her life and the

people around her in her zealously guarded notebook.

“Like most kids, she bases conclusions on first impressions, but time

seems to change the way she looks at things,” Lauderdale observes.

Then, the Youth Theater thespians will be off to see the wizard. The

timeless L. Frank Baum story -- set to the music from the movie of

Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg -- finds a young Kansas heroine

transported “over the rainbow” to the land of Oz, where the Scarecrow,

the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion help her find the way home. And, oh

yes, there’s that Wicked Witch of the West. The show opens Dec. 6.

Switching to an older clientele in February, the Youth Theater will

mount Laurie Brooks’ “The Wrestling Season,” which uses the metaphor of a

wrestling match to explore the issues of peer pressure, the search for

identity and the destructive power of rumors. Lauderdale cautions that

the show contains candid language, but “it focuses on the ideas and

issues that teens face every day.”

The playhouse will host post-show discussions that connect the actors

and audience as they explore questions raised in the story. “The

Wrestling Season” will be performed three days only, Feb. 7-9.

Devotees of Mark Twain’s all-American kid, “Tom Sawyer,” will find

the Laguna version a little different than the book or the countless

movie adaptations. Lauderdale has adapted the story and Mark Turnbull has

added music and lyrics to pep up the trials and tribulations of a

youngster who gets his buddies to whitewash his fence, romances the new

girl in town, runs away to be a pirate and is trapped in a cave with a

killer. The show will play May 9-18 to close out the Youth Theater

season.

The season will also include a quartet of special events -- a Winter

Showcase Dec. 17, a reader’s theater March 24, a repertory project May 13

and a Spring Showcase June 2, all scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Season

subscriptions for the three “5-and-older” shows are now being accepted,

and more information may be obtained by calling the playhouse at

497-2787.

By the way, the playhouse will be humming all through June, as the

West Coast premiere of Neil LaBute’s “The Shape of Things to Come”

arrives Saturday and plays through June 30. It replaces the originally

scheduled “Candida” and is being directed by Richard Stein, the

theater’s executive director.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot