THEATER: Gehringer has no ‘doubt’ about play

Ten years ago, Linda Gehringer found a home in Laguna Beach. She also found a home at South Coast Repertory.

“I feel so fortunate,” said the actress, who is starring in John Patrick Shanley’s award-winning drama, “Doubt, a Parable” on SCR’s Segerstrom Stage. “I met my husband here in 1997 and stayed in Laguna. It’s been a happy experience for both of us.”

Gehringer, who numbers “Doubt” as her 16th play on the Costa Mesa stage, takes on the role of Sister Aloysius, principal of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, who suspects a young priest of showing an improper interest in one of his students.

“The play definitely is a debate about doubt vs. certainty,” Gehringer said. “It uses this topic, but actually should reverberate in many ways about black-and-white thinking as opposed to believing there are many gray areas.”

Gehringer’s character is quite definitely in the “black-and-white” category. “She is very certain in her belief and pursues that certainty,” she said.

For Gehringer, “Doubt” will be her third appearance on the South Coast Rep stage this year. Earlier, she excelled in the title role of “The Piano Teacher” and later shone in the role of the title character’s mother in the theater’s majestic production of “Hamlet.”

Over the past decade, local audiences have applauded her in such plays as “Good as New,” “Arcadia,” “Hold Please,” “Relatively Speaking,” “All My Sons,” “Getting Frankie Married “” and Afterwards,” “But Not for Me,” “The Carpetbagger’s Children,” “The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow,” “A Delicate Balance,” “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” “The Retreat From Moscow” and “A Naked Girl on the Appian Way.”

“I love that I’m not pigeonholed in any kind of part,” Gehringer said. “I’ve played an amazing array of characters over the years. This has been a happy, creative home for me.”

Followers of TV’s “Evening Shade” will recognize her as Fontana, a role she played for four seasons. She’s also visited “Boston Legal,” “The West Wing,” “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” among others.

In “Doubt,” Gehringer has one of her most challenging and prestigious assignments to date “” the play won both the 2004 Tony Award and the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for drama, among other laurels. Directed by Martin Benson “” who helped create South Coast Repertory with David Emmes in the mid-1960s “” “Doubt” opens this weekend after a week of previews and will be on stage through Nov. 18. The play runs without intermission.

“This will be a fascinating 90 minutes for anyone who comes,” Linda Gehringer said. “It’s a very fascinating play that raises moral questions.”

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.