Local stages play to youth

Tom Titus

Theater will be alive and well in Costa Mesa this weekend with three

local venues lighting up their new productions, two of which will be

particularly appealing to younger audiences.

The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse is bowing in with “The Secret

Garden,” a musical version of the children’s literary classic.

Children’s theater also is represented at South Coast Repertory with

“The Little Prince,” while Orange Coast College students will be

composing some “Valentines to Vonnegut.”

Civic Playhouse director Ryan Holihan describes his production of

“The Secret Garden” as “a ghost story about life.” This musical

adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s story of adventure and

enchantment deals with emotional recovery after the death of a loved

one.

“It is painful and overwhelming to accept that life goes on

without them,” Holihan observed. “However, as in nature, we either

grow from the experience and somehow create a new life or let

ourselves wither away emotionally, spiritually and physically, lost

in our own grief. Healing our souls takes patience, purpose and, most

of all, each other.”

Alyson Fainbarg, Marc Montminy and Laura Lindahl take the central

roles in “The Secret Garden,” with Stephen Hulsey serving as musical

director. Performances will be given Thursdays through Saturdays at 8

p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through March 13 at the playhouse, 611

Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. Call (949) 650-5269 for ticket information.

At South Coast Repertory, another beloved children’s book will

come to life when the company’s Theater for Young Audiences and Their

Families brings “The Little Prince” to the Julianne Argyros Stage.

Anne Justine D’Zmura makes her SCR debut in the director’s chair.

Cast members include Sharmila Devar, Christopher Gerson, Jessica

Goldapple (in the title role), Louis Lotorto and Preston Maybank.

Performances will be given Fridays at 7 p.m.; Saturdays at 2, 4:30

and 7:30 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 and 4:30 p.m. through Feb. 20.

Also, SCR will host 3,600 students from elementary schools in the

Santa Ana Unified School District. The students will enjoy free

weekday matinees of “The Little Prince.” More information about the

show may be obtained by calling South Coast Repertory at (714)

708-5555.

Octogenarian author Kurt Vonnegut will be spotlighted this weekend

and next at Orange Coast College, where the Orange Coast College

Repertory Theater Company has selected several of his one-act plays

for production.

All of the plays will be directed and performed by Orange Coast

students. The college repertory, now in its 20th year of productions,

is a student-run, faculty-advised campus theater company under the

tutelage of Cynthia Corley, who notes “OCC’s Repertory Company has

become the proving ground for many up-and-coming professional theater

people.”

“Valentines to Vonnegut” will be presented Fridays and Saturdays

at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. in Orange Coast College’s

Studio Theater.

Call (714) 432-5880 for ticket information.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.