Love Takes All Kinds in Pair of Original One-Acts

“And the Derelicts Cheered,” the first in this eclectic double bill of original one-act plays at Orange Coast College, is a promising comedy about two very different people whose unexpected intimacies bring confidence and hope back to hearts that had been languishing without love.

Harry Baldwin (Mark Coyan) is a curmudgeonly fry-cook-cum-painter who hides his good breeding in slovenly surroundings but reveals himself in his license plate, “PANACHE.” Mrs. Kathleen Trafalger (Angela Combs), a well-heeled socialite, braves Baldwin’s disreputable neighborhood to claim these same vanity plates, which she believes are rightfully hers.

Panache is a word with symbolic significance for each of them, and ultimately they are forced to confide these associations as proof of ownership. Out of the shared pain of disappointed love, a bond is forged.

Playwright Don Gordon has shaped his characters with wit and affection. The friendship that grows between them is brought along through generous details and some very amusing byplay. Particularly funny are the haggling sequences in which Trafalger, unaccustomed to quibbling over price, becomes hopelessly confused about whether to increase or decrease her bid.

The weakest narrative link is a long flashback sequence, an awkward mechanism that distracts from the meat of the moment. Poor Mrs. Trafalger is dropped from the action like a bad date, as Baldwin revisits his lost love in a humorless sequence acted out in the corner of his living room like a moody hologram.

The story itself has compelling elements but would be more satisfying dramatically if integrated into the exchange between the two principals.

In any case, directors Heather de Michele and Alex Golson get a good deal of fun out of the script. While all the performances are solid, Coyan is a particularly lively presence onstage.

The second half of the evening is David Scaglione’s symbol-laden tone poem “Willin’ to Wait for the Miracle,” the miracle being an apparition of the Virgin Mary rumored to materialize over the waters off a certain beach on the last day of summer. Through the course of the night, a handful of seekers, each hoping to have his or her secret wish granted by the Holy Mother, come and go, interact and talk. And talk. And talk.

There may be dramatic gold in Scaglione’s script, which in its highest moments suggests Yeats’ Cuchulain plays in its attempt to dramatize philosophical ideas. But it’s almost impossible to mine the vein without some kind of illumination.

Unhappily, this performance, directed by Todd Kulczyk, is so dim and static that the issues of the play are difficult to get into focus. Marriage is a theme which reverberates through the script like a muffled foghorn, and it may be that the true miracle being investigated by Scaglione is the mystical, redemptive union of true love. Or, maybe not. As one character intones, “If you simply believe in yourself, that is miracle enough.”

That particular miracle cannot sustain an evening of theater, which relies upon communal belief. However, it is reassuring to know that someone at Orange Coast College believes in staging the work of local playwrights. That kind of artistic nurturing is a miracle in itself.

* “And the Derelicts Cheered” by Don Gordon, directed by Heather de Michele and Alex Golson, and “Willin’ to Wait for the Miracle” by David Scaglione, directed by Todd Kulczyk, continue at the Drama Lab, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa, tonight at 8, Saturday at 5 and 8:30 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. $5 in advance, $6 at the door. (714) 432-5880. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes. With Mark Coyan, Angela Combs, Michael Wilkesen, Ami Silber, Debbie South, Rich Valente, Van Messerschmitt and Pat Bruno. An Orange Coast College Drama Lab Studio production.