Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows to Perform at La Paloma

Steve Allen and his wife, actress Jayne Meadows, will star in “Love Letters” at the La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas for a one-night performance Aug. 24.

The engagement was Allen’s idea.

Allen, comedian, author and songwriter as well as creator and original host of NBC’s “Tonight” show, performed the two-person “Love Letters” with Meadows at the Canon Theater in Beverly Hills, most recently in June.

When he was performing at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach in May, Allen checked out the La Paloma and decided the 450-seat venue would be perfect for this A. R. Gurney play about a lifetime correspondence of bittersweet love between a man and woman. The play had its San Diego premiere at the Old Globe Theatre in December.

It’s no coincidence that Allen chose the 62-year-old La Paloma for the performance. His and Meadow’s nephew, Stephen Lee Cotter, 38, has been one of the owners of the theater since February. (Meadows is the sister of Cotter’s father.)

“When he was at the theater, he said he would like to do ‘Love Letters’, and I said OK. He didn’t have to twist my arm,” Cotter said.

The show fits into Cotter’s ambition to turn the La Paloma into a facility featuring stage plays as well as concerts and classic movies. “Love Letters” will be “the first of what is hoped will be a long association with legitimate live theater,” Cotter said.

Cotter’s next scheduled play will be the one-woman “Hey Ma,” starring Kay Ballard, Sept. 20-21.

“We’re testing the market,” Cotter said.

Thirty to 40 homeless and inner-city children age 4 to 16 are being given a chance to learn theatrical skills in a new outreach program begun in June by the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company.

Through the program, YO! (Youth Onstage), homeless children from the Joan Kroc/St. Vincent de Paul Center and about half a dozen from Southeast San Diego have been taking weekend workshops in performance, playwrighting, dance, music, computer design and the business end of theater.

In essence, the Gaslamp is being a good neighbor. The center is less than a mile from the theater, and the program fulfills the Gaslamp’s desire to redefine itself as an inner-city company, according to Kit Goldman, Gaslamp’s producing director.

The program’s goal is to use theater to help break the pattern of homelessness by building confidence and competence in a variety of skills. Goldman said she bases her belief in the program on the way theater once served the same function for her.

“Having been a bit of a weird kid myself, I remember the kind of feeling that theater gave to me of belonging and focus and that I was someone special. We thought about all the social skills you learn doing theater--the cooperation, the trust, the communication, the discipline--all of those really valuable life skills that are good for your self-esteem.”

YO! will run in a six-month cycle, culminating in December with two performances written, performed and produced by the children, dates to be announced.

Last year, Robert Brill showed off his range as a set designer by creating sets for two utterly different shows opening on the same night: Sledgehammer Theatre’s wildly avant-garde production of “Hamlet” and the Old Globe’s super-realistic “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.”

This year, Brill is back with a new set of concurrently running surprises: Sledgehammer’s “Drums in the Night” at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse, closing Sunday, and the La Jolla Playhouse’s “Fortinbras” at the new Mandell Weiss Forum, closing July 28.

Not a bad little assignment for a 27-year-old who graduated from UC San Diego just three years ago.

“Doing an inaugural production in (the Mandell Weiss Forum) was a little scary because you’re dealing with uncharted territory,” Brill said. “Being that nothing had ever been done there, you’re still trying to figure out the space while trying to figure out the kinks.

“In this first production, Des (McAnuff, the playhouse’s artistic director and director of “Fortinbras”) was interested in utilizing as much of the theater as possible. And we used the space entirely, the back wall of the theater as well as the side walls.”

But, although his work for the playhouse and the Globe (where his fourth show will be “La Fiaca,” opening Sept. 11) provide his flashiest credits, Brill remains intensely loyal to the tiny, struggling Sledgehammer Theatre, of which he is a founding member.

Brill said he believes in the controversial work Sledgehammer does and worries about the company’s future, especially since the universally devastating reviews for “Drums in the Night.”

“I find the work that Sledgehammer does challenging and innovative both to our audiences and ourselves,” Brill said. “But it’s a big question in terms of financial support if Sledgehammer will survive. In a theater of that size, box office plays a very important role. I think we have a big contribution to make to the art community, and it would be a great loss for any of the theaters to close.”

PROGRAM NOTES: “The White Rose,” the Old Globe’s January premiere about German students who lost their lives fighting Nazism in World War II, will bloom in New York this fall. The show will be produced Oct. 15-Nov. 17 with a new cast and new director as the first play of the 15th season of the WPA Theatre, a nonprofit off-Broadway subscription house of 122 seats, which is best known for premiering such shows as “Steel Magnolias” and “Little Shop of Horrors.” Donna Lieberman, managing director of the WPA, described “The White Rose” as “one of the most compelling plays we’ve read in a long time.” . . .

The San Francisco-based Make-A-Circus, California’s oldest free circus theater event, will perform Sunday at Stagecoach Park in Carlsbad. Following the performance of a one-hour circus play, Make-A-Circus offers a workshop for children. Call 434-2920 for information. . . .

Tickets at $8.50 are available to seniors age 60 and over for the Old Globe Theatre’s Saturday matinee of “Forever Plaid.” . . .

An interpreted performance of Christian Community Theatre’s “West Side Story” will be given for the hard-of-hearing at 8 p.m. Sunday at Mt. Helix Amphitheatre. Deaf patrons can use the California Relay Number at 1-800-342-5966.