STAGE NOTES : Drama Plays Prominent Role in Festival of the Arts

Culture comes to Simi Valley: Drama, music, arts and crafts are the bill of fare for 12 weeks this summer as the reorganized Simi Valley Cultural Assn. presents its third annual--and largest--Festival of the Arts.

Opening July 3 with a free concert in Rancho Simi Park, the festival will include art exhibits, concerts and more than seven different theatrical productions, most by local companies. Among the highlights, according to Cultural Assn. board member Jan Glasband, are local playwright Angela Randazzo’s “Crash Course in Herstory;” a presentation of the 1972 Broadway musical “Pippin” (about the son of Charlemagne) by the S.A.V.E. Theatre group; a program of Edward Albee’s “Zoo Story” and “Sandbox” staged by director David Ralphe; and the unrelated “Patchwork” and “Quilters” by Actors for Children and the Soap Box Players, respectively. Shakespeare in the Park’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which will be seen in various locations throughout Ventura County, will be staged in Rancho Simi Park on Aug. 7.

Of special interest, according to Glasband, is the world premiere of “No Flies on Me,” an original one-man comedy written and directed by Alan Sues.

There’ll also be an arts and crafts fair, and a concert featuring musically gifted children between 9 and 18 years old. Most of the indoor events will be held at the Simi Valley Cultural Center--the former courthouse--on Cochran Street.

Among the Cultural Assn.’s goals, said Glasband, is to create public awareness of the center.

For further information on anything from purchasing tickets to reserving a table at the arts and crafts festival, call 522-5501. Auditions for the young artists concert will be held for the next two Saturdays at the center; call the same number for an audition appointment.

Local Playwright Pleased by Debut

Some playwrights see their work produced immediately, and others never get to see it staged at all. But few indeed have to wait more than 65 years to see actors interpret their work. But for Beatrice Wood it happened just that way: The Ojai-based centenarian artist was present late last month as her 1927 “A Torch in the Sky” was produced, for the first time anywhere, at Ojai’s Libbey Bowl by the Venice-based Helicon Theatre Company.

“I was very impressed by the performance,” Wood said after seeing the production for two nights in a row. “It was very different from what I had visualized, but quite inventive. I am hard of hearing, so I couldn’t hear much of the conversation. But the direction was so alive that I was fascinated by what was happening. Because I was the author, it was very hard for me to judge, but I heard very (positive) remarks from people who didn’t know me, and that’s what counts--I went to sleep happy that night.”

As for the future, Wood said that she hopes to see the play--based on the life of Renaissance monk Giordano Bruno--produced again, volunteering that “I think it would make a wonderful movie, if someone had the sense to make it a movie.”

Yo Ho Ho, and a Trip to the Ponderosa

No sooner did the Santa Susana Repertory Company’s new adaptation of “Treasure Island” get off the ground than it took a temporary nose-dive. Actor Richard Fullerton, who plays the crucial role of Long John Silver, got a TV part in an episode of the upcoming “Bonanza” revival, so the entire cast of 20, the crew and anyone interested in seeing the play were put on hold whilst understudyless Fullerton pursued his paying muse. That was last weekend. This weekend, the “Treasure Island” cast and crew will be relieved of their duties as the Oak Leaf Music Festival takes over the Conejo Community Center and environs, displacing the thespians. They’ll be back next weekend, promises Santa Susana Rep’s artistic director, Lane Davies. Unless, of course, someone else in the cast gets work. Better call 374-8282, just to make sure.