Comic relief is the reason for Golden West season

For Golden West College, next season will be one of comic relief.

After mounting such weighty productions as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Medea” this season, director Tom Amen is reversing course for the 2006-07 schedule. It appears that the heaviest offering on next season’s slate will be the musical.

“Unlike past seasons, each of our straight plays is a comedy,” Amen noted. “At the same time, we’ve departed from our recent tradition of offering up a musical comedy in the spring, which we have replaced with a musical of a more dramatic nature.

“However,” he adds, “there is still some edge to several of our comedies, and the musical, while dramatic, is a very beautiful, redemptive and uplifting story.”

Golden West’s new season will open Nov. 3 with “Red Noses” by Peter Barnes. Amen describes the play as a “brilliant, wild and provocative comedy,” which chronicles the escapades of Father Flote and his merry band of red-nosed troubadours who set out to conquer the Black Death with bad jokes, bawdry, laughter and love.

“Set in 1348 in plague-ravaged France, the play about resilience, courage and compassion is sure to appeal to the rebel lurking inside of all of us,” he adds. “Red Noses” will play through Nov. 19.

Next up, on stage from March 2 through 18, will be Martin McDonagh’s “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” playing over the St. Patrick’s Day holiday and, in Amen’s view, “a strange comic tale in the great tradition of Irish storytelling.”

The play is set in 1934 on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, focusing on Cripple Billy, a young man who longs to break away from the tedium of his daily life. When a Hollywood director arrives on a neighboring island to make his latest movie, Billy is determined to be its star, and he will risk everything for his chance at fame and fortune.

The “serious” musical is one that’s been getting a lot of local attention lately ? in fact, it opens Friday at Costa Mesa’s Vanguard University. “The Secret Garden” focuses on a young girl, orphaned in India, who’s sent to live with her embittered and reclusive uncle on his estate in Yorkshire, England, where she soon discovers a magical garden.

Described by Amen as “an elegant and moving story that both children and adults are sure to treasure,” “The Secret Garden” arrives May 4 and will run through the 14th.

The last time Golden West mounted a true farce, it was “Lend Me a Tenor” two seasons ago. Next year, the college taps the fertile mind of the “Tenor” playwright, Ken Ludwig, for the backstage farce “Moon Over Buffalo,” scheduled to run from July 6 through 15.

“When Hollywood director Frank Capra loses the stars of his latest Hollywood picture, he rushes to New York to catch George and Charlotte in their current repertory productions of ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ and ‘Private Lives,’” Amen explains. “Unfortunately Capra’s timing couldn’t be worse as misunderstandings, mistaken identities and theatrical mayhem ensue.”

Tickets for the 2006-07 Mainstage Theater season will go on sale May 5, and will be available both at the box office, (714) 895-8150, and online at www.gwctheater.com.hbi.24-titus-BPhotoInfoNC1PDGJ620060330gzgnh2ke(LA)