It’s Way Off With ‘Rain’ : Theater: The Santa Ana playhouse will begin its fifth season by staging two versions of Y York’s futuristic comedy.

It’s just the kind of thing the Way Off Broadway Playhouse would do.

To introduce its fifth season, the small basement theater will stage two versions of Y York’s “Rain. Some Fish. No Elephants.” It is a futuristic comedy about genetic engineering, environmental calamity, government repression and a dysfunctional family (talk about your Brave New Worlds).

The first version, which opens tonight, is set in the present. Turns out, in this scenario, that the rockets behind the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis were actually launched, and an all-out war followed. “This treatment is a projection of how life might be today had nuclear warfare occurred,” says Tony Reverditto, Way Off Broadway’s indefatigable founder.

The second version, to open March 13 and to run on alternating weekends, fast-forwards us to 2050, 30 years after the world’s rain forests have disappeared. “The children,” says Reverditto, “are growing up in a high-tech world with no ozone layer and the continuing threat of global warming.”

Not your usual concept, having one play emerge with two heads. But Way Off Broadway isn’t known for doing the expected. Whether this upstart troupe has done good work or bad work, it always has come up with ways to set itself apart from other playhouses in Orange County.

Way Off Broadway was so rough during its first season that most critics were left punch-drunk by the mix of bad acting, weird theatrics and generally out-of-control camp. The troupe’s first show, “Dracula--A Halloween Haunt” in 1987, was so bad it actually was hilarious, but it did not leave many confident about Way Off Broadway’s future.

Adding to the doubts was the theater’s location on a hard-to-find corner of a gritty industrial area next to the railroad tracks. Trains still routinely rumble by during shows (prompting Reverditto, in his program notes, to assuage theatergoers that they are not sitting through “the Big One”).

Still, that first production filled the playhouse’s 55 seats almost every night, a phenomenon that Reverditto says he has been able to duplicate many times with the shows that have followed. He claims a simple formula for keeping attendance near 80% of capacity:

“You have to give people something different, not the shows or the treatments that everybody is used to. They know that when they come here, they’re going to see something unexpected. We have a lot of regulars who tell us that they appreciate that.

“And you’ve got to make them laugh.”

Way Off Broadway has relied heavily on comedies, often given helter-skelter stagings that have amused, astounded and/or confused reviewers. But Reverditto has also turned to drama, from David Rabe’s “In the Boom Boom Room” that struggling first year to last season’s much-acclaimed production of Richard Dresser’s “Alone at the Beach.”

Reverditto is not always pleased with critics’ perceptions of Way Off Broadway’s early days, but he does admit that the playhouse has made strides.

“Sure, when I look back on ‘Dracula,’ I can tell you that I didn’t even know what I was doing,” he says now. “I think . . . oh God, when I consider how the theater has matured. I’m amazed.”

The new season is a good indication of that growth. After proudly stating that “there will be no campiness this time,” he ticks off the eclectic list of plays that includes Constance Congdon’s “Tales of the Lost Formicans” and Richard Dresser’s “Better Days.” He’s right when he says that theatergoers won’t see such plays in most local venues (see accompanying box).

As usual, audiences won’t be expecting lavish production values. Reverditto notes that the theater has always operated on a shoestring budget. (When asked to quote a typical budget, he answers with a laugh: “Whatever the minimum it costs!”) The playhouse relies on volunteer technicians and actors, many of whom come out of the performance classes it offers to adults and children.

These studios, which Reverditto frequently runs himself, have been one source of income for Way Off Broadway. Donations from regular patrons also have helped.

“It’s much better now than it used to be, when we weren’t that well-known and had to worry more about paying for each show,” Reverditto says. “A couple of years ago, I didn’t even know where the sets were coming from.”

There also have been basic improvements, many in recent months. Reverditto has removed an inconvenient pillar that disrupted viewing and has expanded the stage area. It’s still tiny, but it’s better than it was. The next step is to increase the seats from 55 to 70, which he hopes to do in the coming months.

Reverditto says he is optimistic that the playhouse will be around for a long time, but he also says it won’t be his only venture. He wants to branch out to Hollywood eventually by turning Way Off Broadway into a mini-filmmaking group, creating independent movies or maybe developing a television series.

“I can see this company doing big things. I really see us working on a series, or something along those lines, in the coming years,” he says.

It’s a lofty target, but the Anaheim native points out that there were a lot of doubters when he first opened Way Off Broadway in 1987, with $5,000 in savings and a loan from his father. Tired of trying to make it as an actor and model in Hollywood, Reverditto decided to take matters into his own hands.

“Just look at what happened,” he says cheerily. “We may not be getting rich, but we’re doing the kind of theater we want to. That’s something, isn’t it?”

The Way Off Broadway Playhouse production of Y York’s “Rain. Some Fish. No Elephants.” opens tonight at 8 at 1058 E. 1st St., Santa Ana and will continue Fridays and Saturdays through May 17. Two treatments of the play will be presented, each on alternating weekends. Tickets: $15. Information: (714) 547-8997.

THE SEASON

The Way Off Broadway Playhouse

1058 E. 1st St., Santa Ana

Tonight-May 17: “Rain. Some Fish. No Elephants.” by Y York, a sci-fi comedy. There will be two separate treatments of the play, one set in the present, one set in the year 2050, on alternating weekends.

June 12-Aug. 15: “Eastern Standard,” Richard Greenberg’s play about five yuppies and a schizophrenic bag lady.

Sept. 18-Nov. 8: “Tales of the Lost Formicans” by Constance Congdon, about a man with Alzheimer’s, aliens, and Middle America.

Nov. 27 through January: Richard Dresser’s “Better Days,” a comedy about a laid-off worker who hears God telling him to form a church for the dispossessed.

Subscriptions: $50 (includes admission to both treatments of “Rain. Some Fish. No Elephants.”). Single tickets: $15. Information: (714) 547-8997.