A Literary Journey to South Africa

Although many other playwrights plumb their pasts for subject material, 30-year-old Daniel Du Plantis tends to venture way outside his own back yard. One of his plays is about the residents of a retirement home. Another deals with euthanasia. Now comes “Three Card Monte and the Royal Flush” (opening Thursday at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood), a four-character study of race relations in modern-day South Africa.

“I try to get a handle on an idea and then go by the seat of my pants,” Du Plantis said. This play centers on the backstage clash of a young black man and an older white Shakespearean actor. “The story really evolved from another idea, about an actor obsessed with his art--I can relate to that--meeting another person who comes into his life and wakes him up.” That premise eventually fused with a larger, political story then dominating the news: the civil uprisings in Tian An Men Square.

He calls what he writes “character-oriented comedy”--and counts Peter Shaffer, William Goldman and Tennessee Williams as personal favorites. And there’s also a good dose of social conscience. “I think I may be dealing with my own guilt, because I’m not out there protesting,” said Du Plantis, who heads the professional writing program at USC. “This is about people being deprived of opportunity. And it’s going on in our own back yard, whether it’s blacks, women--or playwrights.”

Even though the piece was written two years ago--and is set in 1976, just after the Soweto uprising--many of its issues hit close to home during rehearsals. On the third day of the Los Angeles riots, audition callbacks were held at the theater, which is at Normandie and Fountain avenues.

Director Anna Stramese recalls little fear that day: “If you want to be part of the solution, you can’t be afraid of the problem. I offered to postpone auditions, but no one wanted to. Even on that day, we were dealing with something that was hopeful.”

Stramese, who studied acting with Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner and William Hickey, is on the theater faculty at USC. “I feel very passionate about this play,” she said, “and I’ve been involved with it a long while. The values explored are ones I’m personally very committed to. Ultimately, it’s an attack on racism, the human fears that are at the heart of racism. And both of the characters really learn from each other--even though the young man moves forward, and the old man steps back.”

The playwright has never been to South Africa but makes no apologies for his literary leap of faith. “I feel like I’ve been there,” he said. “Every time I go to the typewriter, I’m in South Africa. I’ve read a lot. And I have friends from South Africa; they duck into hallways when they see me coming. I’m always asking questions: ‘Would this happen there? Would this?’ ” He feels that humor is one of the play’s strongest elements.

“Monte” is Du Plantis’ first play to receive a professional production, after a succession of readings in the past few years, including at New Dramatists in New York, the Alley Theatre in Houston and Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, N.J. As a student at Nichols State University in Louisiana, he won the American College Theatre Festival’s Lorraine Hansberry Award for “Throw Me Something, Mr. God,” which may have been his first and last experience writing about his own family: “I got into a lot of trouble.”

Raised in Houma, La., Du Plantis fondly refers to his hometown as “the Mayberry of the South.”

“I had some problems in school,” he recalled. “I wouldn’t pay attention to the teacher; I’d be writing or drawing comic books in class. My mother was repeatedly called in for parent-teacher conferences.” He later penned a humor column, “Madman on the Bayou,” for the high school paper, then started writing one-acts and short stories; his “Curtain Call” won for short story at the Louisiana Writer’s Conference and “really got me enthusiastic about being a writer.” After graduation, he headed for USC and a master’s degree in writing.

“I was caught up in the idea of writing screenplays,” he said, “and that may still happen.” For now, he’s content to turn his attention to the stage: “I love working in the theater, feeling completely immersed in the production.”

“Three Card Monte and the Royal Flush” plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays at the Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood, through Aug. 2. Admission: $15 to $17.50. Call (213) 663-1525.