Audience has part in ‘Madness’

Ever watch a murder mystery on stage and wish that you could be part of the sleuthing that ferrets out the guilty party?

Well, your time has come ? or at least it’s coming in a few weeks at the Laguna Playhouse.

With “Shear Madness,” the playhouse’s summer attraction opening July 15 after four days of previews, the audience will be part of the action. It’s a blend of whodunit and improvisational theater, with references to current news events tossed in for good measure.

Billed as “America’s longest-running play,” the interactive comic mystery has been performed for a quarter of a century worldwide and staged over 37,000 times along its way to Laguna Beach.

The genesis of “Shear Madness” goes back to Rochester, N.Y., when a former high school teacher, Bruce Jordan, discovered a German play called “Scherenschnitt,” by German writer and psychologist Paul Portner. The playwright had written the script to use as a study of how people perceive or misperceive reality.

Intrigued by the concept, Jordan recruited another former teacher, Marilyn Abrams, for a production of the play in Lake George. This was in 1978 and with little more than a basic outline of a script.

A funny thing happened ? or rather a number of funny things ? as the audience became involved with the action. Jordan recognized that he had something unique on his hands and has instructed his actors to this day to “let the audience win.”

“If the audience has something funnier to say or do than the actors, let them,” Jordan says. “That is the basic magic of the play.”

It wasn’t long before “Shear Madness” developed into a show that changed every time it was performed. The actors followed a basic format, but changed specific lines along the way, depending on the whim of the audience.

Laguna audiences might see the performers refer to, say, Vice President Dick Cheney’s accidental shooting of a hunting companion or a juicy bit of local news. This, Jordan believes, is what keeps the play fresh and funny.

“It occurred to me when we started actually performing the play that it would work well as a comedy,” Jordan recalls.

“Early on, most of the laughs were attained during the times when the audience was actively involved in solving the crimes. And the laughs were derived from the wild and conflicting misperceptions that the audience had.”

When they first staged the show, Jordan and Abrams were among the cast members as well as being the creative team. Because they were on stage each night, Abrams said they experienced the “magical chemistry” between the actors and the audience.

When “Shear Madness” opens in Laguna, the director will be Chris Tarjan, who also has performed in three productions of the play ? and will be seen in this one as well. Other cast members will be Tacey Adams, Robin Long, Brett Ryback, Joe Sampson and Kevin Symons (who Laguna audiences will remember from “Rounding Third” and “The Constant Wife”).

“Shear Madness” will be tickling audiences on the playhouse stage through September 3, nightly except Mondays ? when “Late Nite Catechism” returns for its third season of “nunsense” on the theater’s dark nights Sunday and Monday evenings. dpt-titus-CPhotoInfo0E1SDK4020060630h3hei2kf(LA)