Pat Launer on San Diego theater: ‘Tavern,’ ‘West’

Reviews this week: “Over the Tavern”| “The Lonesome West” | “Gangsters” | Mini Reviews | News and Views | Pat’s Picks

Family Feud

THE SHOW: “Over the Tavern,” West Coast premiere of the first part of a comic trilogy by Tom Dudzick, whose light-hearted holiday play, “Greetings,” was a hit at North Coast Repertory Theatre in 1992.

In St. Casimir’s Elementary School, every student’s name ends in -inski. It’s Buffalo, 1959, and the Pazinskis fit right in, trying to muddle through the Eisenhower years, with a new television in their frumpy, cramped apartment, a bunch of unruly adolescent kids mom can barely control, and a gruff, disconnected dad who’s trying to make ends meet in his downstairs pub.

Twelve year-old Rudy, the playwright’s alter-ego, is smart and smart-alecky, curious and ever-questioning, all of which doesn’t go down well with Sister Clarissa, a hidebound old bat who’s trying to hammer the catechism into him. “Hammer” would be the operative word; her palm- and knuckle-snapping ruler is working overtime. Nevertheless, Rudy continues to have questions about God and Hell and all the other stuff he’s being forced to swallow without chewing it over in his mind. He wants to check out some other religions, in the hope that maybe they’ll be more fun. Meanwhile, his brother Eddie is collecting girlie magazines, and his sister Annie, who’s recently beehived her hair, is getting a rep for undressing in front of the window. Georgie, the youngest, is retarded (that would be developmentally delayed, in PC parlance). He has an extremely limited vocabulary, but he’s just acquired a new scatological word that he delights in trying out on everyone. He’s the stand-in for the playwright’s real-life retarded brother, Michael, who also made an appearance, as 30-year-old Mickey, in “Greetings.” (The real Michael just died two months ago, at age 60).

Back in Buffalo (which is where Dudzick grew up - over a tavern), the patient but put-upon June Cleaver-type Mom is trying to hold it all together, without much help from her husband, who repeatedly forgets to bring home dinner, and terrifies the household with his emotional outbursts of anger and frustration. There isn’t all that much plot, but enough narrative for a zillion funny one-liners and affectionate potshots at the Church. It’s not for nothing that Dudzick is referred to as “the Catholic Neil Simon.” This comedy is highly reminiscent of “Broadway Bound,” with its witty, smartass Simonesque centerpiece. Rudy isn’t quite a writer yet, like Simon’s Eugene, but you can see it coming. He makes up great stories; even his brother turns to him in times of need. And he cracks up the neighborhood kids with his Ed Sullivan imitation. “Did Ed Sullivan die on the cross for your sins?” Sister bellows at him, snapping her ubiquitous clicker. Rudy earnestly prays to Jesus, for Sister not to be so mean, for Dad not to be in a bad mood, for spaghetti for supper. He vows to “be a soldier for you, whatever that means.” Then he goes outside and makes Jesus Christ a guest on his latest Ed Sullivan “show” appearing, alongside Señor Wences, with a pipe and straw hat.

“Maybe there is no Hell,” Rudy muses. To which his older brother replies, “Only public school kids have those ideas.” And so it goes, until Sister keels over and Dad has a re-awakeningy. It’s all sweet and hilarious and irresistible.

At North Coast Repertory Theatre, artistic director David Ellenstein has amassed a superlative cast. Each perfect performer seems tailor-made for the role. Thirteen-year-old Ian Brinistool, whose development I’ve watched with delight for years, is a wonder as Rudy; his delivery and comic timing are terrific, and he’s adorably natural every second he’s onstage. His interactions with Lynne Griffin’s amusingly despotic Sister are marvels. The teasing among the kids is right on the money, too. James Patterson, who’s about to begin college at the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, is wonderful as the scheming Eddie. And Abbey Howe, who was last seen at North Coast as Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker,” is cute, innocent, and heartbreakingly misguided as Annie, in her school uniform, anklets and saddle shoes (costumes by Lynne Griffin). Thor Sigurdsson is a wonder as Georgie, with his spinning, his flat-footed gait and his wide-eyed gawp. Stunning work, avoiding all the potential pitfalls of playing a character like this.

Courtney Corey, an original company member of the L.A. and Chicago productions of “Wicked,” where she even got to play Elphaba, was at NCRT last fall, showing off her splendid voice in “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well…” Now she gets to display her comic/dramatic chops, and she’s excellent as the long-suffering mom. Matt Thompson is great as the apish dad; their dance scene together is lovely.

