NTAC takes an old tack for 25th season

Tom Titus

Last week, we examined the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse’s upcoming 40th

anniversary season. Today, we’ll turn the spotlight on the Newport

Theater Arts Center, which also has a milestone coming up -- its 25th

anniversary slate.

Born in 1980 in a converted church building -- actually, the

conversion started with my own group, the Irvine Community Theater,

which ripped out the choir loft and put on two shows there in 1977

before the city claimed it as its own -- NTAC has done wonders with

that old edifice that has a harbor area view to die for.

With the city’s support, the theater group has remodeled and

expanded its operations over the years and isn’t finished yet.

President Rae Cohen would like to enlarge the front lobby to give

opening night patrons a little breathing room as they consume their

champagne and strawberries.

Actually, there were two performing groups that presented live

theater at 2501 Cliff Drive in the late 1970s and early ‘80s -- the

other being Nancy Ebsen’s Newport Harbor Actor’s Theater, which later

relocated to Back Bay High School before disbanding. NTAC, however,

has gained in scope and popularity over the past quarter century,

continually illustrating what wonders can be accomplished with

limited staging facilities.

Now, as the group prepares to celebrate its 25th birthday, a

feeling of nostalgia pervades the announcement of the new season. The

newest play on the 2004-05 schedule is about 15 years old. The other

four, as well as the August youth show, trace their roots back much

farther.

That play for and about young people, “Tom Sawyer,” has its

beginnings in Mark Twain’s 1800s novel and has been adapted as a

musical. It will run from Aug. 6 through Aug. 22 with a large cast of

both kids and adults. Terri Miller Schmidt will take her familiar

summer-show directing assignment.

Kicking off the main event schedule, with a Sept. 17 opening and

Michael Ross directing, will be Herb Gardner’s most notable comedy,

“A Thousand Clowns,” which just happens to be the first show I

reviewed when I started this gig back in 1965. You may remember the

movie version with Jason Robards Jr., Barbara Harris and Martin

Balsam, who won a supporting Oscar for his establishment character of

Robards’ brother.

The “newcomer” of the bunch will be Lanford Wilson’s “Redwood

Curtain,” the only play on the slate that hasn’t been seen locally.

The “state of the nation” piece from the early 1990s involves a teenage Vietnamese-American girl raised by wealthy adoptive parents

in the United States on a journey into northern California’s redwood

forests. It opens Nov. 19 under the direction of David Colley.

“The Little Foxes” was a landmark movie for Bette Davis a half

century or so ago, and Lillian Hellman’s vitriolic drama will be

resuscitated under the directorship of Phyllis Gitlin, opening Jan.

28. You can bet the lineup of actresses hoping to play the avaricious

Regina Giddens already has started forming.

From the author of “The Philadelphia Story” comes another romantic

comedy from the 1930s, “Holiday,” ticketed for a March 25 opening

with Jack Millis in the director’s chair. In this oldie, a young man

planning to wed a girl of great wealth and social standing has second

thoughts.

“Breath of Spring” is NTAC’s traditional farcical comedy with a

British accent. Peter Coke’s rib tickler will be staged by Schmidt,

who recently moved to Temecula but hasn’t let that keep her from

putting on two shows a year in Newport. The comedy opens May 27.

In fact, Schmidt has a third project for NTAC in the works for

this season. From Jan. 6 to 9, she’ll comprise half of the cast (with

George Norment from “Driving Miss Daisy”) in a reader’s theater

production of “Mrs. Cage” by Nancy Barr. This one should be worth a

look judging by the talent involved.

For those unfamiliar with the Newport Theater Arts Center, it’s

situated on a hill at 2501 Cliff Drive with a panoramic view of

Balboa and the ocean. More information on the season, as well as

auditions, may be obtained by calling (949) 631-0288.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot.