Soviet Rock Group Concert May Aid San Diego Theater

Sledgehammer Theatre has good reason to be thrilled that rock promoter Scott Pedersen just landed a top Soviet rock group to appear during the Soviet Arts Festival over the objections of Mayor Maureen O’Connor. Pedersen has designated Sledgehammer and five other nonprofit groups as beneficiaries for any money his organization, Scottland Concerts, earns over the $10,000 break-even point at the six concerts he’s presenting at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.

O’Connor had tried to block for-profit groups like Pedersen’s from bringing in Soviet art for the festival. Ironically, Pedersen, who made independent arrangements with the Soviets to bring in rock star Vladimir Kuzmin and his band, Dynamik, said all he hopes to do is break even; the profits will go to the six nonprofit groups.

Each group gets its own performance night to benefit, and Sledgehammer’s night is Halloween. So expect some Sledgehammer-like special effects for the Oct. 31 concert. Will we be seeing any buckets of fake blood left over from “Blow Out the Sun” or “Pre-Paradise Sorry Now”? Sledgehammer won’t say.

Pedersen has also named the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Poway High School marching band, the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art as beneficiaries for the other nights. Pedersen hopes the concerts, if sellouts, will put $3,000 to $3,500 in each organization’s coffers.

Why did Pedersen name Sledgehammer one of the beneficiaries?

“I’d always been intrigued by the name,” he said. “Also, I think a lot of the goals of our companies are the same. They are both very young companies, somewhat idealistic, trying to do things in a different way, not always for money, but to add to the culture of San Diego in a way that has not always been met.”

Then, too, Pedersen thought Sledgehammer would be “just right” at providing what will be the Soviet group’s first look at Halloween, which is not observed in the Soviet Union.

Ethan Feerst, executive director of Sledgehammer, said he wasn’t surprised when Pedersen’s plans to present Kuzmin almost didn’t happen because of O’Connor’s objections. It’s been that kind of a year for Sledgehammer, he explained. This was the year that a fire destroyed their office and they had to change theater spaces and actors at the eleventh hour for a production of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame.”

“I’m thrilled and surprised that it’s happening again, and I have just begun to think about whatever kind of antics we’ll be able to contribute,” Feerst said. “Hopefully, this represents a change in direction for our luck.’

PROGRAM NOTES: The Lamb’s Players Theatre doesn’t, as a rule, hire understudies for its actors. But they have made an exception in the case of Rick Meads, who stars as Joseph in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” starting today. The reason? Meads’ wife, Lamb’s Players resident playwright and associate artistic director Kerry Cederberg Meads, is expecting their first child about three weeks into the show’s five-week run, and Meads wants to be ready to go the hospital at a moment’s notice. “We’re hoping this baby has stage timing,” the expectant mother said with a laugh and a sigh. . . .

This year “A Walk in the Woods” was presented by American Playhouse. The Lee Blessing play had its West Coast premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse under the direction of the Playhouse’s artistic director, Des McAnuff. Next September, “Into the Woods,” the Stephen Sondheim musical that premiered at the Old Globe Theatre and played on Broadway, will be shown on American Playhouse’s 10th season. . . .

From “Big River” to “The Big Kitchen”--John Highkin, just returned from directing the Phoenix Little Theatre production of “Big River,” , is back in town thinking about doing a new play, possibly by Nobel winner Luigi Pirandello, at the Big Kitchen in November. Highkin previously directed “Conversations in Exile” and “Counting the Ways” at the Big Kitchen. . . .

Actress Rebecca Schull will move from the tragic to the comedic in crime this year, first as one of the witches in “Macbeth,” which opens Oct. 15 at the La Jolla Playhouse and then with her part in a soon to be released Woody Allen film comedy, “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Her last part at the Playhouse was the giddy Miss Flora Van Huysen in “The Matchmaker.” . . . The Old Globe’s Teatro Meta Latino Play Discovery Series concludes with a Tuesday reading and workshop performances Oct. 27-29 of “Death and the Blacksmith (El Herrero y la Muerte)” by Mercedes Rein and Jorge Curi of Uruguay. Old Globe executive producer Craig Noel directs at the Progressive Stage Company. . . .

Meanwhile the Progressive has launched “Home Grown,” a project to develop local playwrights and actors for a “Works in Progress” series to begin in October and a compilation of one-acts, performance pieces and sketches for what they call the 1st Annual Home Grown Festival in November. There is a $90 participation fee that includes workshop classes. . . .

The San Diego Repertory Theatre has named a writer and a new title for “We the Beasts,” the final play of the season that was to have been an adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” Steve Friedman, a National Endowment of the Arts Playwrighting Fellow, has renamed the show “Animal Nation,” and, although it will still be a world premiere, it has departed far enough from its original source of inspiration so that it is no longer considered an adaptation of the Orwell book. It debuts Dec. 13. . . .

The Marquis Public Theatre will present Edward Albee’s Pulitzer-winning play, “A Delicate Balance” Nov. 3-Dec. 16. . . .

The Great American Children’s Theatre Company, a Milwaukee-based professional children’s theater company, will be bringing “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to Symphony Hall on Feb. 7-9, 1990. . . .

Robert Berlinger, associate director of the Old Globe Theatre, will be leaving his position as director of the theater’s Play Discovery Program on Nov. 1 to pursue other interests and personal projects. Some of the plays developed and subsequently produced during the five years of his direction include Reuben Gonzalez’s “The Boiler Room,” Stephen Metcalfe’s “Emily” and the recently extended “Breaking Legs” by Tom Dulack at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage.