SACHS GOES OUT ON A LIMB WITH ‘BARON IN TREES’

Fresh from the space odyssey of “Defying Gravity,” the Ensemble Studio Theatre is setting its stage for another non-earthbound work: Italo Calvino’s “The Baron in the Trees,” opening Thursday.

“The title intrigued me,” said adapter/director Stephen Sachs, 27. “I’d gone to a bookstore to get another Calvino book and this was in a set of three. The (jacket) said it was the story of a (12-year-old) 18th-Century Italian nobleman who rebels against society by climbing up into the trees--and never coming down for the rest of his life. I thought, ‘Hmmm, this is kind of interesting.’

“So instead of reading the other book, I read ‘Baron in the Trees.’ About a quarter of the way through, I thought, ‘Boy, this would make a really magical, charming play. Then halfway through, I thought, ‘But how would I stage it? He’s in the trees so much.’ Then about three-quarters of the way through, I thought of using ladders and rope and catwalking: doing it in a more representational style, instead of trying to do it literally.

“What you’ll see, then, is a network of planks and ladders. As the play opens, (Cosimo’s) on the ground. When he decides to go into the trees, he climbs up a ladder and onto a catwalk--and never touches the stage again. So in actuality, he’s only five or six feet above the ground; the point is, audiences will have to bring their imaginations.”

They’ll need them for the cast too: an ensemble of 13 actors plays 75 parts, including sheep, wolves, buildings and sound effects.

“It’s quite a feat,” Sachs said proudly. “We’re going with a base costume suggesting the period, then adding colorful costume pieces to it. But the actors never leave the stage during the play--everything’s done in front of the audience. There’s a playing area in the center of the stage, surrounded by a neutral area where the actors go to watch the play. When it’s time for them to make their change, they stand up, put on the medallion that makes them a nobleman and go on as a brand new character.

“I’m trying to change the whole feeling of the theater space itself,” said Sachs, who grew up in Agoura and attended Los Angeles City College’s Theatre Academy. “I wanted to lose that separation between audience and stage, make it all environmental--as if the entire room is a playing space. So actors will also be going up the aisles into the audience.”

Confrontational theater?

“Oh no, it’s very passive. They’ll just be sitting up there, watching the play with you.”

The play’s language--although having “a poetic feel to it, because that’s the way Calvino writes”--is equally non-threatening. “It’s modern English (Calvino, who died recently, was considered one of Italy’s leading writers) and I haven’t changed a word of the text. But no, there’s nothing dated about it. The story tells about an individual who dares to see life on a different slant. Anybody who’s ever felt special or different or unique will identify.”

Sachs, who balances directing and acting (he appeared in the acclaimed 1985 Stages production of “Leonce and Lena”), played Cosimo during workshops at Ensemble Studio Theatre last winter, but eschewed that in favor of the more objective directorial position. At the same time, he shares credit for the resulting work with the cast, “who came together and stayed with this out of love--with no guarantee of it ever being done.”

Amid such dedication, isn’t he in danger of becoming too attached to this one project?

“Not at all,” Sachs said cheerfully. “I’m already working on a new piece, ‘Razkazy,’ which will be part of (EST’s) main stage program in December. It’s an adaptation of Chekhov short stories: ‘Kashtank,’ the story of a dog who learns about death; ‘Grief,’ about an old man getting over the loss of his son, and ‘Inadvertence,’ about a man who accidentally drinks paraffin--believing it’s vodka--and thinks he’s going to die. So it’s three stories about death, dealt with in different ways: some funny, some less so.”

As for energy output, “There’ve been times,” he said, “when the two (projects) overlapped. Plus I work here at the theater--I’m on staff full-time--and I also teach an acting workshop out in Agoura. So yes, I have a busy life right now. (‘Baron’) has been a delirious experience--but it will be a relief when it finally opens.”