Colleges ready plays by Ionesco and ‘Fiddler’

Tom Titus

Whether your taste runs to popular musicals or absurdist dramas,

there’s something coming up for you at a college in Costa Mesa.

Orange Coast College’s Repertory Theater Company returns to the

spotlight tonight, opening a two-weekend visit to Eugene Ionesco, one

of the theater’s most famous absurdist playwrights, for three of the

Romanian author’s most celebrated short plays.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Vanguard University is preparing a

somewhat more ambitious undertaking -- mounting the musical “Fiddler

on the Roof” on the limited dimensions of the college’s Lyceum

Theater, also for two weekends, albeit for 10 performances.

The “Evening of Ionesco” at OCC’s Studio Theater will offer “The

Bald Soprano,” “The Lesson” and “The Leader.” “Soprano” is his first

play, written at the age of 38, and survived critical dissection to

become an international success.

The playwright, who died in 1994 at the age of 82, used his unique

form of comedy to convey what he saw as the meaninglessness of modern

man’s existence in a universe ruled by chance. Probably the most

famous work of his more than 20 plays is “Rhinoceros.”

“An Evening of Ionesco” will be presented Saturdays at 8 p.m. and

Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. through Feb. 23 at the OCC Studio Theater.

Tickets may be reserved by calling (714) 432-5640, Ext. 1.

Unlike the Ionesco plays, “Fiddler on the Roof” requires little or

no introduction for local audiences. The story of Tevye the dairyman

and his five daughters displaced by the Russian revolution has become

one of America’s most popular -- and most presented -- musicals.

The show’s score, by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, is among the

most familiar in the theater -- “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Sunrise,

Sunset,” “Matchmaker,” “To Life,” etc. have become pop standards,

assuming a life of their own.

Directing “Fiddler” will be Carey Curtis Smith, who staged

Vanguard’s production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor

Dreamcoat” last year and did a well-received acting turn in the

college’s most recent show, “Charley’s Aunt.”

“Fiddler on the Roof” will open Thursday at the Vanguard’s Lyceum

and will be staged Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2

and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. until March 2. Ticket reservations

are taken at (714) 668-6145.

‘The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow’ to premiere at SCR

South Coast Repertory has selected its season-closing production

for the new Julienne Argyros Theater. It’ll be the world premiere of

“The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow” by Rolin Jones, a computer-age

comedy about a brilliant, but housebound young woman who used science

to find her biological mother in China.

SCR associate artist David Chambers will direct the play, which is

slated for May 2 through 18 and will be -- along with the world

premiere of Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” on the theater’s

Segerstrom Stage -- part of SCR’s sixth annual Pacific Playwrights

Project May 16 through 18.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater. His columns run on Thursdays

and Saturdays.