A final curtain call for Marthella Randall

Tom Titus

For a brief hour Monday night at the Laguna Playhouse, the calendar

was turned back 30 years, 40 years and even further. It was a final

curtain call for the theater’s Grand Duchess.

Marthella Randall, a legendary actress and director in Laguna

theater, passed away recently at the age of 88, and Monday a number

of the “old timers” in local theater gathered to celebrate her

extraordinary life. Doing the honors were two of her closest comrades

in the theater -- Doug Rowe, former managing director of the

playhouse, and Stan Wlasick, an actor and director for whom Randall

was a mentor.

“I think Tom Titus gave her the title of ‘the Grand Duchess,’ ”

Rowe remarked, and I may well have. She was an imposing personage on

stage, and a wonderful person to have as a friend.

“I saw her about two weeks ago,” Rowe, who now lives in Oregon,

told the audience. “We talked about all of you and all the plays. She

was quite sharp and remembered all the names and all the incidents,

and she laughed every time I said something naughty about you and

smacked me on the arm.

“She smacked me a lot over our 40 some odd years together,” he

recalled. “I loved to tease her and she loved to smack me -- almost

always with a smile on her face and a laugh from her lips.”

Over the years at the old playhouse on Ocean Avenue, and later at

the present facility, Marthella Randall etched her mark, directing

such plays as “Mister Roberts,” “The Happy Time” (her first project

with Rowe), “The Skin of Our Teeth,” “Becket” and “The Lion in

Winter.” She also starred as the captive queen in another Laguna

production of the latter play, applauded in this column as the best

production of the year.

When the Daily Pilot started its annual tradition of honoring a

man and woman of the year in theater back in 1974, Randall was the

second honoree, in 1975. Rowe also earned that honor, as did musician

Mark Turnbull, who opened the tribute with a number that seemed

written for Marthella.

The tribute brought out many of the Laguna old-timers, as well as

some from the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, Randall’s second theater

home. There were Laguna stalwarts George Woods, Paul Toft, Joan

McGillis, Jim and Myrna Ryan, John Ferzacca and Jo Black, along with

the Costa Mesa contingent -- Barbara Van Holt, Laurie Lambert, Gordon

Marhoefer and Wlasick, who delivered his own tribute to a revered

mentor.

“To work for Randall was always an E ticket,” Rowe declared.

I’ll second that. I only had the pleasure to do so on one

occasion, but it was indeed memorable. Randall was directing “Mister

Roberts” at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse and I, with just a year of

community theater under my belt, was dying to take on the role of

Ensign Pulver.

Knowing her reputation as a perfectionist, I memorized the part

before the tryouts -- something I’d never done before, nor have

since. I guess it worked, because I got the call to perform one of my

favorite roles of all time, and to work for one of the finest

directors I’ve ever known.

I can almost feel her presence now, peering over my shoulder and

whispering, “Keep it short. They want to get home before midnight.”

And so they shall.