Costa Mesa’s colleges tackle ‘Lion’ and ‘Wit’

Tom Titus

Higher education goes for the gold a week from tonight when the

Orange Coast College and Vanguard University theater departments take

on a pair of challenging dramas.

Vanguard has recruited two professional actors to join a third --

the college’s theater chieftain Susan Berkompas -- in James Goldman’s

epic battle royal, “The Lion in Winter.” Meanwhile, a few hundred

yards away, OCC will sink its teeth into Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer

Prize-winning “Wit.”

“Lion” has been performed several times on the local scene, most

recently in an impressive production at the Newport Theater Arts

Center. “Wit” first saw the light of day in another Costa Mesa venue,

the 1995 world premiere at South Coast Repertory.

At Vanguard, Berkompas will assume the “Katharine Hepburn role” of

Eleanor of Aquitaine, the captive queen of King Henry II, who’ll be

played by Equity thespian Richard Davies. Another pro, Darren

Kjeldsen, takes the role of their oldest son, Richard (eventually to

be known as the Lion Hearted).

However, audiences anticipating a lavishly costumed historical

epic might be in for a surprise. Guest director Marianne Savell has

fast-forwarded the play’s action to 1983 -- eight centuries away from

its original setting.

“I have no history with ‘The Lion in Winter,’ which I suppose gave

me the audacity to set this production in 1983,” said Savell, who’s

the producing director of the Actors Co-op in Hollywood. “Call me

crazy, but what struck me most about this play is the truth about us

all, how we protect ourselves from hurt.

“How different is the royal family now from the Henry and Eleanor

of 1183?” Savell pondered. “How different are we? Perhaps more subtle

in our self-protection, but it’s all the same thing. Our desperation

for love and intimacy matches our outrageous need to stay on top and

experience as little pain as possible.”

Completing the Vanguard cast are students Mark Parker as Geoffrey,

Adam Hurst as John, A.J. Teaters as France’s King Phillip, with

actresses Amy Maier and Elizabeth Rose double cast in the role of

Alais, Henry’s mistress.

At OCC, “Wit” has special meaning to director Lynne Mosakewicz,

who lost her stepmother to cancer nine years ago. “Since then, I’ve

been searching for the proper artistic medium in which to honor and

communicate her heroic battle,” the 26-year-old Costa Mesa resident

said.

Edson’s play focuses on a fiercely intelligent and independent

literature professor who has dedicated her life to the study of 17th

century English metaphysical poet John Donne -- whose epitaph,

written by poet Thomas Carew, reads, “Here lies a king that ruled as

he thought fit, the universal monarchy of wit.” She discovers she has

terminal cancer, and the play follows her valiant struggle to remain

in control up until her death.

Mosakewicz first saw the play as a televised HBO production

starring Emma Thompson. “I thought, ‘this film would make a great

play,’” she said, before learning that it actually began life as a

play right in her own hometown.

The Orange County native enrolled at OCC three years ago as a

business major, also taking some theater courses. She graduated last

May, but continued to take classes this year and will take additional

OCC courses next year before transferring to Cal State Fullerton in

the fall of 2005.

Each spring semester, OCC’s Student Repertory Theater offers a

full-length play selected by students and directed by a student.

Mosakewicz decided to submit “Wit” as her entry -- offering a

10-page business plan rather than the brief description most students

prepare.

“Several faculty members in the department supported me in my

submission of the play,” the director said. “They’d seen the HBO

movie and were moved by it.”

In fact, once rehearsals began, the entire OCC theater department

rallied strongly behind the production. So much so that the

originally scheduled one-weekend run has been stretched to two.

The play’s central role of Vivian Bearing will be played by Costa

Mesa student Jennifer Drake, an Estancia High School graduate with a

degree from UC Santa Barbara. Others in the cast are Ben Draper,

Amanda Kukuk, Mindy Sioux Patrick, Vanessa Roche and Christopher

Geer.

Mosakewicz has more than “Wit” to be nervous about. Come May 30,

she’ll marry her high school sweetheart, Jonathan Ashcraft -- in a

double ceremony; her father will be remarried in the same rite. The

newlyweds will leave June 1 for a Hawaiian honeymoon and, she says,

“That’s when I’ll finally be able to relax.”

Both “Lion in Winter” and “Wit” open April 16 and will run for two

weekends. Theatergoers may call Vanguard at (714) 668-6145 for reservations, while OCC is taking names at (714) 432-5880.

JAMES NOVEL TO HIT UCI STAGE

UC Irvine’s Valerie Rachelle, who adapted Henry James’ novel

“Portrait of a Lady,” for the stage, will direct a production of the

play next week at UCI’s Humanities Hall Little Theater.

“The play takes place in a gallery that features five portraits of

women in different stages of their lives,” the director said. “We

begin in New York, cross the ocean to England, stop a while in

Florence and end up in Rome.”

“Portrait of a Lady” will be presented Wednesday through Saturday

at 8 p.m. Call (949) 824-2787 for ticket information.

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

appear Fridays.