Playwrights Project Pens Agreement with Old Globe

The Playwrights Project, which has been making a home for the work of young playwrights since 1985, may be on its way to finding a new home for itself.

The company just signed a producing agreement for “Plays by Young Writers ‘92” with the Old Globe Theatre for Dec. 10-20 at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage. The Globe will host the Playwrights Project, providing marketing and production support. The Project will continue to be responsible for all artistic decisions.

While the commitment is for that production only, both Deborah Salzer, artistic director of the Playwrights Project and Jack O’Brien, artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre, would like to see a continuing association.

“We are very very much in favor of it being long-term,” O’Brien said Tuesday from his office. “Their needs are completely meshing with things we are interested in ourselves.”

The Playwrights Project sends instructors into Southern California schools and teaches students from grades 5-12 how to write plays. And every year since 1986, the company has sponsored a statewide contest for writers under 19, and has produced three to six of the winning selections.

O’Brien described the program as “the logical extension” to the Globe’s already existing Play Discovery Program and the Teatro Meta In-Schools program.

The Play Discovery Program features staged readings of new work under consideration at the Old Globe. The Teatro Meta In-Schools program fosters self-esteem to at-risk children from 14 schools across the city and county by teaching them to write and produce plays.

Because the Playwrights Project features new work by young writers, it can help bring the Globe into contact with young talent and new audiences.

O’Brien became interested in the company after seeing “Simply Maria,” by young writer Josefina Lopez.

“I was suddenly aware of the incredible vibrancy that was coming from these young kids,” O’Brien said. “They were not fledgling neophytes but kids with something to say. We have decided that our future is highly dependent on our ability to reach these young audiences and these young artists.”

Salzer is “thrilled” by the prospect of a long-term association with the Globe for several reasons.

“To do our best work, we need a producing home which will not only inspire us artistically but invite audiences to see our work. The Globe is all of this and more,” Salzer said.

She also looks forward to telling the next group of winning young playwrights--who have until May 1 to submit their plays--that they can look forward not just to being produced in San Diego but to being produced at the Old Globe.

“We think it will attract writers statewide,” she said.

San Francisco-based comedic actress Marga Gomez, who sold out her show “Pretty, Witty and Gay” at Sushi Performance Gallery in January, will return with the Southern California premiere of her autobiographical 1990 one-woman show, “Memory Tricks,” at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre July 23-Aug. 30.

Lynda Sterns, who produced Sheri Glaser’s “Family Secrets” at the Hahn Cosmopolitan twice (once independently and once with the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company), will produce “Memory Tricks” in association with Fresh Dish, which produced “Pretty, Witty and Gay” at Sushi.

The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre will present the show.

“Memory Tricks,” written by Gomez with her director, David Ford, tells the story of Gomez and her relationship with her show biz parents, particularly her mother--a onetime showgirl. It’s set in the Latino section of Harlem in the 1960s and touches on Gomez’s struggle to get her mother’s attention as her mother struggled to succeed on stage.

Some of them build sets. Some of them provide a place to work. Some of them gave inspiration, advice and fund-raising talents to arts organizations in need. And some of them have given money. Lots of money.

They are the Star Award Honorees. Thirty-four patrons of the arts who will be honored at a gala luncheon during the first STAR Awards celebration April 29 at noon at the U.S. Grant Ballroom.

Thirty performing arts organizations selected their honorees for the event, from Patio Playhouse, which picked set builders Ken and Harriet Seebold, to the La Jolla Playhouse, which chose Mandell Weiss, the philanthropist who donated more than $2 million to help build the Mandell Weiss Theatre and the Mandell Weiss Forum.

William Purves was named the Gold Star Honoree for his dedication to a variety of arts organizations in San Diego. Luncheon tickets are $45. For an invitation or other information, call 238-0700.

PROGRAM NOTES: The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company, which had announced plans to help convert its old 90-seat theater at 547 4th Ave. into a cabaret this spring for restaurateur Victor Gill of Cafe Sevilla who took over the lease, has pushed back those plans until September. In the meantime, local comedian Don Victor has plans to go into the space in May with his improvisational comedy show, Circus Cafe, which he debuted last year at the Fritz Theatre. Also, the Gaslamp company will present a “pay what you can” performance of “A Life in the Theatre” at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Tickets are available at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre and are limited to the first 100 ticket-buyers coming in person. Call 234-9583 for information. . . .

Blackfriars Theatre will open its world premiere adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1896 “La Ronde” on May 3. The adaptation, by Blackfriars’ Artistic Director Ralph Elias and Chrissy Vogele, is called “Getting Around” and takes place in contemporary San Diego. Call 232-4088 for tickets. . . .

The San Diego Repertory Theatre has added two performances of “Mirandolina” at the Lyceum Space. The show will end April 26 with performances at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Call 235-8025 for tickets. . . .

The Old Globe Theatre’s upcoming world premiere musical “A . . . My Name is Still Alice” will feature four members of the original off-Broadway cast: Roo Brown, Randy Graff, Alaina Reed Hall and Mary Gordon Murray. They will be joined by Nancy Ticotin. The show opens May 15 at the Old Globe Theatre. Call 239-2255 for tickets. . . .

“Ties That Bind,” David Hyslop’s new psychological suspense drama about a mentally handicapped man accused of murder, will get a staged reading as part of the Old Globe’s Play Discovery Program at 7:30 p.m. Monday on the Cassius Carter stage. Tickets are $5 for adults and $4 for students and seniors at the door.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

‘BEEHIVE’ AT THE THEATRE IN OLD TOWN

Catch “Beehive” before it closes at the Theatre in Old Town Saturday at 8 p.m. It’s a small, but high-spirited, high-stepping delight that takes you on a musical journey from the high beehive hairdos of the early 1960s to the Woodstock at the end of the decade. The performers, fresh faces all, range from good to terrific. Performances at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday with a Saturday matinee at 2. At 4040 Twiggs St. in Old Town, 688-2494.