GIVING THE VICTORY A ‘V’ FOR GOOD THEATER

Without fuss or fanfare, the Victory Theater has steadily been emerging for the past seven years as one of our more solid and consistent Equity Waiver theaters under the artistic co-directorship of Tom Ormeny and Maria Gobetti. John Kostmayer’s “On the Money” was one of the hits of 1983, and Al Brown’s “Back to Back” was one of our local theater’s official entries in the Olympic Arts Festival.

One of the things that puts the Victory in the company of good theaters is attention to playwrights and new plays. For its new season, the Victory is staging a new Kostmayer work (he’s their playwright-in-residence) called “The History of Fear,” which opens Friday, and a series of new works by John Ford Noonan.

“ ‘The History of Fear’ is a stylized comedy--but not a ha-ha comedy--which is basically about the fears we carry with us when we get into a new romantic relationship,” Ormeny said. “It talks about rage, sexual dysfunction, and it examines how we never really start out new when we’re starting out again. There’ll be some musical standards, and original music written by David Davidson with lyrics by Davidson and Kostmayer. Maria Gobetti is directing.

“The Noonan plays are all premieres,” Ormeny continued. “There are two works about baseball, one called ‘All She Talks About Is the Yankees’ and ‘You Can Ask the Babe Anything.’ The others are called ‘Talking With Chekhov’ and ‘The Critic and His Wife.’ Noonan is a very intuitive, sensitive writer, very tuned in to the American experience. The plays are all in one way or another about success and failure in America.”

The American experience is something Ormeny has taken to heart ever since he escaped from Hungary in 1956 with his father, who was chief engineer of the Hungarian national theater system (he designed the Victory’s lights), and his mother, who was a prominent actress.

“Theater gives people an experience that simply can’t be had in any other medium,” Ormeny said. “It creates a sense of community. We have very few cultural threads that run through this country. Theater in America is not a cultural metaphor. Not like, say, Budapest, which has 27 acting companies for a population of 2 million. Theater unites people.”

Bill Haugse’s last directorial assignment in the theater was the well-received production of Pinter’s “Old Times” at the Pilot in 1980. Haugse is principally a documentary film maker and editor who recently shot a feature on Malcolm Forbes’ balloon trip over Egypt, and was pressed into service when the original director for S. L. Diamond’s “A Starry Night in Casper,” which opens Friday at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, dropped out.

Haugse describes the play as “a naturalistic comedy set in a 39,000-acre ranch in Wyoming. A light plane crashes, with a Hollywood producer and a movie star aboard, during a blizzard. They’re involved in an $80-million picture deal. The play shows a rustic interacting with a charming cynic and a sexy cynic.”

Of the virtues a director can cite when discussing his latest project, Haugse offers this unusual note on the play: “It’s nice and long. I love directing a play. All you have to worry about is where people go and what they do. Unlike the little bits and pieces of putting a film together, which can be a real hassle, here the actors are in control. They’re what holds everything together internally. It’s a lot easier for me.”

Other openings for the week include, today: “Liz & Mary With Ceremony” at the Galaxy Stage; Thursday: the West Coast premiere of Peter Parnell’s “Romance Language” at the CTG/Mark Taper Forum (a co-production with San Diego’s Old Globe, where the play will open after its run at the Taper; and an appearance of the Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre at USC’s Bovard Auditorium; Friday: the South Coast Repertory production of Patrick Smith’s “Driving Around the House,” a play about marital discord seen through the eyes of a 5-year-old, and “The Exhilarating Exile of Darryl Enriques” at the Boyd Street Theater.

“Burnout in the Theater,” “The Funding Picture,” “Combining Stage, Film and Television Careers” and “Producing in the ‘80s” will be the main themes of this year’s three-day California Theatre Council Conference, which gets under way Jan. 29 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Producer Peg Yorkin and actor Richard Dreyfuss will be honorees of the Jan. 30 awards dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel. David Wolper is honorary dinner chairman and Rene Auberjonois, Julie Harris and John Lithgow will provide entertainment. Speakers and panelists during the conference include Dreyfuss, Auberjonois, Bill Bushnell, Peter Coyote, Gordon Davidson, Susan Dietz, The Times’ Sylvie Drake, Robert J. Fitzpatrick, Robert Fryer, Jack O’Brien, Ted Schmitt and Jack Viertel. Ellen Burstyn is the keynote speaker.

Information: (213) 622-6767.