UCLA Graduate Students Take a ‘Summer Vacation’

The UCLA theater department and Mark Taper Forum welcome winter with “Summer Vacation Madness,” a trilogy of plays by 18th-Century Italian dramatist Carlo Goldoni which opened Friday at Taper, Too at the John Anson Ford Theater in Hollywood. The UCLA-underwritten production is the result of an ongoing relationship between the two organizations--and UCLA’s recent development of a graduate-level three-year professional program.

The company is made up of 17 graduate student actors and designers--plus three Equity actors. “We helped create a team of designers and directors for their MFA class,” said Taper producer Corey Beth Madden, “then put them through the paces of production. It gave them a chance to work with classics in an innovative, interesting way--in an environment without judgments. They also wanted the students to work in a theater outside the school situation.”

Brian Kulick, a UCLA alumnus and a former assistant director of the Taper, came up with the idea of the Goldoni trilogy: three 80-minute plays--originally written to be performed on successive nights--now whittled down to 45 minutes each. (Kulick staged the Taper’s “The Game of Love and Chance,” another 18th-Century piece, at Taper, Too in 1987).

Scenic designer Mark Wendland adapted the first, “Summer,” and Lillian Garrett directs. “It’s very much in the style of commedia dell’arte ,” explained Madden, “ commedia conventions, routines and masks--a madcap take on overspending, debt and romance.”

The second, “Vacation,” is adapted and directed by Kulick. “It’s a formalist take set at the end of the vacation,” said Madden. “Everyone’s eaten and drunk too much; they’ve been taken over by ennui. The piece looks at the emptiness of material life.”

The last, “Madness,” adapted and directed by David Esbjornson, takes a “funny, dark look at what the characters come back to,” according to Madden. “It’s raining in Paris, the two lovers are still trying to get back together, and everyone’s working themselves into a frenzy.”

“Summer Vacation Madness” debuted during November at UCLA’s Ralph Freud Playhouse; the Taper, Too run plays Tuesday-next Sunday, with weekend matinees as well as evening performances. Admission is free.

THE MARRYING KIND: Real-life love mixed with make-believe at the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre’s recent reading of Dan Duling’s domestic drama “Hard Road Home” at UCLA’s Little Theatre. An admonition to theatergoers to stay in their seats after the show (“We’ve got a little surprise”) turned out to be the onstage nuptials of managing director Lisa Sanman and the play’s co-star Ebbe Roe Smith. After a round of applause from the audience, the bride and groom (both dressed in black) partied on champagne, brie en brioche and artichoke fritters.