THEATER:

Academy for the Performing Arts at Huntington Beach High School is warming up for its season-opening production of “Man of La Mancha,” though you wouldn’t know it by looking at the school.

The long-awaited refurbish- ment of the venerable HBHS auditorium is now in full swing, with the entire building encircled by a chain link construction fence. Obviously, Don Quixote won’t be tilting at any windmills in this vicinity. Instead, the APA company is moving bag and baggage to the Rose Center Theater in Westminster, where director Tim Nelson’s troupe reprised its production of “Phantom” earlier this year.

The show opens Oct. 12 for two weekends.

For Nelson, the return to “La Mancha” will be a sentimental one.

“It still remains one of my favorite pieces,” he said, recalling the time years ago when he and Kent Johnson staged it at the old Sebastian’s West Dinner Playhouse in San Clemente.

“Adrienne Hatcher (Aldonza) and Johnny Moreno (Sancho) were in the production,” Nelson said. Both performers have since died. “Because of their memory, it was one of my favorites there as well.

“I staged the opening prison scene, and these kids really ate it up,” Nelson said. “They really understand the piece — the intensity, the drive, the sensitivity — and are jazzed about the show.”

Nelson has cast Alex Syiek, winner of the best actor trophy at the MACYs last year, in the central role of the knight errant, Don Quixote. Jake Wells is his sidekick, Sancho, and Aly Lespier will play Aldonza. Other major roles will be taken by Brian Wessels (innkeeper), Jared Marino (padre), Jessica Wilson (Antonia), Zak Whitson (Dr. Carrasco), Stephanie Bull (housekeeper), Nick Miranda (barber) and Nick Johnson (head muleteer Pedro).

Ask Nelson and his APA performers what they did over the summer months and they can proudly point to the top honors collected at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland with Nelson’s original musical comedy “Murder on the High C’s.”

“We got a five-star rating and lots of really great reviews,” he said, adding that they can be accessed at edfringe.com.

Prospective theatergoers will be somewhat relieved to know that they won’t have to fight football game traffic if they attend “Man of La Mancha” for its Friday or Saturday evening performances. The Rose Center Theater is at 14140 All American Way, off Westminster Avenue in Westminster. Parking is available in the City Hall parking lot, and reservations for “Man of La Mancha” are being taken at (714) 793-1150 ext. 1. Curtain is 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.