Our Critics Pick Their Favorite Plays

Orange County theater gave me many gifts this year. One of the most powerful two hours I ever spent in a theater was seeing Stop-Gap’s showcase of therapy dramas that tour to hundreds of classrooms during the school year. These short pieces addressed a wide spectrum of modern problems and were everything theater should be: moving, provocative, personal, imaginative, humorous and instructive.

Although the same list of adjectives could not be applied evenly to everything produced by the Way Off Broadway Playhouse in Santa Ana, few companies have demonstrated the energy and sheer chutzpah that drive this funky, determined little operation. Under the direction of jack-of-all-trades Tony Riverditto, WOB promotes original scripts and donates a percentage of its proceeds to charity. But these attributes do not in themselves make good theater, and whatever else they may offer, WOB’s productions always pack a surprise or two. (What else could you expect from a theater so close to the railroad tracks that the whole building trembles when the train rolls by?)

The OC Crazies are another Orange County treasure. Every kingdom needs a jester, and this troupe of comedians hits the bull’s-eye often enough to earn the favor of any laugh-loving monarch. Special commendations go to Cherie Kerr, who created the Crazies and is its sustaining force.

Children who saw either “The Hobbit” by the Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre or “Pippi Longstocking” on tour by the Minneapolis Children’s Theater no doubt enjoyed these fine productions. “The Hobbit’s” great point of departure was the environment in which it was performed, Anneliese’s Willow Brook School, where the audience wandered over the school grounds, following the young acting company on its fabulous journey. “Pippi” was a thoroughly professional affair; all the elements combined to delight and tickle the audience. Jennifer Gordon’s athletic Pippi was properly ill-mannered. Still, the grotesque grown-ups played by Rosalie Tenseth and Margo Andrews linger most deliciously in the memory.

Other performances that deserve mention were by Betsy Ferguson and Ralph Richmond’s in Rancho Santiago College’s Professional Actors Conservatory production of “A Shayna Maidel.” This fluid and graceful production directed by Sheryl Donchey was of a caliber not usually seen on the amateur circuit.

La Habra Depot Playhouse can do it up right, too, and did with its bright, cheerful “Oklahoma!” Anchored by Jim Goodrich’s chocolate-voiced Curly, Larry Watts’ staging managed to suggest the wide-open plains on the Depot’s tiny stage.

“Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman,” by Dario Fo, staged at UC Irvine by Mimi McGurl, was the biggest surprise of the season. A student production, it had tremendous style and wonderful performances by Lynn Watson and Greg Krosnes. Fo’s script demands flamboyance, and this production had plenty of it, plus detail, thoughtfulness and more laughs per minute than anything else I saw in 1991.