Playhouse’s 40th birthday upstaged by Laguna

Tom Titus

It seemed like a great idea at the time -- celebrating the 40th

anniversary of the Huntington Beach Playhouse with the show that

started it all back in 1963, that oldie but goodie “Harvey.”

Then, a few miles to the south, folks at the Laguna Playhouse had

the same idea. And since Laguna’s theater is a professional

operation, and could attract an actor of the magnitude of Charles

Durning to star, the non-professional rights were yanked from the

Huntington Beach thespians.

So, there won’t be any 6-foot invisible rabbits hopping around the

Library Theater in September, but audiences will be treated to a show

that’s just as familiar. “Harvey” has been replaced on the schedule

with William Inge’s masterpiece, “Picnic.”

That, however, is a few months down the line. At the moment, the

Huntington Beach Playhouse is in rehearsal for another oldie -- and

one the players presented back in the 1960s during their tenure in

what was affectionately known as “the Barn.”

This would be “Heaven Can Wait,” the comedy in which a dead boxer

(who became a football player in the Warren Beatty movie) comes back

to right a few wrongs from his past. The show opens June 13.

Meanwhile, there’s some activity going on outdoors a few feet from

the playhouse, as well. Rehearsals are proceeding on weekends for the

playhouse’s annual Shakespeare in the Park production, “As You Like

It.”

Opening night, or day rather, is July 5, and the show runs through

July 27 with performances on Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the

city’s Central Park adjacent to the library and playhouse.

In case you’re not overly familiar with “As You Like It,” the play

concerns “the resolution of the dramatic problem in the warped

attitudes of two evil brothers toward good brothers and related

obstacles to marriage for several couples in the play.” All, indeed,

will be well that ends well.

Hopefully, the same will hold true for the Huntington Beach

Playhouse, which still is hoping to find a theater venue of its own

despite its current utilization of one of the finest auditoriums

available in local community theater. (I know; I directed there last

year).

The problem is, it’s not theirs. The playhouse is cast in the role

of a stepchild to the city library, and has had to alter its schedule

and activities to conform with the whims of the book people. The set

is built at a rehearsal hall and carted to the theater the Sunday

prior to opening.

The performance schedule has shrunk from four weekends to three,

albeit still with 16 stagings shoehorned into that time period, and

the theater’s opening night reception was moved from a library

meeting room to the rehearsal facility several blocks away.

“We are still looking for a new location conducive to a small

community theater,” playhouse Vice President Catherine Stip said.

After 40 years, they deserve one.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.