Playhouse has a busy summer planned

Tom Titus

What’s going on at the Huntington Beach Playhouse? A more pertinent

question might be: What isn’t going on?

Currently, the playhouse has just wrapped up its rib-tickling

production of “Squabbles” and is in rehearsal for the musical “Fiddler on

the Roof,” which opens July 26.

On weekends, the Shakespearean production of ‘Henry IV, Part 1” is

holding forth outside in the Central Park Amphitheater on weekend

afternoons.

No sooner will “Fiddler” go on the boards than the playhouse will hold

auditions for its next production, the mystery drama “Ladies in

Retirement.” Tryouts for this venerable piece will be held July 29 and 30

from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Maddy Room of the Huntington Beach Central

Library, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach -- the same building where

performances are given.

“Ladies in Retirement,” by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham, will be

directed by Terri Miller Schmidt, whose “Bus Stop” was a highlight of

last season’s activity. The show calls for five women of “mature” age and

one man, and all must be capable of credible British accents.

No appointments are necessary, with cold readings planned from the

script. “Ladies in Retirement” opens Sept. 6 and plays through the Sept.

22.

Oh, yes; there’s some other news regarding the Huntington Beach

Playhouse that probably should be dispensed. It seems the theater’s

planned season closer, “Born Yesterday,” isn’t presently available due to

some legal wrangles involving the estate of playwright Garson Kanin.

Now, I’ve always liked “Born Yesterday.” I enacted the role of Paul

Verrall the first time the Huntington Beach Playhouse staged it back in

the barn days, and I later directed it for my home theatrical base, the

Irvine Community Theater, in 1983.

But I much prefer the replacement show, Larry Shue’s “The Foreigner,”

a marvelous comedy first performed locally at South Coast Repertory,

about 15 years ago. It’s a show I’ve wanted to direct ever since seeing

the South Coast Repertory version, but couldn’t schedule it at the Irvine

multipurpose facility because of technical limitations.

So, I’ve proposed the show to various local groups with

moreuser-friendly staging arrangements, one of which was the Huntington

Beach Playhouse. And when “The Foreigner” opens Nov. 1, I’ll be in the

director’s chair rather than in the reviewer’s seat, and someone else can

provide critical comment for the Independent.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.