Dowling Discusses Past, Future During L.A. Stopover; ‘Scenes From American Life’ Gets L.A. Premiere April 19

For director Vincent Dowling, the future seems to be on the way to taking care of itself. When Allan Hancock College last month announced Dowling’s resignation as artistic director of the PCPA Theaterfest (which operates in Solvang and Santa Maria under the aegis of the college), he was away and not available for comment. Last week Dowling was in Los Angeles, more eager to talk about the future than the past, but not uncomfortable with either.

Dowling is here working with playwright Donald Freed on Freed’s “The Last Hero,” a three-character play about Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow.

“Donald calls it ‘A Tragedy of Fame.’ It was Olwen’s idea (Olwen O’Herlihy, Dowling’s wife). She wanted it for her father (actor Dan O’Herlihy). The third character is an aboriginal boy from the Philippine rain forest whom the Lindberghs adopt at the end of their lives. Our intention is to do it in a regional theater,” Dowling said, but he’s also traveling to Ireland in three weeks to see about possibly taking it to Dublin’s annual International Theatre Festival next fall.

“I’m also going to Ohio to talk to the College of Wooster about taking over their theater department for a year beginning in September and I’m negotiating for an American play that’s been a box-office success to take to the Ireland festival.

“I can’t give you the title at this stage of our discussions.”

Of the past at PCPA, Dowling said: “I felt that there wasn’t the commitment to professionalism that I’d hoped for in the theater or in the community. Solvang believes strongly in the professional aspects of the theater, but Allan Hancock had brought me in, and I felt Solvang never chose me.

“I was not unhappy with what we achieved. We did not spend huge sums of money. We increased student enrollment by 40%. I professionalized costume and scene shops, developed an administrative staff, created a live professional orchestra and paid the musicians.

“What led to the abruptness of my departure was a two-day retreat (March 1 and 2) on the transition PCPA had just undergone (since the 1984 departure of former artistic director and founder Donovan Marley, now running the theater company at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts).

“The questions we asked were: Who are we? Where are we going? What will it cost to get there?

“It clearly demonstrated that the Allan Hancock plan for the cooperative venture with Solvang was that of a conservatory with a professional theater attached. I saw it as a professional theater with a conservatory attached.

“Even at that stage I thought I would do the summer. But when these differences became apparent, they decided I should leave then and there. The divergence was too extreme. It became obvious to me that what I wanted was not what they wanted. And it also became very clear that if I were to be a party to finding a successor, it would have been someone who broadly shared my view.”

PCPA veteran Jack Shouse is Theaterfest’s new artistic director.

GRAB BAG: A.R. Gurney’s “Scenes From American Life” gets a Los Angeles premiere April 19 at the Skylight Theatre. Directing is Michael Arabian (who staged “Request Concert” at the Cast). Appearing will be Kristina David, Edith Fields, Frank Fowler, Gary Guidinger, Catherine MacNeal, Margaret Muse and James Siering.

“Wrestlers,” Bill C. Davis’ three-character drama that had a 20-week run at the Cast Theatre last summer, opened Wednesday at New York’s Hudson Theatre Guild under the direction of Geraldine Fitzgerald, who earlier had staged Davis’ “Mass Appeal.” Davis again plays Monty, one of two brothers in love with the same woman.

THE RUMOR MILL: Plans to move “The Common Pursuit” to another theater have not materialized and so one of the year’s finest plays and productions closes April 13 at the Matrix with two performances--at 2:30 and 8 p.m. Don’t be surprised if this revised Simon Gray script gets a New York staging. There is interest. . . .

“Pump Boys and Dinettes,” doing well in its San Diego Old Globe incarnation, has fallen off the marquee at the Henry Fonda here. The Chicago production that was due has canceled, but may show up at the Las Palmas Theatre next fall.

“We’re talking,” said producing director Josh Shiowitz, but let’s not hold our breath. . . .

BENEFITS: A special screening of “Sweet Liberty,” starring Alan Alda, on April 22 at 7 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills will serve as a fund-raiser for the Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson theaters. A supper party at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel follows. Tax-deductible tickets are $150 per person. Call (213) 972-7353.

“AIDS/US: Portraits in Personal Courage,” a docudrama about people with and affected by AIDS, will play four consecutive Sundays at the Skylight Theatre at noon. This Sunday’s inaugural performance will benefit the AIDS Project Los Angeles. The $25 ticket includes a brunch beginning at 11 a.m. A portion of the $6 ticket for subsequent performances will benefit the Shanti Foundation, AIDS for AIDS and the Minority AIDS Project. Call (213) 874-3678.

CODA: Madge Sinclair, Gregory Harrison, Sylvia Sidney, Richard Thomas, Luis Valdez, Edith Fields, Dodie Goodman and Elizabeth Wilson will be among the presenters at the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle 18th annual awards dinner Monday at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Actor Pat Hingle will introduce honored guest Jose Quintero. Entertainment this year will be confined to a short revue of original material pertaining to theater in Los Angeles performed by Amanda McBroom, George Ball, Carole Cook and Gary Imhoff.

The event is sold out.