SAN DIEGO STAGE : Prolific Metcalfe Dances on to Old Globe Stage Again

“White Man Dancing,” which opens tonight at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, will be Stephen Metcalfe’s sixth play in six years--and his second world premiere--to open at the Old Globe Theatre.

It’s an impressive output, especially when you consider that, in the past few years, Metcalfe has been doing double duty as a Hollywood scriptwriter.

It’s also indicative of the increasing influence regional theater is having on Hollywood. Screenwriters have traditionally been culled from Broadway and, more recently, from film schools--both of which continue to be strong sources of writers.

But, although Metcalfe has had some of his work done off-Broadway, he is best known to regional theater audiences.

“Strange Snow,” which was made into the movie “Jackknife,” starring Robert De Niro and Ed Harris, led the Metcalfe charge into the Globe in 1984. It was followed by “Vikings,” the world premiere of “Emily,” for which Metcalfe was also working on a screenplay last year, the West Coast premiere of “The Incredibly Famous Willy Rivers,” the West Coast premiere of “White Linen” and now “White Man Dancing.”

Metcalfe wrote the screenplays for “Jackknife” as well as “Cousins,” both of which were released last year. He also worked on the recent “Pretty Woman,” the upcoming thriller “Arachnophobia” and the pilot for a TV series based on the film “Turner and Hooch.”

“White Man Dancing” travels down familiar Metcalfe turf: love and male bonding. Dell (Dave Florek), an out-of-work actor with a soon-to-be ex-wife, strives to re-establish his friendship with his old friend Stuart (Peter Zapp), a struggling young playwright who had been friends with both Dell and his wife. The question Metcalfe seems to be posing is whether men can be friends rather than superficial, back-slapping buddies, without a woman to facilitate emotional closeness.

Time will tell for Dell. As for Metcalfe, he is set to marry his longtime sweetheart, Claudia Coyner, this summer.

“Nunsense” is a go for the Sixth Avenue Playhouse starting July 20.

San Diego’s fledgling for-profit theater, T. S. Productions, has put together the $30,000 the company needs for its first production, a comedy about six nuns staging a talent show. “Nunsense” is still running off-Broadway after five years.

The deadline to raise the money was 5 p.m. last Tuesday for co-producers James A. Strait and Paul D. Taylor.

Strait said he had just about given up when, at 3 p.m. that day, a call from longtime theater patron Darlene Shiley brought in the last of the money.

Strait said the rest came from investors who are relatively new to theater: a retired driver education teacher, a computer designer, a psychologist, a psychiatrist and a woman who sells concessions at the North Coast Repertory Theatre.

For $5,000, each investor became a limited partner, sharing in 8% of any profits generated from ticket sales for the life of the production. Strait calculates that, if the show fills the Sixth Avenue Playhouse at even 65% capacity, he may be returning dividends of as much as $400 to $500 a week to the partners by fall.

Taylor and Strait are already negotiating for venues, as they must vacate the Sixth Avenue Playhouse on Aug. 26.

Rehearsals started Monday, with Dianne Holly, Nanci Hunter, Pamela Tomassetti, Stephanie Holton and Devon Yates playing the six nuns.

Strait is directing, Heidi Lynn is the musical director, J.D. Burns the choreographer and Claudea Jardot the stage manager.

PROGRAM NOTES:

The staged reading of the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s world premiere of “The Life and Life of Bumpy Johnson” has been postponed until Sept. 17-30 at Newark Symphony Hall in Newark, N.J., but the reason for the move is a happy one for director George Ferencz. His wife is expecting a baby Aug. 20.

The show, about a real-life African-American gangster who loved the arts and bankrolled the Harlem Renaissance, is still due to open Jan. 30 at the San Diego Rep, said Sam Woodhouse, producing director of the theater, but additional operating funds of $50,000 to $75,000 over the budget still need to be raised to bring the project to fruition.

The name of the show, “The Life and Life of Bumpy Johnson” refers to Johnson’s reputation for being like a cat with nine lives, said Woodhouse. “He was in jail several times and given up for gone and then came back.”

On his last trip to New York, Woodhouse met someone who knew of Johnson--other than the writer of the show, poet Amiri Baraka (who is doing the book with music by Jazz Hall of Famer Max Roach).

The person who knew Johnson was the man who drove the shuttle bus from Woodhouse’s hotel to the airport.

“He said Johnson was quite a hero to a lot of black people in America,” said Woodhouse. “He was a symbol of success in America.” . . .

Playwright/actor Keith Reddin, who was reported as being single in a recent Times feature about his new play, “Life During Wartime” at the La Jolla Playhouse isn’t unmarried, just too relentlessly private about his personal life to talk about his wife. Reddin, it seems, is married to an actress, who works under her own name--which neither party wants revealed. . . .

“The Kathy & Mo Show,” an off-Broadway hit by hometown veterans Kathy Najimy and Maureen Gaffney, closed in April after a 1 1/2-year run. But the duo will reprise the show for HBO in the next few months and, in the meantime, are working on a book based on the show as well as a movie script. Gaffney will also be filming six episodes of a new show for the British Broadcasting Company, called “Inside America,” starting July with a January 1991 air date. Gaffney takes on the persona of a reporter called Taffy Phillips to interview odd, real-life people in New York. Gaffney’s six segments will be directed by her old friend, Bryan Scott, one of the co-creators and co-producers of “Suds.” . . .

And, speaking of “Suds,” the show closed in San Francisco on May 13 after an eight-week run and has been licensed to a theater in Buffalo for a September run.