A Telling Time for a Children’s Author

A well-known children’s storyteller is sexually assaulted and traumatized in Laura Shamas’ “Telling Time,” opening Thursday at West Coast Ensemble.

“The character, Annie Nesbitt, is a very gentle person,” said Shamas. “She’s the last person in the world you’d want something like this to happen to. When it does, her reality abruptly changes--and denial starts taking over.

At that point, the playwright parts company with realism, as the storyteller’s pain is revealed in metaphor and make-believe.

“There are tons of symbols and fairy-tale images that come to life,” noted Shamas, who has a BA in theater from UCLA and a master’s in English from the University of Colorado. “Sometimes Annie’s mother, best friend and boyfriend are themselves; sometimes they become characters from her stories--as well as (part of) new images they stumble upon. Annie also has a lot of visions that are related to her feeling of being prey.”

Shamas, who currently teaches creative writing and playwriting at Pepperdine, stresses that the story is not strictly autobiographical.

“A close friend of mine named Annie was violently mugged,” she acknowledged. “And I once worked as a children’s story-teller. So there’s definitely something in my life that related to it. But mostly it’s about losing control and regaining control. I wanted to explore the issue of violence in a way it hadn’t been done before: seeing the world through her eyes, experiencing what it’s really like to be a victim. And I dramatized it in the most theatrical way possible.”

SHATTERED BOX OFFICE: Libbe S. HaLevy’s “Shattered Secrets,” about incest survivors in a 12-step recovery program, celebrates its second anniversary at the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica, where it has been filling Monday-night houses since Aug. 22, 1978.

The show (which is also represented in a current staging in Oakland, plus an upcoming run in Berlin) will host an anniversary gala--with pre- and post-performance festivities--Aug. 27. Tickets are $25.

Information: 386-6636.