On the Stage, an April Filled With Spring Openings

Passover gets the performance treatment at Highways in Santa Monica on April 10, when the traditional Seder will be celebrated with a mix of old and new ritual: readings from the Haggada both ancient and feminist, Middle East-inspired food, performance and music--on the flute, guitar and saxophone.

(The Seder is a religious meal accompanied by the retelling of the Jews’ escape from Egypt; the Haggada is the biblical narrative.) “Not all of us are Jewish,” said Robin Podolsky, one of the seven people who assembled the evening. “And within those of us who are Jewish, there’s a real range. For instance, I’m quite secular; my spiritual practice is as eclectic as you can get. Malcolm Boyd knows more about liturgy than anyone. And Brian Zeiden is a student of religion--and quite observant.”

The unifying intent, she added, “was to consciously re-create the link between theater and ritual. For a lot of us, there’s a memory and affinity for the ritual of Seder--sitting around the table as a child--and wanting to say, ‘This is what we do in our lives: tell stories to make sense of the world.’ As critical thinkers, we try to take those stories apart. As actors we try to put the magic back, albeit informed with understanding.”

The seven, who for the most part are either gay, lesbian or people with AIDS, have also sought to include the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict by inviting a dozen Middle Eastern artists to participate. “The story of the Seder is the narrative thread that pulls the evening together,” Podolsky said. Participants are asked to provide an offering: a music performance or symbolic reading, food (only unleavened bread will do) or goods such as candles and incense. Admission is $5.

This month in theater:

Today: Two one-acts by Julia Rader, “Found Naked” and “A Poisonous Gas From Another Planet”--on, respectively, a morning in a mental hospital and a menage a quatre, open at the Powerhouse in Santa Monica.

* Monday: “Monday at Stages” opens at Stages Trilingual Theatre in Hollywood, featuring weekly performances incorporating poetry, music, movement, video and stories. For the opening, series hosts Grace Zabriskie and Steve Alden will by joined by writer-performers Tony Abatemarco and Terry Beaver and the musical ensemble Elvis Has Left the Building.

* Wednesday: “Performance Anxiety,” Vernon Takeshita’s three-character contemporary comedy of Asian-American cultural identity and cross-dressing, opens at East West Players in Hollywood.

* Thursday: The nature of modern-day masculinity is the theme at Highways of “Men,” a multicultural group performance featuring Luis Alfaro, Robert Tompkins, Dan Kwong, Keith Antar Mason and Keith Hennessy; also a new work directed and choreographed by Tim Miller.

* Thursday: George S. Kaufman’s 1920s show-biz comedy “The Butter and Egg Man” gets a revival at the Melrose Theatre in Hollywood.

* Thursday: The multiethnic comedy group Cold Tofu opens at the L.A. Cabaret in Encino.

* Friday: Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” opens at the Stella Adler Conservatory in Hollywood.

* Friday: Lawrence D. Riggin’s drama “Seed of Darkness, the Final Tale of Edgar Allan Poe,” premieres at the Tamarind Theatre in Hollywood. “Days of Our Lives” star Robert Jenesky plays Poe.

* Saturday: The comedy group Milknose presents a new revue of sketches, songs and improv in “Milknose for the Prosecution” at the Rose Theatre in Santa Monica.

* Saturday: “Fall,” Geoffrey Alden Thorne’s story of a one-time graffiti artist facing personal and career transitions, opens at the Matrix Theatre in West Hollywood.

* Next Sunday: “Merlin, or the Barren Land,” German playwright Tankred Dorst’s six-hour retelling of the Arthurian legend, opens at the Globe Theatre in West Hollywood. Pavel Cerny directs 30 actors in 200 roles.

* April 11: ITP, the Mark Taper Forum’s theater for young people, presents its touring production of “Robinson and Crusoe,” an American premiere by Nino D’Introna and Giacomo Ravicchio, opening at Taper, Too in Hollywood.

* April 12: “The Watering Place,” Lyle Kessler’s black-humor tale centering on the family of a deceased prisoner of war, opens at the Powerhouse Theatre.

* April 13: Michael Schtakleff and Roger Templeton’s “J.O.B.--The Movie,” described as “a post-industrial farce of four authors in search of a script,” opens at the Flight Theatre in Hollywood.

* April 17: “As Is,” the Obie-winning comedy-drama about New York’s gay community reacting to AIDS in the mid-’80s, is the inaugural production of the Hollywood Comedy Store Playhouse.

* April 19: “The Cocktail Hour,” A.R. Gurney’s Off-Broadway hit about a playwright’s visit to his staid family home, opens at the Doolittle in Hollywood. Nancy Marchand, Keene Curtis, Bruce Davison and Holland Taylor star.

* April 19: N.A. Riehl’s “Up Cat Creek,” a drama about members of a Colorado mountain family and the stranger who disrupts their lives, opens at the Alliance Theatre in Burbank.

* April 26: New York performers Tom Keegan and Davidson Lloyd, the comedy duo who made a big splash during the ’87 Los Angeles Festival, are newly relocated to the West Coast and will open in “Secret Desires” at Highways.