STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : Survival Struggle Goes On for Gay Theater Company

Three years ago, Thomas Vegh had a dream. San Diego, whether it knew it or not, needed a gay theater company. He called his company Diversionary Theatre, and once or twice a year he would scrape together enough money to stage a Diversionary show at different venues around town--the Sushi Gallery, the West Coast Production Company, the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre and Roosevelt High School. Quite often Vegh would direct, star and help in the designing of these productions. It seemed as if he and Diversionary were inseparable.

Then, three weeks ago, he resigned as artistic producing director at the request of the board of directors he, himself, put together.

The resignation, which occurred without public announcement June 18, was the result of “a division” between Vegh and the board, according to Larry Oviatt,president of Diversionary’s eight-member board.

“This has come as a result of many hours of discussion and debate,” Oviatt said. “When one person has a vision and brings us all aboard to help that vision, it is painful to do this. But it came down to the fact that we needed to move in a different direction. We need crossover plays. We need a season. These are things we need to work on.”

A crossover audience, meaning gay and straight theatergoers, was also Vegh’s goal, said the outgoing artistic director. Vegh said it was with that aim in mind that he presented Charles Ludlam’s “Stage Blood,” by the late artistic director of New York’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company.

“It (Diversionary) was supposed to be gay theater for everyone. That’s why I did the Ludlam,” Vegh said. “I already wrote funding for another Ludlam play--’Reverse Psychology’--which we were granted money from COMBO (Combined Arts and Education Council of San Diego) to do. Ludlam has the potential to cross over.”

Gay and/or straight, Diversionary’s audiences were small, which Vegh saw as a consequence of small, alternative work in the world of theater. “Unless you’re doing mainstream work, it’s always hard finding an audience, especially when you’re on a shoestring budget.”

Jeff Okey, an actor who appeared in two Diversionary plays, blames Diversionary’s failure to draw crowds on the lack of a permanent space.

“No one knew where the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre was,” said Okey, who performed in “Stage Blood” there. “The last show was at Roosevelt High School. When people hear a show is at a high school, they think it’s going to be bad.”

Okey said his main concern is the future of Diversionary. The one thing Vegh and the board had in common is the struggle to prove that gay theater can make it in San Diego. Will the change in leadership spell the beginning of the end, or a beginning of growth? Oviatt said a new executive director will be in place by the end of July. There are no immediate plans for a new artistic director, and no new plays have been announced.

Okey, already approached by the new organization, has adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

“If this ends Diversionary, I think that’s a terrible thing,” said Okey. “A lot of theaters won’t touch gay material because they don’t want to offend their audiences. And this was the only gay theatrical company in town. But, if they go on, it’s fine.”

The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre will be charting new territory with “Eden Court,” which will play the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre Aug. 2-26. The setting of this blue-collar comedy about a couple in a trailer park is a bit different for the Gaslamp, which tends to prefer Noel Coward. But the real departure is that this is the Gaslamp’s first co-production with another theater. Or rather, three theater groups.

Former San Diegan Kate Axelrod, who lives in Los Angeles, is the matchmaker who set up the co-production for the husband and wife team of Fat Boy and Sticks Productions, the Tamarind Theatre in Los Angeles, which has already presented the play, the Gaslamp and herself.

The wife portion of Fat Boy and Sticks, Deborah Scott, will star in the play and the Fat Boy half, Robert Spero, will direct.

The advantages of co-productions have long been clear to the Old Globe Theatre, the La Jolla Playhouse and the San Diego Repertory Theatre, all of which have presented co-productions and continue to plan them. NBC’s “Today” show will, in fact, film a segment at the Playhouse Saturday afternoon for an upcoming Sunday piece on co-productions in the regional theater movement.

“Today” will focus on the Playhouse production of “Dangerous Games,” which is co-produced with the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia and the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston.

Co-productions allow theaters to share the costs of a production and the credit. And, a show’s life is extended when one theater continues the work that another has begun.

James A. Strait, general manager/associate director of the Gaslamp, hopes for a life beyond the Hahn for “Eden Court,” which began at the Humanas Festival in Louisville, Ky., and resurfaced in a New York workshop before going to the Tamarind Theatre with Fat Boy and Sticks Productions. He is also looking forward to continued co-productions.

“I hate when you put your heart and soul into something and have to pull it all down in seven weeks and say goodby. It’s nice to look beyond,” Strait said. “I’ve been looking at plays we might take to the Tamarind. Then, too, if this play goes on and does well after six weeks here, you get a percentage of it. When I first read it, I thought this would be a perfect little movie.”

PROGRAM NOTES: “Rumors,” the Neil Simon play that premiered at the Old Globe Theatre, will start a yearlong tour in October. It will skip San Diego--where it began--but play Los Angeles sometime in the spring. There is a possibility that Old Globe associate artist Kandis Chappell might join the tour, unless she stays on Broadway where she replaced Tony-award winner Christine Baranski in “Rumors” on Monday. . . .

Another Old Globe premiere, “The Cocktail Hour,” will be heading on tour in late August, starting with a four-week run at the Kennedy Center. Unlike “Rumors,” which shows no signs of closing, there’s talk that the current production at the Off Broadway Promenade Theatre, may shut down in late August before the tour begins. . . .

The good news is that “Six Women with Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want to Know” has a new number--”Poodles from Hell”--to replace the “Hello Nancy” number, outdated since Nancy Reagan left the White House. The sad news is that San Diego’s longest-running show finally has a closing date--July 23. There are no plans for a new show to move into the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Sixth Avenue Playhouse. But a Rep staff member said the theater will be checking out the shows in its coming season to see if any merit an indefinite extension there like “Six Women.”