Going Extra Mile for the Troupes : Theater Director Commutes to Run Children’s Group

Alex Urban figures he has accumulated enough frequent flier miles for a couple of trips to Europe. But with children’s theater groups to run in the San Fernando Valley, Orange County and Northern California, plus a full-time teaching job, Urban barely has a chance to visit his Napa home, much less another continent.

The Valley theater group, which has about 120 children, is the most recent addition to the circuit. Urban flies to Southern California on weekends, meeting with the Orange County children on Saturday and the Valley class on Sunday. Urban, head of the fine arts department at a Roman Catholic high school in Napa, also finds time after school for his groups in Solano County, Napa County and Sacramento.

“It sounds like a crazy schedule, but I love it,” Urban said after a recent rehearsal at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. “Children’s theater is my golf or tennis. It’s where I get my relaxation and my exhilaration. At the end of the day I feel like I’ve done something.”

The Valley group, Greater Los Angeles Children’s Theatre, is preparing for two musicals, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” for younger children, and “Grease” for those older. The dividing line between age groups is flexible, and some students take part in both productions. The program accepts children between 3 and 19.

“We do a good show,” said Urban, 48. “It’s lit properly, the sound is good. There’s good scenery, good costumes. We want the kids to know what it is to be in a real production.”

Four performances of each play will be staged in February at Calabasas High School. Several children will take turns in the lead roles, and all will be listed in the program alphabetically with no indication of the part they play.

“We don’t list by role,” Urban said. “Our philosophy is that they’re all important.”

There are no tryouts to enroll in the class, and all children get parts in the productions.

Of 70 families that had children in an August production of “Annie,” Urban’s first Valley effort, 30 re-enrolled, said Kathie Bretches of Woodland Hills. Bretches is one of several volunteers who, along with Urban’s staff, manage to keep a large class of children busy and orderly.

“I was very impressed with the quality of theater he gave the children for a nominal amount of money compared to other programs,” said Bretches, mother of 11-year-old Alison, a member of the past and present classes. “Anything comparable would be $200 or $400.”

Urban charges $125 per child for the 3-month program. Urban said he is able to keep the price low by teaching large classes.

A similar Valley program, the Southern California Conservatory of Music in Sun Valley, charges $148 for a 3-month program that meets twice a week.

“It’s very expensive to put on productions,” he said. “Royalties for the plays run thousands of dollars. The rehearsal hall is $50 to $75 a week. For music we used to use orchestras, but that got too expensive so we use a small combo or sometimes a piano if that’s all we can afford. The lighting designer gets a grand. The theater usually is three grand. I have to hire a costume designer because it’s hard to find parents who can costume that many kids.”

The five programs are a nonprofit corporation, overseen by a board of directors. Urban is compensated for his traveling expenses and receives a salary of $1,000 a month, but said he often spends part of it to cover shortfalls in production budgets.

He believes the size of the groups--the Northern California classes sometimes draw 250 children--does not reduce the benefits to children.

“We like large group interaction,” he said. “We think it’s good for friendships, good for building confidence, good for energy.”

“The size makes it more professional,” agreed 12-year-old Shelley Pack of Woodland Hills, a veteran of other children’s theater groups. “Also the length. A lot of other programs last only a few weeks.”

Urban claims that as a director he is “a Henry Fonda man--read your lines and collect your paycheck.” But he constantly coaxes more energy from his students.

During rehearsal one girl could not sing as loudly as the others.

“You have to project,” he said. “Do you know what that is?”

The girl didn’t.

“You have to imagine that the air that’s touching your lips is touching the ears of everyone who’s listening. You just have to get all that air vibrating.”

After several tries, she was able to raise her volume.

“He seems to have a rapport with kids,” said Pauline Holt of Canoga Park, who has two daughters in the Valley class. “They like him and he has good control. They’re very quiet and they listen.”

Urban typically begins directing a group of children in a scene, then turns them over to a member of his 2-person staff or to one of several experienced class members, called student directors.

Sonny Rogers’ two daughters, Vicki, 13, and Sabrina, 10, have been in both of Urban’s Valley classes.

“They were very shy when they went into ‘Annie’ but that’s changed,” said Rogers, of Northridge. “They moaned and griped that he was too tough, but Alex is a hard worker, and when he sees a child who could be doing better, he encourages that.”

Several parents said their children have become more self-assured since taking part in the class. Such strengthening of personality is the purpose of the program, Urban said. However, some children have used it as a steppingstone to commercial success.

Linda Stiefel said her 10-year-old daughter, Adrienne, joined the Orange County class when it began 2 years ago. It was the Laguna Hills girl’s first theater experience. Since then she has landed a part in a production by the South Coast Repertory theater, which is an Equity company, as well as paying parts in two dinner theater productions.

Actor Nicholas Cage, nephew of movie director Francis Ford Coppola, is a graduate of Urban’s Solano class.

Urban said he encounters more stage mothers in the Valley than elsewhere.

“The people in the Valley have this concentration on agents that won’t stop,” he said. “A mother will say, ‘My kid has an agent so she’s got to have a lead.’ And I explain that it doesn’t work that way.”

He added that parents here often appear to be suffering from burnout.

“People in the Valley have been put through the wringer,” he said. “They seem exhausted. They’re definitely not walking through lovely vineyards on sun-kissed afternoons, which you find more of up north.”

Urban moved to Northern California from Illinois in 1970. He said his interest in theater began early.

“As a child I was given an Erector set for Christmas,” he remembered. “My uncles were there waiting to see if I put together a bridge or a building, and I put together a stage. I put Christmas tree lights around it and got fabric from my mother for a curtain, and I had a production.”

He is head of fine arts at Justin Siena High School in Napa and teaches English as well as theater classes. The school is run by the Christian Brothers and Dominican Sisters. Urban said administrators have asked if it’s wise for him to conduct children’s theater in all his free time.

“But I tell them it’s my calling, and they have to accept that.”

He said he has put on after-school workshops and productions virtually all of his 28-year teaching career. The classes always have more girls than boys. Occasionally Urban hires an adult actor when there isn’t a male student skillful enough to handle a mature part such as Daddy Warbucks in “Annie.”

Urban said he remembers children by personality characteristics rather than names.

“It’s the interaction of the people that I love, and they way they mature,” he said. “I love to see kids get gutsy.”