‘Dream’ Will Be a Reality at Westwood; ‘Coastal Disturbances’ Out at Ahmanson

The big news from the near north is that the delicious, Dr. Seuss-inspired “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that plays its final performance Saturday at the PCPA Theaterfest in Solvang, won’t be closing down forever, after all.

Two actors in the Theaterfest company, Kate Axelrod and George Le Porte, have raised the cash to rent sets and costumes from PCPA and bring the production, so imaginatively conceived and staged by John Fletcher, into the Westwood Playhouse for four weeks.

Except for the loss of Lawrence Hecht (as Bottom) and David Kazanjian (Theseus) to previous commitments, Axelrod insists it’s the same show: “We’re going to build a new floor scaled to the Westwood, but it’s the same designer, same lighting designer. Everything else will be rented and used the same.”

Axelrod, who is in the fairy ensemble of “Midsummer,” concedes she is a novice at production--”an actress chiefly, with a BFA in acting from USC. I’ve done a lot of dance work. My partner (Le Porte) has a background in business. He’s produced some Equity Waiver and some low-budget films. But I have a lot of admiration for (John) Fletcher’s direction and we decided quite a while ago that we wanted to try to move this production somewhere.”

Axelrod and Le Porte, who are making this move under the banner of their newly created Actsport Productions, claim to be working with a budget of about $150,000, which doesn’t sound like a lot. Will it be enough? Axelrod says yes.

“The fairies are hired under an Equity extra contract,” she says. “We have 29 cast members--10 extras and 19 actors.”

I thought fairies were hired under a toadstool. A four week-run is planned. There will be five previews Oct. 3-6. Opening is Oct. 7.

SCHEDULE DISTURBANCES: The Ahmanson Theatre has officially scrubbed “Coastal Disturbances” as its second production of the season. Instead, it will bring in a production of Robert Anderson’s “I Never Sang for My Father” that played the Berkshire Festival this summer and opens tonight at Washington’s Kennedy Center.

Heading the cast are Dorothy McGuire (absent from the Ahmanson stage since “Another Part of the Forest” in 1982--entirely too long), Harold Gould and Daniel J. Travanti.

“This is Anderson at his best,” said Martin Manulis, artistic co-director of the Center Theatre Group Ahmanson with Robert Fryer. “He’s such a skilled writer. I saw the production in Stockbridge (at the Berkshire Festival). It moves you to tears one moment and has you laughing the next.”

The decision to substitute “Father” for “Coastal Disturbances” was based, as reported in Stage Watch last week, on the inability of the Ahmanson directors to cast the play as they believed it should be. Manulis denies that another consideration was size: placing something as intimate as “Disturbances” in a house as big as the Ahmanson.

“I’d hate to think that we would limit ourselves to a certain kind of play,” he said. “When we couldn’t get the people we wanted, scrapping it just seemed to be the better part of valor.”

The production, which will tour about 10 cities before showing up at the Ahmanson Dec. 11, was directed by the Berkshire Festival’s longtime artistic director, Josephine R. Abady.

It’s the first major revival of this study by Anderson of the unfinished relationship between a widowed son and his cantankerous father since its opening on Broadway in 1968. Anderson also received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay for the 1969 film version of the play, which featured Melvyn Douglas and Gene Hackman. As Manulis said: “It’s very special material.”

PIECES AND BITS: The Groundling’s Guide to the Fringe Festival airs at 10 tonight on KCRW-FM (89.9). Heaven knows we need one, preferably funny. . . .

We’ve had lunchtime theater and dinner theater, now the West Coast Ensemble in Hollywood has initiated “Theatre 6 to 7,” “to launch experimental works in the 6-to-7 time slot, before a main stage production. . . .”

Gary Reed is the new associate artistic director of Actors Alley in Van Nuys. He will concentrate on producing for Actors Alley Too, the group’s experimental arm. . . .

Women in Theatre kicks off its sixth annual playwrights’ workshop Sept. 22. The Cast Theatre’s dramaturge, Diane Gibson, will act as facilitator. WIT membership and a $25 fee are required. An orientation meeting will be held Tuesday. Call (213) 465-5567. . . .