THEATER PREVIEW:

It may be only mid March, but one local community theater group already has its sights firmly set on 2009.

That would be the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, which has announced its next season, taking the theater through June of next year.

“The season was selected by having each of our nine-member board of directors bring in plays they would like to see done at the playhouse,” said board member Michael Dale Brown, whose original script of “Earthlings Beware” inaugurated the current season.

Brown and his co-board member wife Barbara chose “Sordid Lives,” a comedy by Del Shores about a dysfunctional Texas family’s struggles with infidelity, homophobia and cross-dressing. It opens July 18 and will play through Aug. 10.

“I was looking for something to direct that was a contrast to the special effects-laden shows I had become known for,” Brown remarked, referring to his aforementioned work, with its flying saucers and aliens, and “The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild,” in which King Kong’s hand crashes through the set.

The Browns also chose Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” because “we feel that each season should include at least one classic play, and ‘Virginia Woolf’ is undeniably one of the great plays of the 20th century.” Local audiences will see it from Feb. 6 to March 1, 2009.

For the past two years, the playhouse has presented an original holiday play called “A Christmas Show” as an extra production, not part of the subscription season. This year’s yuletide offering, selected by board president Ryan Holihan, is a musical version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” which will be part of the theater’s five-play season and will run from Nov. 21 to Dec. 20.

Holihan also discovered Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Compleat Female Stage Beauty,” which charts the point when, in 17th century restoration England, women were allowed to appear on stage in the female roles that only men had previously done. “It is simply one of the best scripts I have ever read,” he said of the play, which will be performed from June 5 through 28.

The frosting on the playhouse’s 2008-09 cake should be “City of Angels,” the Larry Gelbart-Cy Coleman musical comedy that spoofs 1940s noir private eye movies and the Hollywood studio system that made them. Board members Elizabeth Bouton and Melanie Marshall, both musical comedy veterans, selected the show, scheduled from April 10 to May 10, which alternates between the full color story of a screenwriter churning out a script and the black-and-white detective story he’s writing.

Meanwhile, back to the present, the Civic Playhouse is putting the finishing touches on Jack Sharkey’s comedy “Play On,” which opens this weekend. It’s one of the late Orange County playwright’s more popular scripts, involving a community theater production operating under Murphy’s Law.

The playhouse is located at 611 Hamilton St. in Costa Mesa, and theatergoers seeking additional information may access it by calling (949) 650-5269.

OCC student director staging ‘Stop Kiss’

For the past four years, Samantha Wellen has been honing her directorial skills in OCC’s Studio Theater with workshop productions, one-acts and student exercises.

Tonight, she gets to play the main room.

Wellen is directing playwright Diana Son’s “Stop Kiss,” the story of a romantic friendship between two women that sparks an act of violence. Only this time, her work will be showcased in the larger Drama Lab Theater, which became available earlier this year.

“I love the whole process of putting a theater production together,” Wellen said. “When I read a script for the first time, I get a vision as a director. I can actually bring that vision to life.”

Hannah Petrak and Taylor McDurmott, both Costa Mesa residents, will be playing the two main characters, Callie and Sara. Completing the OCC cast are Jade Cortez, Jessica Tegman, Dillon Hulse, Zaid Tabani and Bruce Brown.

“The story in the play is very real,” Wellen says. “Two girls fall in love with each other over the course of a friendship. Tragedy strikes. Although it has adult themes, it’s really a sweet, tender story.”

Their kiss, in New York’s Jefferson Circle, leads to a violent attack by an outraged bystander. One of the girls falls into a lengthy coma, testing the lengths of human emotion and compassion.

Performances of “Stop Kiss” will be tonight through Sunday and March 20 through 23. Curtain will be 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 7 p.m. this Saturday and 7:30 March 22. Tickets, at $5 in advance and $6 at the door, are available by calling (714) 432-5880 or online at www.occtickets.com.

What’s next for Samantha Wellen? Back to the bookstores, searching for new material.

“I can’t go into a Barnes & Noble without going to the script section to see what’s new,” she said.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays.