If you had asked this reviewer last...

If you had asked this reviewer last week what the year was like, the response would have been, “Are you sure you really want to know?” Equity Waiver, with much quiet on the mid-size front, was a beehive of activity--most of it mindless. A careful glance back at the year, though, brings a surprise report: 1986 was an improvement on 1985. There were fewer Waiver theaters one could consistently rely on, but more shows worth revisiting.

If this was the year of the solo artist, Jane Anderson set a high standard with “How to Raise a Gifted Child” at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. This was a gifted writer-performer’s satire textured in lavender, not dark colors. “Steven Banks’ Home Entertainment Center,” which just ended an eight-month-plus run at the Chamber Theatre on New Year’s Eve, gave us a solo show with lots of dark tinges, cleverly layered by a limitlessly wacky sensibility.

The one musical that fulfilled its ambitions was the Actors Alley revival of “Working,” adapted from Studs Terkel’s documentary book of American workers. Gordon McManus’ cast let out all the stops, and the passion of the singing could have ignited a welder’s arc.

Ronald Harwood’s “The Dresser” arrived at Orange County’s Grove Theatre in late February, but nothing the rest of the year surpassed it as a supremely accomplished drama and a moving look at theater-making as community.

Three other productions, even with their flaws, made Waiver theatergoing more than bearable: Reza Abdoh’s “A Medea: Requiem for a Boy With a White, White Toy” was hallucinatory, ritualistic Euripides on a basketball court, unique in its tone and sensibility; Jan Munroe made good-natured fun of the performance art scene with “Notes: On Performance,” at Pipeline, and for once, there was a sense of real danger on stage (in this case, the Cast) with John Pappas’ “Acme Material,” which borrowed--with originality--from John Steppling.

A pair of college shows outshone most of the “professional” work: Mel Helstein’s UCLA puppet production, “ ‘Tis of Aucassin and of Nicolette,” was a charming, medieval time machine, while Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George,” at Cal State L.A. (and the first college staging approved by the author), was a case of exceptional intelligence applied to a limited budget.

Some nights on the Stage Beat found actors carrying the whole show with them: Judith Hansen (“Infanticide”), John Young (“Fat Chance”), Judith Heinz (“The Robber Bridegroom”), Ivan E. Roth, Eric Weitz, Jed Mills (“Creeps”) and Karen Joy McCormick clowning it up in “The Art of M and M.” Some nights found athletes (Cathy Rigby in “Peter Pan”) and female impersonators (Jim Bailey in “Nite Club Confidential”) acting at a high caliber--not just career-hopping. And the beat goes on. . . .