‘Snow’ to Fall First in Laguna : Theater: Five-play season will begin with Stephen Metcalfe’s drama. Playhouse also announces selection of firm to remodel building for use as Second Stage.

The Laguna Playhouse will launch its 1994-95 subscription season in September with Stephen Metcalfe’s “Strange Snow,” a drama about the reunion of two Vietnam War veterans, theater officials announced Tuesday.

Rounding out the five-play season at the Moulton Theatre will be a Christmas spoof (“Inspecting Carol”), a comedy about a pair of radio broadcasters (“Breakfast With Les and Bess”), an 18th-Century Italian classic (“The Liar”) and a musical about men and women on the job (“Working”).

Officials of the 73-year-old community playhouse also announced the selection of a Newport Beach-based theater designer and architectural firm--John von Szeliski and Associates--to remodel a recently purchased bank building in South Laguna for use as a 250-seat Second Stage.

The playhouse, which currently operates on a $1.2-million annual budget at the 418-seat Moulton, is the county’s largest theater company after South Coast Repertory. It has long sought to establish a smaller venue for professional productions.

“My guess is that renovations will begin in June,” executive director Richard Stein said. “It would be wonderful to open the second theater for the playhouse’s 74th birthday on Oct. 22. But I don’t think that will happen.”’

*

Stein said the Second Stage opening is more likely to come “closer to the end of this year” or at the beginning of 1995. Its season is expected to comprise four plays and a musical and would add about $400,000 to the company’s current operating expenses.

The playhouse agreed in December to purchase the building, a former Bank of America branch at 32356 Coast Highway, and took title to the property on Feb. 25. Stein would not divulge the purchase price but said the playhouse paid less than the initial asking price of $2.6 million. County records list the sale price at $880,000.

Renovations are expected to cost at least $500,000 and will be financed from a fund of roughly $870,000 already raised by the playhouse. The playhouse also plans to raise at least $2 million more in a reinvigorated capital campaign.

But the fund-raising goal could go higher.

“We’re anticipating doing a new funding study,” Stein noted. “It will help identify potential gifts from large donors who have already given to the playhouse and gifts from outside donors” as well as “any (fund-raising) needs that might go beyond our previous plans.”

The Szeliski firm, one of two regional architects considered for the Second Stage renovation, worked on the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the recent renovation of Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton.

THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE

The 1994-95 Mainstage Season:

* Sept. 13--Oct. 9: “Strange Snow,” by Stephen Metcalfe.

* Nov. 8-Dec. 11: “Inspecting Carol,” by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Theatre. * Jan. 10-Feb. 5: “Breakfast With Les and Bess,” by Lee Kalcheim.

* March 7-April 2, 1995: “The Liar,” by Carlo Goldoni.

* April 25-May 28, 1995: “Working,” by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso, adapted from the book of the same title by Studs Terkel

The 1994-95 Youth Theater Season:

* Oct. 14-23: “The Sword in the Stone.”

* Feb. 10-19: “Snow White.”

* April 7-16, 1995: “Heidi.”

* June 9-18, 1995: “There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom.”

All productions will be at the Moulton Theatre, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. (714) 494-8021.