‘A Chorus Line’ Will Be an Audition for Its Producer

When South Coast Musical Theatre’s production of “A Chorus Line” opens Friday in Irvine for a three-week run, it will be the most expensive and very probably the most scrutinized show in the troupe’s six-year history.

The $10,000 cost is hardly more than a deluxe shoestring. In fact, some high schools mount more expensive productions. But timing has turned this particular opening at the 100-seat Little Theatre on the University High School campus into a pivotal moment.

For “A Chorus Line” is being produced during the final stages of the selection process to determine whether the troupe rates both a new home next year at the 750-seat Irvine Theatre, now under construction at a cost of $17.6 million, and a new life as the Irvine Civic Light Opera.

No one is more cognizant than Dan Trevino, the troupe’s artistic director, that the outcome of the process could be affected by the show’s reception. Yet he maintains a reassuring sense of perspective, as confident of his cast as he is of his mission.

“You want to do your best because you spend so much of your life rehearsing and perfecting your craft,” said Trevino, a tall man in his 40s with jet-black hair and a serious manner. “All you can do is try to create an atmosphere where performers will flourish. That’s the important thing. There have been times when we asked if the community really wants us, and people always call to say yes.”

Nevertheless, Irvine’s only resident musical theater company has never had a permanent home at which it could establish an identity and build an audience. Since 1983, it has bounced from one high school auditorium to another, staging a couple of shows a year such as “The Fantastiks” “Dames at Sea,” “Side by Side by Sondheim” and “A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.”

Trevino organized the company as an adult spinoff of Irvine Summer Musical Theatre, a group that operated from 1975 to 1977 with high school and college performers. After Proposition 13 passed, he recalled in an interview last week, the group’s money (it was funded principally through Irvine school funds) was cut off.

“I let the group go because we thought it was an impossible task, even though the dream was still there,” Trevino said. “Then in the early ‘80s, I began receiving calls that people would like to see an adult company. We talked for about six months, met at my home,” in Corona del Mar, “came up with a board of directors and an organization and spent a year getting nonprofit status.”

Besides community members, he has attracted to the board representatives of such corporations as E.I. Du Pont de Nemours, Eastman Kodak, Hertz, American Healthcare Systems and Baxter Healthcare Products. If nothing else, the board’s composition is a persuasive argument administratively and financially, for seriousness of intent.

Trevino, who also is chairman of the performing arts department at University High School, is himself preceded by a considerable artistic reputation in both education and theater circles. His prize-winning school productions are legendary in the county for their adventurousness as well as their quality.

In 1985, over strong parental opposition at the school, Trevino staged Elizabeth Swados’ musical “Runaways,” which deals with teen-age prostitution and drugs. His choice was more than vindicated when the show was chosen to represent California at the International Thespian Convention in Muncie, Ind., as one of only 10 high school Mainstage events from the United States and Canada.

Under his tutelage, four of University high’s annual musical productions have also earned top honors at the prestigious countywide Macy Awards: “The Music Man” (1983), “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (1984), “Sweeney Todd” (1986) and “Nine” (1989).

“I’ve always been impressed by how he has overcome the limitations of his production facilities ,” said Douglas Rankin, general manager of the Irvine Theatre Operating Co., in a separate interview last week. “I’m also particularly impressed by the performances he has drawn out of young actors.”

Trevino said he formed the adult South Coast Musical Theatre “to provide opportunities for local talent.” He and resident choreographer Ellen Prince recruit cast members for each show chiefly through open auditions. Most of the 23 performers for “A Chorus Line”--they range from 20 to 29 years old--learned of the auditions through notices Trevino placed in the Los Angeles-based trade journal Drama-Logue.

“The kind of people we get are all trying to pursue some kind of work in the performing arts--some more seriously than others,” he said. “I think two in this show--Lanell Henson and Jeff Baker --are on the verge of really doing something with their careers.” Henson is from Fountain Valley; Baker, from Rancho Cucamonga.

“In today’s economic climate,” he added, “performers can’t be just a dancer or a singer or an actor. They have to be triple threats. Musical theater and opera, which is my first love, combine all three of those elements.”

If Trevino’s company is invited to make the leap to the Irvine Theatre, so too will his dream of staging the complete works of Stephen Sondheim. For starters, he has proposed a 1990-91 Irvine Civic Light Opera season that would open with “Follies” and close with “A Little Night Music,” with Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret” in between.

Will a peripatetic amateur troupe that has only rarely drawn audiences of more than a 100 or so at a time be able to make the leap to a 750-seat theater?

“We don’t know,” Trevino replied. “We have asked ourselves that a lot. But the only way to really find out is to go in there and try.”

The South Coast Musical Theatre’s production of “A Chorus Line” opens Friday in the Little Theatre at University High School 4771 Campus Drive, Irvine, and will continue Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through Oct. 1. General seating: $10 to $12. Information: (714) 640-0339.