Producer Enjoys Fun-Filled Work of Theatre in Park

To Richard Stone, summer theater in the park is simply a good idea all around.

“It’s a very pleasant place to work, and we get good crowds,” said Stone, who is producing Culver City’s free Theatre in the Park series in Carlson Park this year. “We get a lot of kids who perhaps would never get to see something like this--they’re either playing in the park or walking by and they stop to watch.”

And the series, co-sponsored by the city’s Department of Human Services and the Los Angeles Festival, is also attractive to actors and directors, who get a chance to perform plays that would not, or could not, be produced by companies concerned with nightly box-office tallies, Stone said.

In some cases, he said, “these are plays you hear about in theater classes but never get a chance to do.” The choice of plays, he said, has helped the series attract a high caliber of actor.

“This year is a real good example,” he said. “We’ve done a play (‘Mandragola’) by Machiavelli, and he’s not known primarily as a playwright.”

Stone, 40, a Santa Monica resident who began acting in Santa Cruz about 15 years ago and has most recently directed a local production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit,” said he became involved with Theatre in the Park through his friend Anne Laskey, who started the series four years ago.

Laskey left town for graduate school recently, but with the help of a small group of dedicated supporters, Stone said he is trying to continue the series’ tradition of good work, hoping it “brings people something they can enjoy.”

Stone will direct Beaumarchais’ “The Barber of Seville,” the last play of this year’s five-play series, at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26 and Sept. 1 and 2 in Carlson Park, on the corner of Motor Avenue and Braddock Drive in Culver City.

Jason Dietz, a 1990 graduate of University High School, Aaron K. Von Hungen, a graduate of Palisades High School, and Danielle M. Solomon, a graduate of Hamilton High School, will be among the seven Los Angeles Unified School District alumni this fall to receive college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships.

Dietz will attend USC, Von Hungen will study physics at UC San Diego and Solomon will study music performance at the University of Rochester in New York. They are among 3,450 freshmen around the country who will receive the scholarships of between $250 and $2,500 for each year of undergraduate study from their colleges.

Associate Prof. George O’Brien, who teaches English at Mount St. Mary’s College, was selected a winner of the 1989 Sears-Roebuck Foundation “Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award.”

O’Brien, who was one of about 700 faculty members recognized nationally by the foundation, received $1,000 and the college received a matching grant.

The American Red Cross has appointed Marian Broome, director of the UCLA Emeriti Center, to a three-year term on the Western Operations Headquarters Advisory Council.

Broome was also recently reelected chairwoman of the Los Angeles Red Cross Chapter’s West District.

Three employees of the Santa Monica Community College District were among the delegates attending the 64th annual conference of the California School Employees Assn. this month in Sacramento.

Mail room clerk Diane Hayman, payroll clerk Alex Siefert and carpenter Steve Lockard were chosen by the association’s local Chapter 36 to honor employees of the year, elect association officers and vote on other union business.

Graduating senior Kristy L. Schieldge of UC Santa Barbara was among 41 students at her school elected to the Santa Barbara chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

Schieldge, who majored in English, lives in West Los Angeles and attended Notre Dame Academy.

To be eligible for the academic honor society, seniors must have at least a 3.4 grade point average and must have completed an intermediate course in foreign language and mathematics courses.

Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center has chosen Mary Lou Rivera of Santa Monica and Grace Schleppey of Beverly Hills to receive Employee Recognition Awards for the second quarter of 1990.

Rivera, an operating room nurse, was honored for her leadership, versatility and role in developing the hospital’s laser surgery program.

Schleppey, who works in the utilization management department, was cited for her professionalism in coordinating discharge-planning activities at the hospital.