‘6 Women’ Inspiring and Non-Expiring : Theater

Those minds over at the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Space show no signs of expiring as “Six Women With Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want to Know” heads for its latest two-week extension, which will take the hit show through Feb. 14.

Sam Woodhouse, managing director of the San Diego Repertory Theatre and director of the show, took time out from going over the resumes of the Actors Co-op auditioners he saw last week (the Actors Co-op “is the greatest thing to happen to San Diego actors,” he said), to express his delight that “Six Women” has been selling out virtually every night since its Oct. 28 opening.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in 12 years. People come back three or four times. They see it and come back with their friends,” he said.

There will be some interesting changes for those who catch the show in February. Two of the original cast members and co-authors of the play will replace two cast members. Rosanna E. Coppedge, who originated the role of the girl “too fat to be prom queen,” will reclaim that role from Seraiah Carol, who is cast in a show at the Denver Center Theatre Company starting Feb. 8, while Valerie Fagan will take over the roles of Melinda Gilb (although there might be some reshuffling of roles among the cast, too, Woodhouse said).

Gilb, who played the part of the contestant in the game show “Wise Up Or Die,” is leaving to take a cruise that she won on a game show in real life--and then going into rehearsal for “Suds,” the San Diego Repertory Theatre workshop show that Gilb wrote with Steve Gunderson and Bryan Scott that is having its world premiere at the Old Globe on March 31.

As was mentioned in a December Spotlight column, the phenomenal success of the San Diego run of “Six Women” resulted in a revival of the show at the Kansas City theater where all the madness started. That revival only lasted about three weeks, but the San Diego production is still going strong.

Woodhouse is leaving the Lyceum Space open for possible extensions until the Little Boots production company begins its previews for the April 14 opening of “Equus,” previewing April 12-13 and playing through May 8. However, he stressed that he will only sell tickets two weeks in advance and will not extend the show past a high ticket demand.