Vanguard plans 2 visits to Scotland next season

Tom Titus

When Costa Mesa’s Vanguard University brings the lights up on its

upcoming 2003-04 theater season, there are three trips to the British

Isles on the itinerary, two of them terminating in Scotland.

There’s the infamous “Scottish play” that it’s bad luck to mention

inside a theater -- that would be Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” -- and the

Lerner-Loewe musical fantasy set in the highlands of Scotland,

“Brigadoon.” And while they’re on the other side of the pond, the

Vanguard players will mount a production of James Goldman’s “The Lion

in Winter.”

In between, there are a pair of musicals -- “You’re a Good Man,

Charlie Brown” and “Spoon River Anthology” -- which will lead the

Vanguard schedule in September and October. A dance concert,

“Journeys,” occupies the other slot on the college’s program.

“Charlie Brown,” of course, is the musical based on Charles M.

Schulz’s popular comic strip “Peanuts,” and features all its

well-known pint-size characters -- Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus,

Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, Schroeder and Sally.

Vanguard alumni Tammy J. Coffin and Paul Hanegan are sharing

directing duties for the Peanuts musical, which will open Sept. 5 and

plays for two weekends, closing Sept. 14.

In October, the musical tenor turns a little more serious as

Charles Aidman’s stage adaptation of poet Edgar Lee Masters’ “Spoon

River Anthology” moves into the college’s Lyceum Theater. The show

revisits the deceased inhabitants of a small town to artfully explore

the secrets they took with them to the grave.

Guest director for “Spoon River” will be Andrew Levy, a faculty

member and director for South Coast Repertory’s Summer Youth

Conservatory and graduate of UC Irvine. The show will play from Oct.

10 through the 19th.

Vanguard artistic director Susan K. Berkompas, who chairs the

college’s theater program, will stage “Macbeth,” incorporating a

multimedia, neo-Gothic conceptualization to the Shakespearean

tragedy.

One of the Bard’s darkest plays, “Macbeth” traces a nobleman’s

bloodthirsty path to the summit of power, bolstered by his even more

ambitious wife. The play will unfold Nov. 14 and run through the

23rd.

“Journeys,” called a dance of self-discovery, will be staged for

three days only, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, under the direction of Deborah

Marley, a professional dancer and choreographer. The production

centers on a young dancer struggling with her identity as an artist.

Another visit to Scotland, this one in a somewhat lighter vein,

will transpire Feb. 26 when “Brigadoon” arrives on the Lyceum stage,

under the direction of Amick Byram, a guest director who has worked

extensively on Broadway and in other professional theater

productions.

“Brigadoon” recounts the fantasy Scottish village, which appears

only once a century and for one day only, and the complications that

arise when a modern-day outsider falls in love with a Brigadoon

lassie. The musical will run through March 7.

Closing out the Vanguard season will be “The Lion in Winter,” with

the college’s resident lioness, Berkompas, assuming the role of

Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor is the captive queen who battles her

husband, King Henry II, and their three sons for ultimate power.

Marianne Savell, producing director of the Actors Co-op in

Hollywood, is guest director for “Lion,” which will be staged April

16 to 25 in the college’s Lyceum Theater, at 55 Fair Drive, but it’s

easier to get to from southbound Newport Boulevard.

Tickets for each show may be purchased at the door an hour before

curtain, or can be reserved in advance by calling the Vanguard box

office at (714) 668-6145.