Theater Review : Playwright Thinks He’s Closer to ‘Perfect’ : Vanguard Ensemble Has Helped Don Gordon Revamp His Work, Which He Believes Now Has a Chance

FULLERTON — Don Gordon says he still had a few doubts about the comedy he’d written even as it garnered good reviews in San Diego, Denver and other cities.

The playwright from Irvine just wasn’t sure that “Normal Doesn’t Mean Perfect” warranted its full-length, two-act treatment. Maybe a slimmer one-act would be better. He also wondered if the dialogue could use some retooling and if the characters needed more definition. A couple of bad-to-mixed newspaper critiques, one of a Los Angeles production in 1989 and the other of a staging in Orange County later that year, helped cement his concerns.

“It just never seemed to come completely together,” explained Gordon, 55. “The subject matter never had the muscle to go all the way . . . . I knew considerable changes could be made. And we’ve made them.”

“We” are Gordon and the members of the Vanguard Theatre Ensemble, who have been developing the play through a series of rewrites and rehearsals for four months and who will premiere a revamped version--a one-act--tonight. The production will continue through Nov. 20 on a program with another short play, John Millington Synge’s “Riders to the Sea.”

Gordon thinks that working with Vanguard’s artistic director Terry Gunkel, troupe dramaturge Tim Vandehey and the show’s cast has resulted in a more finely tuned comedy with better plot and character development. “I don’t think I would have been satisfied with it if I hadn’t believed in the people I was collaborating with, (but) they’ve been thoroughly professional and wonderful,” he said. “In many ways, this is really a new piece.”

Indeed, almost half the 65-page script has been rewritten, but the basic plot has been retained: Leonard, an Orange County Walter Mitty who lives a life of noisy desperation, henpecked by his shrewish wife Winnie, meets dangerous Diane during his daily visit to the park. Love, humor and violence join to bring them together.

“It’s a story about a bewildered guy desperately trying to gain control of his life (amid) the hazards of the ‘90s,” Gordon said. “This guy needs a good day, and this turns into his lucky day, the best day of his life, really.”

Gunkel said Vanguard was drawn to the play because of its “inherent passion.” He also said he’d hadn’t actually read the reviews (the main criticism centered on the script’s improbability and dialogue cliches) but was clear on the play’s history.

It has been around since the early ‘80s. Gordon started writing it while involved in a workshop at Theatre West in Los Angeles. From there, it was given a staged reading at San Diego’s Old Globe and in a nationwide competition was picked from nearly 2,000 unproduced scripts for further development by the Denver Center Theatre. It ran for six weeks in a full-scale production at the New Playwrights Theatre in Ashland, Ore.

Vanguard discovered it in February when Gordon submitted it for the company’s local playwrights series. “We liked it because it’s about how people become disconnected to their lives . . . and sometimes need to be shaken up to rediscover the things that are important to them,” Gunkel said. “I found that exciting and interesting.”

“We felt there were some things that were right and other things that weren’t,” the director continued. “Don was open to suggestions all the way. We argued about stuff, but it was never too heated.”

* “Normal Doesn’t Mean Perfect,” by Don Gordon, and “Riders to the Sea,” by John Millington Synge, preview tonight, open Friday and continue through Nov. 20 (Thursdays though Sundays) at the Vanguard Theatre Ensemble, 699A S. State College Blvd., Fullerton. Tickets: $12 and $14 with $2 discounts for students and seniors. (714) 526-8007.