It’s the ‘Tales’ End of a Long Wait for Director : Theater: The Laguna Youth troupe’s Joe Lauderdale finally gets a chance to bring Judy Blume’s story of a ‘fourth-grade nothing’ to his stage.

A good play for children is hard to find.

So says Joe Lauderdale, director of the Laguna Playhouse Youth Theater. For three years now, it has been part of his job to put together a season of four plays for young audiences. “I read a lot of bad scripts,” he bemoaned over the phone last week. “It’s more and more difficult every year. If I think of a title I like, I go out and search for it.”

It seems he knows where to look. This year’s final production, “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” (opening today), is taken from a book by no less a children’s author than the prodigious Judy Blume.

“I’ve wanted to do (this play) for quite some time,” Lauderdale said. “I’ve always liked Judy Blume’s stories. She uses humor to allow the reader to feel the human condition of a child, the comedy and the poignancy. And, of course, Judy Blume is so well known.”

“Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing,” in a script adapted by Bruce Mason, features a favorite Blume character, a young fellow called Fudge who is the protagonist of a number of her books.

Lauderdale is directing a cast of four adults, four kids and three teen-agers (“the teens like for me to specify that (distinction),” he noted).

As director of the Youth Theater, he presides over an extensive educational program in which about 300 young people participate. About 10% also appear onstage in the productions, although membership in Youth Theater classes is not a prerequisite for being cast.

A select group of about 25 between the ages of 11 and 17 gets hands-on experience in the behind-the-scenes world of theatrical production. Assignments include stage managing, working lights or operating the sound.

Lauderdale manages the Youth Theater’s summer stock program too. Full-day class schedules are offered for students ages 4 to 17. Advanced students create a show out of their own improvisations.

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On top of all this, Lauderdale writes and directs a production with a cast of four adults that tours schools. For the last three seasons, the show has been drawn from popular mythology; Lauderdale promises “something new for next year.”

He already has hunted up a season for 1993-94. Productions will include the well-known musical “Oliver,” “Anne of Green Gables” (Lauderdale culled the best script from the four or five versions he read), and “The Phantom Toll Booth,” adapted from the book by Norton Juster.

“Tales From the Brothers Grimm” will rounds out the season. Lauderdale is writing it himself in collaboration with Christel Grissmer. “I love fairy tales,” he confessed. “I’ve wanted to do ‘Cinderella’ but many of the elements of the original story are not used in retellings. But these (retellings) will truly be the Brothers Grimm. I’m having a lot of fun writing it. I think it will be different.”

* The Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre production of “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” by Judy Blume opens tonight at 7:30 at the Moulton Theatre, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. $6 to $9. Through June 27. (714) 494-8021.