Marty Burnett’s detailed 1950s house has it all (props and set dressing by Bonnie Durben): overly bright yellow Formica table and plastic chairs; overused appliances and avocado walls, a ratty old couch, print wallpaper and more. The lighting (Matt Novotny) nicely highlights the family or church or hospital playing space. And the sound (Chris Luessmann) is spot-on for the time period. The only gripe is with the accents, which seem to be some bastardized form of New Yorkese. Having lived for four years in scenic Buffalo, I can tell you that Buffalo’s dialect is closer to Cleveland or Chicago than NYC, replete with hard Rs and flat As. That was the only blemish in an otherwise exceptional production. Any way you slice it, this is ideal summer fare; light and frothy and funny.

THE LOCATION: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 980 D Lomas Santa Fe Dr. Solana Beach. (858) 481-1055; www.northcoastrep.org

THE DETAILS: Tickets: $32-45. Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m., through July 12.

THE BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

Family Feud, Part II

THE SHOW: “The Lonesome West,” the 1997 installment of Martin McDonagh’s “Connemara Trilogy,” set in the West of Ireland. Presented by Triad Productions.

Even their neighbors call them “the kings of Odd.” They’re grown men, brothers, still living at home, still living together. One of them collects saint icons. The other hankers for crisps (potato chips) and sexy magazines; they both drink more than a drop o’ poteen. There’s a cleaver and a shotgun at the ready, when the incessant bickering gets out of hand. They’ve just returned from their father’s funeral. It was an accident. Da insulted Coleman’s new haircut, so he blew his brains out. This kind of occurrence isn’t so weird in the tiny, insular town of Leenane, where depression, drink and boredom are suffocating the populace. There have already been three murders and a suicide, which makes the alcoholic parish priest despondent; he feels like a failure. Soon, he’ll join the ranks of those who’ve drowned themselves in the lake. But not before he leaves a note, begging the boys to get along, betting his soul that they can “make a listeen of the wrongs and forgive each other.” They make a stab at it, for poor Father Welsh’s sake (or is it Walsh? No one can quite remember. No wonder he felt so inconsequential). A side-splitting “confession” scene ensues. These guys have done some unspeakable things to each other over the years. The “listeen” enlarges beyond tolerance. Coleman destroys Valene’s precious religious ornaments (again), and shoots his brother’s beloved stove. Things escalate, and the combat recommences, Father Welsh be damned (literally).

Part Cain and Abel, part “True West” (the fraternal mutual-destruction play by Sam Shepard), “The Lonesome West” is another of McDonagh’s dark, gruesome comedies (I wouldn’t want to have to clean up the mess after each performance). Under Adam Parker’s amusing direction, these two guys can’t even stop long enough to take their curtain calls, battling all the way, and dragging the priest and the sexy/aggressive Girleen down with them. Very funny stuff; a cynic’s delight.

When the comic drama opened in New York in 1999, in the original Galway production, it was nominated for a Tony award for Best Play. It’s just the kind of quirky, off-the-wall kind of piece Triad Productions craves. Their mission is to attract young people who never go to the theater, or think it’s not relevant to them. This is relevant — to all the sib-hating violence-prone guys and gals who normally get their kicks from flicks like “The Blair Witch Project.” They’re coming in droves. An extra bonus: During intermission on the Sunday matinee I attended, which had been declared Irish Day by the Triads, local restaurant Dublin Square sent in some great Oirish food: corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and boxteys (kinda like crepes, filled with veggies. Yum). So it was a total experience.

Triad artistic director Adam Parker puts the cast through their gleefully violent paces (with help from fight choreographer Scott Amiotte). The dark, snarky humor is excellently handled. Some productions of the play make more of an Odd Couple of the brothers; Valene, the collector, is often played as neat and prissy (his brother constantly calls him a “gay boy”). These two were pretty indistinguishable, and since they’re equally awful, I suppose that works, too. Ryan Ross is a sizzling firecracker as Coleman, with his hair-trigger anger and itchy trigger finger. Bobby Schiefer, making his Triad debut, is fresh from the Cygnet Theatre production of “History Boys.” As Valene, he seems controlled - until he’s totally out of control. All hell breaks loose when the two go at it. Vainly trying to intervene is the “maudlin and lonesome” priest (Brendan Cavalier, fine), and occasionally entering the fray is Girleen (excellent, beautiful Claire Kaplan, a second-year MFA student at UCSD), another of McDonagh’s tough gals who are kinda mushy inside. Kaplan has tremendous charm, and she brings radiance to her wonderful scene with the priest, when they’re genuinely communicating, and close enough to kiss. In a flash, he’s gone and she’s forgotten. Sad. But just for a moment; then, it’s back to the brawls.

