Luck o’ the Irish Evades Laguna Playhouse at Festival

Company members of the Laguna Playhouse got good news and bad news this weekend in Dundalk, Ireland, where they represented the United States in the 23rd annual International Community Theater Festival.

The good news for the troupe’s basketball-conscious contingent came when they heard that the Los Angeles Lakers made it to the NBA championship playoffs.

The bad news was that their production of the frontier musical “Quilters” came in second overall in the festival, despite winning the award as the audience’s favorite.

In all, the Laguna Playhouse production picked up seven awards, producing artistic director Doug Rowe said Sunday.

“It’s a major disappointment. The adjudicator apologized and said she made her decision because it was a musical and that 40% of the points go toward acting. . . . She talked for about five minutes on why she made her choice. It was that we did a musical, not a straight play--that’s what it finally came down to,” Rowe said.

Certificates of merit were awarded to composer Mark Turnbull for the music and to Karen McBride for her acting as the matriarch of a pioneer family of women. “Quilters” also received the Owen Darcy audience award, the best lighting prize and the Adjudicator’s Award for outstanding achievement. Rowe shared the best-producer award with the producer of “A View From the Bridge.”

The competition included several Irish groups as well as theater companies from Canada, Israel and Czechoslovakia.

First- and third-place awards were captured by Irish companies. First place went to the Mercury Players of Dublin for Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge.” Third place was awarded to the Newpoint Players of Newry, which presented a Frank McGuinness play set in World War I titled “Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme.”

“Quilters,” the Molly Newman-Barbara Damashek play about seven American frontier women, has become something of a cottage industry for the Laguna Playhouse. After a record-setting 3 1/2-week engagement in 1987 at the Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach, “Quilters” won a national community theater competition.

As a result, it was picked by the American Assn. of Community Theatres to represent the United States at the festival in Dundalk.

The second place finish isn’t the end of the road for “Quilters,” Rowe said. “We’ve got several irons in the fire. The minute I get back I’m going to try and see if we can’t get a production up in L.A.”

The lure of the Emerald Isle was enough to entice all seven original cast members to make the trip. McBride, the mother of the frontier clan, is a music teacher and member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Her six daughters are played by Karen Angela, Colleen Dunn, Tricia Griffin, Carolun Miller, Lisa Pecotte and Laura Pryzgoda.

Although Rowe said that “it has been a wonderful week,” life in Ireland hasn’t been a bed of shamrocks for the company.

“It has rained every day. So we Californians are getting our year’s quota (in) a week. We’ve had colds,” Rowe said.

Group members had remained sunny about their prospects since they took the stage Thursday.

“It went great,” Rowe said. “The adjudicator praised everything: the performances, the music, the lighting.”

There was only one hitch as far as Rowe was concerned: “The show didn’t start on time, but it wasn’t our fault. It was Ascension Thursday and there was a parade right in front of the theater.”

Rowe brightened upon hearing that the Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks and will move into the NBA championship series against the Detroit Pistons.

“All right--that’ll take some of the edge off.”