Stop-Gap Won’t Let a Comedy Blur Its ‘Vision’

Talk to Don Laffoon about the Stop-Gap Theatre Company’s latest project, Steven Tesich’s farcical “Division Street,” and the word “vision” keeps coming up.

The nonprofit, Santa Ana-based drama therapy group, which Laffoon co-founded, is committed to vision--it’s many productions over the years have attempted to clarify various social concerns, including AIDS, drugs, racism and date rape.

But “Division Street,” a wild blow-up of aging ‘60s radicals trying to get excited about causes once again, wouldn’t seem, at least on first glance, to be significant enough to satisfy Stop-Gap’s manifesto. Those accustomed to the heavy stuff might wonder what happened to the relevance, the drama.

It’s in there, it’s in there, Laffoon counters. Laffoon, who directs the show--which opens at the Forum Theatre in Laguna Beach tonight--maintains Tesich’s comedy is just right for Stop-Gap. “Division Street’s” vision comes from its inherent activism, its reminder that we all have a responsibility to do what we can to make the world better.

“This play has a lot that we can relate to now because (many of the concerns that are brought up) are still affecting us today, like cleaning up the environment and the like,” Laffoon explained.

“It’s definitely within our guidelines. Usually, you can describe our plays with one word, like incest , but we don’t want to be pigeonholed (always doing serious material). We don’t usually get involved in politics, but we do put vision at the forefront, and this play has a message.”

“Division Street” centers on Chris, a former radical now living in Chicago and trying to make it in the establishment world. He may become an insurance agent, but maybe he won’t. Chris, in a comic but deep way, can’t really extinguish the blaze that made him a firebrand.

Laffoon has updated the play, originally set in the ‘60s, to 1989 to make it more accessible to a contemporary audience and emphasize the need for social awareness in our time. In fact, he sees Chris as sort of a Tom Hayden character “trying to put his past behind him and get a real job with a future but torn by the need to do something.”

“Division Street” further satisfies Stop-Gap by using laughter as therapy, Laffoon noted. Although drama has been the group’s focus, it has also staged Christopher Durang’s black comedy “Beyond Therapy.”

“We do comedy every now and then. We believe that laughter is healing, and, I think, there’s plenty of laughter in ‘Division Street.’ ”

Stop-Gap’s “Division Street” opens tonight and plays Saturday, Thursday and Nov. 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 12 at 2:30 p.m. At the Forum Theatre on the Festival of Arts grounds, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tickets: $10 and $12. Information: (714) 648-0135.