The accents are really strong, so authentic they’re hard to understand at times. But you definitely get as much as you need to follow the drift. The aptly grungy set (Kris Kerr) features scabby stucco walls in a shabby, hut-like dwelling, nicely lit (Zack Wikholm). The sound design (Matt Lescault-Wood) is delightfully evocative, featuring Irish drinking songs and all the dark humor you could ask for (”It’s Been the Worst Day Since Yesterday,” for example).

The Triad founders — Parker, Ross and Amiotte — make excellent choices for their company, their sensibilities and their intended audience. Mostly, it’s young folks behaving badly. The first production of the year was the San Diego premiere of Adam Rapp’s “Red Light Winter.” Next up is the local premiere of the barely printable “Shopping and F***ing,” by Mark Ravenhill, a black comedy of sexual violence. Triad deserves a large audience, for their talent as well as their chutzpah.

THE LOCATION: Triad Productions at the 10^th Avenue Theatre, 930 10^th Ave, between Broadway and E Street. (619) 241-2623; www.triadprod.com

THE DETAILS: Tickets: $10-15. Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m., through July 6.

BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

Interrogation Nation

THE SHOW: “Gangsters,” a 1984 one-act drama by South African Maishe Maponya, presented by San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre in collaboration with The Theatre Inc. and Blue Trunk Theatre.

Writer/actor/activist/director/teacher Maishe Maponya is one of the most prominent voices of the anti-apartheid theater of his native country. His work was born out of the Black Consciousness movement of the early 1970s. The goal of South Africa’s Theatre of Resistance was to motivate the oppressed to resist oppression, not to awaken the consciousness of the oppressor. When he created “Gangsters” in the early 1980s, Maponya said he “wrote simply about those conditions that existed.” It was a period of detention, banning, harassment and murder by South Africa’s national security forces. The story was inspired by black activist Stephen Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, who died in police custody in 1977. Biko was the originator of the slogan, “Black is Beautiful.” The play could be construed as a bit subversive; by making the central character a poet, Maponya was able to include exactly the type of nationalist poetry that was otherwise banned. By making her a woman, he upped the ante - and the themes of oppression.

When the drama premiered in 1985, its “inflammatory nature” led to the playwright’s harassment by security forces who, fearing that it might incite political unrest, prevented the piece from being staged in the Soweto township.

The play is highly local and historical, best viewed within some political context. But the themes are universal, and especially chilling in view of the Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo revelations. We’ve seen the monstrous torturers before, and also the “stooges” who are complicit with them, in this case, a black man who does the white interrogator’s dirty work, and even turns on the poet when she questions his loyalty to his race and the cause.

It’s a brief, very intense play. Fortunately, we’re not made to watch the torture, just its aftermath - bruises for which Major Whitebeard prescribes “calamine lotion,” and death, which begins and ends the piece. The symbolism is heavy; the woman, clad in black, face and body completely covered, head bent, is suspended by her wrists on a cross-shaped gallows. The crucifixion image is clear. Rosechaba, like Biko, was martyred.

Black Ensemble Theatre artistic director Rhys Green has cast well, kept the intensity high and avoided histrionics. There are brutal scenes, but they are dispatched with crisp efficiency. Vince Sneddon’s set is a dingy office cutaway, spare, basic, innocuous. Chris Rynne’s lighting is effective.

Joe Powers, looking menacing, is potent as Whitebeard, though his accent wavers at times. Mark Christopher Lawrence shows all the tortured ambivalence of the subservient Jonathan, more concerned for his young daughter and his self-improvement than his people. Between them, Monique Gaffney has all the pent-up energy she’s demonstrated so triumphantly in “Medea” and “I Have Before Me… A Young Woman from Rwanda.” Her vitality, spirit and anger are compelling, rousing. Her Rosechaba will not bend, though she’s warned, tailed, arrested, threatened, beaten and ultimately killed for her views, her art and her convictions. Her story paints a stark portrait of the struggle for freedom, and freedom of speech; not a subtle one, perhaps, but a gripping and persuasive one.

