CHILDREN’S STAGE REVIEW : ‘Code Breaker’ Is Just the Ticket for Live Theater Introduction

He’s at that awkward age: too young for adult theater and too old (and far to cool) for “Winnie the Pooh.” He wants to check out this theater thing, but if his friends found out. . . . Well, he’d just, like, die.

Take note, Mom and Dad. “Code Breaker,” a sci-fi adventure story by Pauline C. Conley, offers a painless, and possibly cool, entree to youth theater for your 10-to-mid-teens boy (or girl). Presented by the Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre, the play closes this weekend at the Moulton Theatre.

Liberally sprinkled with techno-jargon and space-age imagery, “Code Breaker” should appeal to most junior Trekkies. The story is set on the planet Orb, a completely synthetic environment ruled by the Master Computer, with the assistance of Ruby, an auburn-haired android with the personality of a Radar Range.

Ruby acts as a sort of electronic housemother to the planet’s human population, which includes teen-agers Peter, Bernice, Lisa and Barney, guiding them along their carefully orchestrated paths to adulthood.

Life on Orb goes along just fine until budding physicist Peter discovers another world--a wondrous, unpredictable place where the sun shines, breezes blow and water (a precious manufactured commodity on Orb) flows freely. Ruby and company are less than pleased with his discovery, and do their best to squelch the boy’s curiosity.

“It’s a very cerebral play,” said Joe Lauderdale, director of the show and associate director of the Youth Theatre program. “There’s very little action. I wanted to focus on the message of the play, which is that everyone has the right to think for himself.”

“There’s a scene when Ruby says to Peter, ‘You have to let us decide what you should think,’ ” continued Lauderdale. “That’s just the attitude he’s challenging.”

With the exception of Ruby (a demanding role played with precision by Lisa Hale), the cast of “Code Breaker” was drawn from the Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre, a training program for children that presents a five-play season each year.

Program participants aged 7 to 17 are selected to study all aspects of the theater, from set and costume design to advanced acting techniques. They pay no tuition, but are required to work in some capacity on all Youth Theater productions, whether it is taking tickets, building sets or running the lights and sound.

Garret Savage, 17, does an admirable job as Peter, the rebel who dares to buck the system and pays the price. Heather deMichele, 16, and Ryan Baron, 15, provide a little comic relief as Lisa and Barney, a pair of aspiring actors who are willing to toe the line in order to reach their goal.

But 18-year-old Jennifer Triebwasser is the real standout of the cast. As Bernice, Triebwasser portrays a girl/woman on the brink of a shining, pre-approved career, struggling to balance ambition and compassion in a society that leaves no room for the latter.

Production values are high. Ellis Pryce-Jones has created a futuristic set that combines elements of a co-ed dorm with the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Sound design is by Stephen Shaffer, costumes are by Youth Theater artistic director Scott Davidson.

The Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre program, which was re-structured in 1986, was named last year as the nation’s Most Outstanding New Children’s Theatre by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, a national children’s theater group. In April, Lauderdale said, the group will represent the United States at the first international Children’s Theatre Festival in Lingen, West Germany, with a production of Brian Kral’s “Troubled Waters.” Laguna Playhouse also offers a nonrelated series of theater classes for children ages 4 to 17, and coordinates an actors training program for handicapped youth.

“Code Breaker,” a science fiction-adventure, closes this weekend at the Moulton Theatre, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. The show is recommended for audiences ages 8 and up. Performances are Saturday at 1 and 4 p.m., Sunday at 6 p.m. Tickets are $3 for children 13 and under, $6 for adults. Call (714) 494-8021 or (714) 494-0743.