Man to Man: Actors Take on Legends : A pair of solo shows explore the lives of two adventurers--seaman Richard Henry Dana and author Jack London.

The phenomenon might be called, with apologies to James Agee, “Let Us Now Play Famous Men.”

Hal Holbrook has built his portrayal of Mark Twain into a national institution; likewise James Whitmore with his depiction of Will Rogers. Offering audiences the chance to spend time with a colorful figure of the past can turn into a franchise for some actors.

That’s just what actor Daniel Trent has done, albeit on a smaller scale, with his one-man show based on Richard Henry Dana’s novel “Two Years Before the Mast.”

Performed aboard the Pilgrim, a replica of Dana’s ship moored in Dana Point Harbor, the show returns tonight to open a three-weekend run.

“We premiered the show 11 years ago,” Trent said by phone this week from his apartment in North Hollywood. The performance has returned to the Pilgrim most summers since. “I had hair when I began this show.”

Coincidentally, another one-man performance based on the life of a literary figure opens today in South Orange County. San Juan Capistrano resident Tom Scott is hoping for some of Trent’s longevity with his show, “Wolf! Jack London Remembers,” based on the life and writings of Jack London. It returns to the Camino Real Playhouse for its second summer.

“I enjoy doing the show (and) I want to continue doing it for some time,” Scott said by phone this week. On the other hand, there is the matter of age: London died at 40, an age Scott has already passed, although by how much he won’t say. “A person can’t look 40 all his life,” Scott said.

Scott crafted the text of “Wolf!” almost entirely from London’s writings, a lengthy and painstaking task that meant not only reading all his works, but “organizing and sorting and putting the stuff together in some sort of coherent scheme.” It’s “bigger than anything” he’s done on stage in the past, Scott said, both in writing and in performance.

“It’s roughly equivalent to having three major lead (roles) running at the same time,” he said. The show is “a little over 8,000 words without the question-and-answer session at the end.”

Although Scott has been involved in theater since his teen years, it has been an avocation rather than a profession.

By day, he is a software engineering consultant who recently started his own company, Technical Books on Tape. Still, “Wolf!” is turning into more than a minor distraction; in recent weeks, Scott has performed it at theater festivals in Telluride, Colo., and Ensenada.

“Two Years Before the Mast” grew out of Trent’s involvement in American Living History Theater, a Los Angeles group that started doing historically oriented productions in the bicentennial year.

A fellow troupe member, Victor Pinheiro, suggested to Trent that he would be good as Dana, and eventually they shaped a script out of excerpts from the book.

As does the book, the stage production follows Dana’s 1834 voyage from Boston to California around Cape Horn, his 17 months in Spanish California and his eventual return to Boston. The book, published in 1840, was one of the most popular sea stories ever and was cited by Herman Melville as an inspiration for “Moby Dick.”

Trent finds Dana’s story attractive for dramatization on several fronts. “No. 1, I think the story is very interesting, the journey from Boston to California. He left a boy and came home a man,” Trent said. Also, “there’s a certain nobility to Dana that I think everyone strives for.”

The stage production is also valuable as a historical lesson, Trent says: “The important thing, especially for the children, is that they see these people as three-dimensional, that they’re people just like them.”

Trent portrays several characters from the book, in addition to Dana. Even after all these years, “it really is a challenge, and I love a good challenge.”

As a professional actor, Trent appreciates the flexibility afforded by the format.

“You can book yourself,” he said. “It gives you the ability to create your own work, and that’s so important in this business.” The show is “designed to go anywhere,” Trent said, and he tours frequently to schools and other venues. Of course, “being on the Pilgrim is probably the best place in the world you can do this show.”

He likes the format so much, in fact, he’s already working on another one-man project, this one based on the life of playwright George Bernard Shaw.

While “Two Years Before the Mast” follows a chronological story, “Wolf!” is designed more as an evening with London, with Scott as the author touching on his adventure novels (including “Call of the Wild,” “White Fang” and “The Sea Wolf”) but also sharing some of his wide-ranging philosophical views.

Some of those views were controversial. He was an avowed socialist who attacked capitalism and campaigned for child-labor laws and other social causes; he also held that the white race was superior and that women were inferior to men.

Scott doesn’t shy away from London’s more prickly views, or from his brash nature, although there is much with which he doesn’t agree.

“It’s kind of fun to watch people squirm,” Scott said with a laugh. “Some have characterized my performance as an arrogant bastard, but that’s OK, because he was that.”

At the same time, London was a magnetic and compelling personality, Scott said, and one who is little remembered outside his most famous stories. “There are very few people who know Jack London outside dog stories,” Scott said. “That was not uncommon even during his life.”

Although he has performed “Wolf!” for a junior high school audience, Scott said the show is geared mainly to adults: “It plays to older children very well, but it in no way is targeted to little kids. I don’t tell dog stories.”

*Daniel Trent’s one-man show based on Richard Henry Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” opens tonight and continues through July 24 aboard the Pilgrim at the Orange County Marine Institute, 24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point. Performances Fridays and Saturdays at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. $15 to $20. (714) 496-2274. *”Wolf! Jack London Remembers” by Tom Scott opens tonight and continues through July 31 at the Camino Real Playhouse, 31776 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. Performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. $10. (714) 489-8082.