The main character’s impassioned poems of the oppressed were echoed in a pre-performance presentation by a guest artist, local poet Viet Mai. “I’m exhausted,” he intoned, “by false promises of being equal.” Another forceful rant, “Manifest in the Destiny,” was addressed to America. “The skepticism is contagious,” he said. “When you tell me you love me, I want to believe you. I want to believe it’s unconditional…. All I ask is you don’t question my identity or loyalty.”

South Africa, America, Iran. The battle rages on.

THE LOCATION: San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre, in collaboration with The Theatre, Inc. and Blue Trunk Theatre, at The Theatre, Inc., 899 C Street, downtown. (619) 280-5650; online

THE DETAILS: Tickets: $15. Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., through June 28.

THE BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

MINI REVIEWS

… Dramatic Powwow: Last week, the La Jolla Playhouse hosted the Native Voices New Play Festival and Playwrights Retreat. It was a superb opportunity for budding and accomplished Native writers to work on their latest creations, and see them performed by some of the best Native (and non-Native) actors from L.A. and New York. A couple of the actors were local, but we have yet to tap into our own Native American talent pool, especially given that the producing artistic director of the Festival and of the Native Voices at the Autry program is Randy Reinholz (Choctaw), director of the School of Theatre, Television and Film at San Diego State University. The Native Voices program was established in 1999 at the Autry National Center of the American West in L.A., to bring together Native American/First Nations playwrights, actors and theater artists from across the country, to collaborate and develop new work.

Most of the four plays that were given staged readings here were in early stages of development, except for “The Red Road,” written and performed by Arigon Starr (Kickapoo-Creek), an outstanding and multi-talented performer who’s taken this solo piece on tour for the past two years. But now, she’s turning it into a radio play, and this was an early attempt at that abbreviated version, which will take to the airwaves as part of the Native Radio Theater Project, a collaboration between Native Voices at the Autry and Native American Public Telecommunications. The final taping, to be directed by the award-winning Dirk Maggs (”The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), will be this July, in Lincoln, Nebraska, in front of a live studio audience. Set in Verna Yahola’s All Nations Café, just off the legendary Route 66 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, the piece is a kind of Native American “Prairie Home Companion,” with a bunch of quirky characters, male and female (all engagingly played by Starr), representing different tribes and world-views. Also featured is music from Grand Ole Opry singer Patty Jones (guitar-playing Starr), as folks fall in and out of love, play politics and ride off into the sunset. It’s amusing, but there could be a little more narrative arc. There are so many Indian in-jokes it leaves white folks in the dust. The Native attendees were howling with laughter, though. The radio show should be a huge success for its targeted audience.

That performance was at SDSU; all the rest were at UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse. Before each staged reading, Reinholz thanked the local Kumeyaay “for passing along the land to us,” and paid tribute to the Elders in the audience. All the other pieces featured dramatic situations peppered with humor and otherworldliness. Ghosts featured prominently, as did strong women.

“Carbon Black,” by Terry Gomez (Comanche), is about 13-year-old Carbon (aka Inky), a “messy, sticky,” bespectacled kid who lives in Albuquerque with his heavy-set, agoraphobic Mom. Inky has to do everything, since his mother refuses to leave the house, ever since she was attacked. He’s obsessed and disturbed about having witnessed the murder of a young girl. The not-so-nice-or-tolerant Vice Principal seems to be out to get him. Only a Native American counselor helps pull him through, and also gets his mother out of the house. The piece still needs some work, but the performances were superb, especially San Diegan Michael Drummond as Inky and New York-based Sheila Tousey (Menominee, Stockbridge Munsee) as his mother, whose anxiety outburst was truly harrowing to watch.

“The Frybread Queen,” by Carolyn Dunn (Muskogee Creek, Seminole, Cherokee) featured four powerful women (an all-Indian cast) - and four different recipes for frybread. They’re haunted by the men who abused and/or abandoned them, and only when the ill and aging Annalee (Arigon Starr again, in another potent turn) takes matters into her own hands can they all be freed from the ghosts’ stifling influence.

