‘SPECIAL CLASS’ DISPLAYS SKILLS OF SPECIAL PEOPLE

“Special Class,” the Laguna Moulton Playhouse youth production that opens at 7:30 p.m. today, is a special case of real-life casting.

The children’s theater work by Brian Kral, which was premiered in 1976 by the Rainbow Company of Las Vegas and performed in 1984 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, is about a public school class for the physically and mentally handicapped.

In the Laguna Moulton Playhouse’s Youth Theatre version, seven of the 12 “Special Class” members are portrayed by actual handicapped students.

Such a play wholly about the handicapped--whose afflictions include blindness, cerebral palsy and retardation--is a first for the Laguna Moulton, as is the use of a cast with so many real-life handicapped performers.

But neither “Special Class” nor the theatrical integration of the handicapped is new to Jody Johnston Davidson, who is staging the Kral work for the 418-seat playhouse in Laguna Beach.

During Davidson’s previous 10-year stint as managing director of the Rainbow Company, the Las Vegas children’s theater organization gained a national reputation for staging social-issue plays on subjects such as teen-age suicide and nuclear devastation. The company also has become known for using handicapped people as performers and stage crew members.

Davidson, 34, daughter of the late comedienne Totie Fields, staged both the 1976 premiere of “Special Class” in Las Vegas and the 1984 version presented at a Kennedy Center-hosted national arts festival. Disabled performers were used in both productions.

Now general manager at the Laguna Moulton, Davidson said she is excited about bringing the Kral work to a Southland stage for the first time.

“It hasn’t been staged in Southern California yet,” she said of the play. “When I joined the Laguna Moulton last year, this was one of the plays high on the (Youth Theatre) list, believe me.”

Davidson said she is establishing a program similar to the Rainbow Company for the Laguna Moulton’s Youth Theatre. Last fall, the Youth Theatre’s December holiday production was the traditional “Winnie the Pooh.” But the October season opener was “Step on a Crack,” about the troubled relations of a boy with his new stepmother. Kral’s play is the Youth Theatre’s final work of the season.

“Special Class” focuses on the disabled students and their teachers. Their relationships are underscored when it is announced that one of the students is leaving to be “mainstreamed” into the school’s regular classes.

“There’s a lot in the play that we’ve gone through and felt ourselves; there’s a lot of truth in it,” said Leslie Matthews, 18, during a “Special Class” rehearsal break at the Laguna Moulton Playhouse.

The Tustin High School senior is one of three blind students in the cast. The others are Fotty Haghighi, 17, of Irvine, and Lisa Ann Everett, 16, of Orange. All were referred to Davidson by teachers in handicapped programs.

Another cast member, Frank Hayes, 13, of Westminster, suffers from a spinal affliction. Scott Warneke, 8, of Dana Point, is confined to a wheelchair with arthritis. Kenny Waldrop, 9, of Westminster, has cerebral palsy. Jay White, 28, a regular Special Olympics participant, is mentally handicapped.

One of the five non-handicapped members of the cast is Kevin Mangold, 19, a drama major at USC, who plays a paraplegic in “Special Class.” To prepare for the role, Mangold spent weekends using a walker and a wheelchair (the same technique was used by the other non-handicapped cast members).

“The marvelous thing about being in this play is the greater awareness and understanding you gain about the handicapped,” he said. “You find that they’re exceptionally strong people in so many other ways.”

Said director Davidson: “This play gives them (the handicapped) the chance to express themselves and to help deal with some of the problems that come with their disabilities.

“But most of all, they’re individuals,” she said. “You direct them--you treat them--like you do everyone else. That’s the whole point of this project.”

“Special Class” is being presented today, Saturday and Sunday and May 1, 2 and 3 at the playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road. Tickets are $3 for children and $5 for adults. Call (714) 494-0743 or 494-8021 for information.