A rare community pit stop

Tom Titus

The plays of George Bernard Shaw are among the classics in the

world of theater, and are often produced at professional venues such

as South Coast Repertory -- which, indeed, is opening its new season

with Shaw’s “Major Barbara” next month.

Community theater groups, however, tend to avoid the cerebral

playwright from the other side of the pond, often finding him a bit

too preachy and certainly too long winded. SCR and UC Irvine have

historically had Shaw all to themselves.

However, the Newport Theater Arts Center has no such reservations,

choosing to open its season this week with a Shavian play, “Mrs.

Warren’s Profession.” The profession in question, by the way, is

considered the world’s oldest, which makes for a bit of spice in the

production.

“They originally wanted to do ‘The Little Foxes’ by Lillian

Helman,” explains director Darlene Hunter-Chaffee, “but the rights

weren’t available. I’d done ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ before, in

Long Beach, and the production was very successful, so [theater

president] Rae Cohen asked if I’d like to stage it here.”

She would, and the theater plunged into an ambitious project

involving a costume drama and a complicated scenic arrangement of

four different set designs. On the theory that if you want a job done

well, give it to a busy person, the theater assigned Terri Miller

Schmidt to design the set. Heck, all she was doing at the time was

directing “Ladies in Retirement” for the Huntington Beach Playhouse,

which opened last weekend.

“I told my Mrs. Warren, Christy Sweeny, that I wanted her

character to be kind of bawdy, like Texas Guinian,” Chaffee stated.

“They all looked back with blank stares.”

Probably the same sort of looks she got when she compared the

actress playing Mrs. Warren’s daughter, Rochelle Carmony, with a

young Merle Oberon. Few people under 50 have ever heard of her

either.

“Mrs. Warren’s Profession” is described as “an entertaining drama

depicting Shaw’s controversial attack on society’s hypocrisy as it

affects an emancipated young woman.” The conflict arises when the

daughter discovers the source of the wealth and privilege she’s been

enjoying all her life.

Rounding out the Newport cast are Jason Schlotter, Rowland E.

Kerr, Kenny Jagosz and Eric Nelson.

The show is running at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at

2:30 p.m. Sundays until Oct. 13 at the theater, 2501 Cliff Drive,

Newport Beach. Tickets are $13 and reservations are being taken at

(949) 631-0288.

“Jack and Jill,” Jane Martin’s treacherous and sometimes explosive

look at modern wedlock, opens today as a production of Orange Coast

College’s Repertory Theater Company, now in its 18th season of

productions as a student-run, faculty-advised campus theater company.

The show will run Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 22, in the

Drama Lab Studio. Curtain 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays.

Orange Coast College’s production features Angel Correa and Angela

Lopez portraying the title roles. The play addresses sexual issues

and contains mature language. Tickets, priced at $6, may be reserved

in advance by calling (714) 432-5640, Ext. 1. Tickets will be sold at

the door for $7.