Perhaps the most fully realized of all the works (despite new lines being added only minutes before the performance), “Fancy Dancer,” by Dawn Dumont (Cree, Métis) was my favorite in the Festival. La Jolla Playhouse associate artistic director Shirley Fishman served as dramaturge on this piece, and it was fascinating. A brief one-act, set in Canada, it focuses on the country’s real-life problem of attacks, rapes and murders of Native women, especially young prostitutes. Dumont managed to include a great deal of whimsy and humor, and a bevy of captivating characters. When we meet April, a smart, funny, tough-and tender young woman, she’s already dead, the latest Native victim in an apparent epidemic of attacks. But she comes back, to egg on the ambitious, self-serving reporter, Valerie, so she’ll seek out and expose the killer. April was young; she left behind a baby daughter and a devoted sister. But after her death, she appears only to Valerie (which creates some funny scenes, when she, like the old TV ghost, Topper, moves items around the room without being seen by anyone but Val). Besides hooking for fast cash, April had been one of the best Fancy Dancers in the area, skillfully performing the really fast, spinning competitive dance at powwows. The young women wear fringed shawls; “it’s about looking like a butterfly, gentle and strong,” April’s sister explains to Val. With considerable humor and variety, L.A. actor Stephan Wolfert played all the men, from a golf-playing Indian Chief to an ineffectual police officer to a hilarious pawnbroker to the caretaker of the apartment where April and Rachel lived. One of them is the murderer, but the mystery unfolds bit by bit in this highly enjoyable and engaging comic crime story. There are some very amusing scenes between two old Indian bingo players, and two young Fancy Dancers. And there’s the nearly disastrous setup of Rachel with the killer, so he can be nabbed. All the levity doesn’t diminish the gravity of the problem, and this was an imaginative way to both educate and entertain. The piece was initially performed in 2005 at the Quebec Festival of New Plays, as a one-woman show. Opening it up to four actors worked wonderfully.

The final three plays presented in San Diego -”Carbon Black,” “The Frybread Queen” and “Fancy Dancer” — will be repeated at the Autry National Center of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, June 26 and 27. So if you happen to be in the neighborhood: (323) 667-2000; autrynationalcenter.org

Otherwise, be on the lookout for productions of these intriguing works from voices not heard often enough, especially here at home.

NEWS AND VIEWS

… Winners!: Students from more than 30 local high schools competed at the Old Globe for the honor of representing San Diego in the National High School Musical Theatre Awards. The Globe Honors were presented to Emma Stratton, a junior at Canyon Crest Academy, and Chauncey Matthews, a senior at the San Diego School for the Creative and Performing Arts. The pair are currently on an all expense paid trip to New York City, where they’ll participate in master classes, private coaching and interviews with theater professionals, all leading up to the live awards show on June 29. Thirty-two students from around the country will compete for the first annual Jimmy Award, named for James Nederlander, Sr., the founder of Nederlander Presentations. The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, voted on by 16 theatre pros, will name a Best Actor and Best Actress. The new Globe Honors program will be expanded next spring, to include awards in drama, comedy, Shakespearean acting and technical theatre. For more info, click on the Education link at www.theoldglobe.org

… Joseph on the Cheap: The Welk Theatre is offering $10 tickets for kids, for its production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” playing 6/25-8/30. (888) 802-7469; welktheatresandiego.com

… Breaking New Ground: Common Ground Theatre (originally Southeast Community Theatre) was helmed by Dr. Floyd Gaffney, the father of African American theatre in San Diego, for 36 years, until his death in 2007. Now the theatre has found the ideal person to take over the reins, a long time protégé of Gaffney, Hasan El-Amin, a talented actor who toured nationally in “The Lion King” and appeared locally as Edmund in the San Diego Rep’s “King Lear”; in Gaffney’s productions of Tambourines to Glory (in 1980 and 2003) and as the title character in the Cygnet/Black Ensemble Theatre reading of “King Hedley II” (2007). El-Amin’s first project will be directing “Jazz Queens Cast Blue Shadow,” a jazz musical written by Anthony Drummond and Floyd Gaffney. Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday come alive - and sing! - at the Lyceum Theatre, July 10-26. Pay What You Can Preview on July 9. Tickets at (619) 544-1000, www.commongroundtheatre.org

Note: the play is recommended for Mature Audiences, due to strong language and adult situations.

… A New Stage at Moonlight: Moonlight Stage Productions will inaugurate its new outdoor stage additions at a special event this Saturday night, June 27 at The Moonlight Amphitheatre in Brengle Terrace Park. The featured performer is Tony Award-winning Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell, who began his career in San Diego Junior Theatre. Tickets, at $50, are available at (760) 724-2110 or www.vistixonline.com

Click here to see my hard-hat video tour of the Moonlight construction site and additions.

