THEATER : ART Fails to Attract Local Amateurs for Its Directors Fest : Alternative Repertory Theatre is forced to drop its ambitious plans after just six people apply. It is the second such cancellation for the company in two weeks.

The Alternative Repertory Theatre’s call for would-be directors has gone virtually unheeded, forcing the storefront theater here to drop its ambitious plan for “Directors Fest ‘90” in June.

The festival, which would have enabled local amateurs to test their skills by staging new or previously produced plays, drew only six applicants, about a third of the 15 needed for the theater “just to break even,” producer Kathleen Bryson said Monday.

“I don’t know why we got such a small response,” she said.

Bryson speculated that the rules of the festival may have been too demanding. ART required proof of stage rights for each project and a $100 fee from each applicant to help underwrite the cost of production. The cancellation is ART’s second in two weeks, and it comes in the midst of what Bryson called “our best season to date.” In mid-March, casting difficulties forced the theater to drop plans for the West Coast premiere of Lorna Hill’s “Yalla Bitch,” a coming-of-age musical about a black woman.

“Yalla Bitch” was replaced by Peter Nichols’ “A Day in the Death of Joe Egg,” a harrowing 1967 comedy about a British couple coping with a severely handicapped child. Bryson said “Joe Egg” will now run from April 20 to June 16, two weeks beyond the previously announced dates. It will be the third and final production of the ART season.

“It’s been very frustrating,” Bryson said, “because these back-to-back cancellations have been completely out of our control. The director’s festival is not an idea we will throw away completely. But if we do try it again, we won’t schedule it in a main-stage slot.”

ART’s 200 season ticket holders will be offered extra seats for “Joe Egg” to compensate them for the lack of a fourth subscription offering.

The season opened with “Lysistrata” and continued with “Waiting for Godot,” the two most popular shows in ART’s three-year history. Bryson said the 29 performances of “Godot,” which recently closed, played to 1,638 people, representing an average capacity of 70% for the 61-seat theater.

At this time last year, attendance at ART was so dismal that the theater was faced with a financial crisis that nearly shut its doors for good.

“We’re not in the same position now at all,” Bryson said. “We have enough money in the bank to say we definitely will have a fourth season. We’re disappointed the idea for the festival didn’t work. But we can move on.”

ART recently improved its financial outlook by acquiring tax-exempt status from the state, she said. The theater is now waiting for similar approval from the federal government, which will enable it to seek government grants and tax-deductible contributions.

LUCAS’ PRELUDE: On a recent play-scouting trip to Manhattan, David Emmes, producing artistic director of South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, passed up Circle Repertory’s off-Broadway production of Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss,” which has been getting raves from the New York theater critics.

“I thought I’d wait to see it on Broadway,” Emmes said Monday, although Lucas’ comedy was commissioned by SCR and given its world premiere there in 1986.

The Circle Rep production, with Alec Baldwin and Mary Louise Parker in the starring roles, closed Sunday. It will reopen May 1 at the Helen Hayes Theatre (with Timothy Hutton replacing Baldwin) a day before the deadline for Tony award eligibility.

Norman Rene, who directed both the SCR and Circle Rep productions, will restage “Prelude,” which has gone through many changes since its SCR premiere. In Costa Mesa, the play had three acts and 22 characters. It now has two acts and 12 characters.

SCR won’t reap anything from the Broadway box-office receipts. “We share in subsidiary rights, including stock or film rights,” Emmes said. “What that doesn’t include is participation in the gross of a commercial production.”

CALLING ALL NERDS: The Laguna Playhouse is holding an essay contest--”The Most Unforgettable Nerd I’ve Ever Met”--to promote Larry Shue’s “The Nerd,” which opens at the Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach May 1. The deadline is April 27. Essays should be limited to 50 words. The winner will receive four tickets to the show and the opening-night champagne reception. The runner-up will receive two tickets for any night during the rest of the run.