First stop for ‘Orphan Train’ is SCR

Tom Titus

When South Coast Repertory opened its new Julianne Argyros Theater

last November, the occasion was a world premiere, Richard Greenberg’s

new play, “The Violet Hour.”

Not to be outdone, SCR’s Nicholas Studio -- the former Second

Stage renovated and reconfigured as a 95-seat theater -- will offer

its first production this weekend, also a world premiere. And a

home-grown one, at that.

Laurie Woolery, an actress, director and the director of the

theater’s Young Conservatory program, is also a playwright and has

created a play especially for her students. It’s “Orphan Train: The

Lost Children,” the story of a group of poor, homeless and orphaned

children who were sent to the American West from the mid-19th to the

mid-20th century.

“Orphan Train,” set in the early 1920s, was inspired by stories of

children taken off the streets of New York, set on a perilous train

journey across the country and placed with homesteading families.

Young Conservatory instructor Steve DeNaut is directing.

“When I started working at SCR, I noticed that -- just like the

main theater -- the Young Conservatory sought to bring new work to

the stage,” Woolery said. “The only thing was, there wasn’t a lot of

interesting material beyond the Disney stuff or fairy tales.”

As it happened, Woolery was working on the script of “Orphan

Train,” although she originally intended it as a vehicle for adult

performers. She had gained the inspiration from her brother, a

historian, who had told her about the westward movement of young

people to complete pioneer families.

“I liked the idea of kids telling a true story about other kids,”

she said. “Especially when it’s still happening in countries like

Afghanistan. The play hopefully will educate and inform, and make

people, both youngsters and adults, to feel and to think.”

“Orphan Train” centers on a child named Clarice, who spins

fantastical stories to ease the fears of her sisters as they wait

huddled in the train station.

Others gather around, and she becomes a surrogate mother to the

frightened children, who imagine themselves as the characters in her

inventive stories. Even the young hoodlums hiding in the station

become caught up in the magical tales.

“Our goal in this production, and in the Young Conservatory, is

helping people find their inner voice,” Woolery said.

Woolery has found her particular voice as a playwright with some

15 scripts behind her in and out of Southern California. Three years

ago, she received a commission from SCR to write and direct “Bliss,”

which received its world premiere in the spring of 2000. Her

award-winning production of “Our Town” won “best scene” honors at the

2001 Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival.

She’s working on a modern adaptation of “Don Quixote” and is the

playwright in residence for Hollygrove Children’s Home in Los

Angeles. Recently, she performed her solo play, “Salvadorean

Moon/African Sky,” and participated in SCR’s Pacific Playwrights

Festival in last summer’s “California Scenarios.”

These days, however, her attention is on “Orphan Train,” even

though she’s not in the director’s chair on this one. The cast is

composed of “her kids,” the ones in the Young Conservatory at SCR.

Members of the conservatory’s Junior Players -- an ensemble group

of acting students selected by audition after completing two years of

Young Conservatory training -- comprise the cast of “Orphan Train.”

They include Kaylin Miller and Kaitlyn Smith of Costa Mesa, Camille

Kazempoor of Newport Beach and Brina Dokich, Alexis Gomez and Hayley

Palmer of Corona del Mar.

“Orphan Train: The Lost Children” will be presented at 1 and 4

p.m. Saturdays and Sundays beginning this week and running through

April 13. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased through the SCR box

office at (714) 708-5555.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His

reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.