Names in the News:

… Chelsea Whitmore, who served as assistant director to Delicia Turner Sonnenberg for three prior Moxie Theatre productions, has moved up to co-director for Moxie’s uproariously gory current offering, “The Butcher of Baraboo.”

… Robert Foxworth, who just starred as a bracingly credible George Wallace in the Old Globe’s world premiere of “Cornelia,” has been named the 52^nd Associate Artist of the Globe, joining the likes of Marion Ross, A.R. Gurney, Richard Easton and Paxton Whitehead. Foxworth has made repeat and welcome appearances at the Globe, including “Antony and Cleopatra” (1987) and “Julius Caesar” (2003). He was seen earlier this year on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning production of “August: Osage County,” among many other high-profile performances in New York and in regional theaters around the country. He also appeared in the film, “Syriana” and provided the voice of Rachet in “Transformers I and II.” He and his wife Stacey recently made their home in Encinitas, so we hope to be seeing lots more of him around town.

…Kate Whoriskey, who had a very brief stint as associate artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse under Des McAnuff, has just been named the new artistic director of the Intiman Theatre in Seattle. She’ll officially begin her tenure in 2011, following a year of shared leadership with Bartlett Sher, the current darling of Broadway (winning acclaim and awards for his direction of “South Pacific,” “The Light in the Piazza” and “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”). Sher got his theatrical start in San Diego. Whoriskey won high praise for her recent direction of this year’s Pulitzer Prize-winer, “Ruined.” At present, she’s an associate artist at South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, and a visiting lecturer at Princeton University.

Festival Fever:

… The 2^nd annual New Perspective Festival wraps up this weekend, with three different programs. It’s still possible to see it all: 24 plays from 17 playwrights, with 21 directors shepherding 60+ actors. Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m., through June 27. At Swedenborg Hall, 1531 Tyler Ave. Tickets are $10-15. http://perspectivefest.com

… The third annual Resilience of the Spirit Festival, “celebrating the human spirit,” is coming up at Compass Theatre. Paola Hornbuckle, this year’s artistic director, is also a playwright (”Violets Bloom at Sunset”). The plays range from the work of masters like Caryl Churchill (”Seven Jewish Children”) to locals like Jack Shea (”An American Sunset”), for a total of seven plays in two programs, running Sunday-Wednesday, July 12-August 5. Compass Theatre, 3704 6^th Ave. in Hillcrest. Tickets are $12-15. (619) 688-9210. www.compasstheatre.com

… Set your sights on Supernova 2, the second annual theater festival of Vox Nova Theatre Company, which focuses exclusively on new work and new voices. This year’s Festival features three new plays: Ruff Yeager’s “El Jardin Secreto,” an adaptation of “The Secret Garden”; “Romeo, Romeo & Juliet,” also by Yeager; and “The Waves,” by Kirsten Brandt, former artistic director of Sledgehammer Theatre. July 10-August 9 at Mayan Hall Theatre on the campus of Southwestern College. Admission is $10 at the door, cash only. To reserve seats: (610) 482-6372. www.voxnovatheatrecompany.com

…New Vision Theatre Company is presenting its 4^th annual Summer Shorts festival, a collection of eight 10-minute unpublished plays. This is a collaborative effort of local writers, directions and actors. July 17-August 2, at the Sunshine Brooks Theatre, 217 North Coast Highway, Oceanside. Tickets are $10-14. (760) 529-9140; www.nvtheatre.com

PAT’S PICKS: BEST BETS

• “Over the Tavern” - Oh, those wacky Catholics! A laugh-a-minute comedy with a terrific cast

North Coast Repertory Theatre, through 7/12

• “The Lonesome West” - black comedy that makes for violent Irish fun

Triad Productions at the 10^th Avenue Theatre, through 7/7

• “Gangsters” - brief, intense, disturbing and very well done

San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre, and Blue Trunk Theatre at The Theatre, Inc., through 6/28

• “The Fantasticks” - musical, fanciful, delightful

Lamb’s Players Theatre, through 7/28

Read review here

• “The Butcher of Baraboo” - cleaver meets clever in a dark comedy, deliciously executed (so to speak)

Moxie Theatre at Diversionary Theatre, through 6/28

Read review here

• “Four Dogs and a Bone” - another funny skewering of “Hollywood types,” wonderfully presented

New Village Arts Theatre, through 6/28

Read review here

To read any of her prior reviews, type ‘Pat Launer’ into the SDNN Search box.

Pat Launer is the SDNN theater critic.

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