THEATER REVIEW : Festival Provides Too Much of a Good Thing : Moorpark College’s presentation of one-acts runs for more than six hours, with dinner and dessert along the way.

First the good news: Moorpark College’s 10th annual spring festival of one-act plays is, in most every way, the college’s best, at least of the last three or four editions.

On the other hand, the complete presentation lasts more than six hours, ending past midnight. It’s so long, they’re thinking of serving breakfast at the end. It’s so long that the participants’ relatives are leaving before it’s over. It’s so long that the Singapore government is protesting.

The evening consists of eight programs, with the audience twice forced to choose between two alternates. A tri-tip and chicken dinner follows the second play, with a dessert break between numbers 5 and 6. Last Saturday, one of the two final choices wasn’t performed at all--some of the principals had night-shift jobs and couldn’t stay.

First up is “Millicent and the Endangered (X),” written and directed by Jennifer L. Racine, a regular contributor to these festivals. Aimed at children, it features a spoiled young princess (Corinne White) who learns about endangered species. It’s cute, funny and features audience participation, including the opportunity to name the cuddly animal in question. “Millicent” deserves life beyond this evening and is indeed being presented to schools around the county.

For many, the second show may be the evening’s high point: Nisan Cerami has wittily condensed Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to slightly over an hour; it’s performed in several areas of the Moorpark College campus, with the audience following the cast from stage to stage. Leading the crew is Greg Crock as an energetic and occasionally ad-libbing Puck. Cerami’s script neatly covers for the excised scenes.

After dinner come the evening’s more serious plays, not suggested for youngsters. “Bums,” a fairly standard exercise in showing sympathy for the underprivileged, has several homeless people telling their stories. Student Shannon Twiss directs non-student Robert Shaffron’s script. The characters include David Ford, Jennifer Brown, Rich Scheirmann, Glenn Friedman (as a gay hustler) and, already affecting a stage name, one “Charles D.” As with the remaining plays, the performances and direction transcend the material.

Anybody who’s ever seen an episode of “Twilight Zone” will anticipate, practically from the beginning, the twist ending of “Staring Into the Abyss.” The play features an unseen interrogator (Rob Thain) quizzing a young man (Joshua Morrow) who is so resentful, so self-centered, that you’ll wish him dead. The experience would be considerably less annoying if the play were cut in half. First suggested edit: There’s no need to repeat the punch line; we saw it coming. John Mulhalt scripted and directs.

Heading into the stretch--and last stop before cheesecake and coffee--is a comedy, “The Adventures of Captain Neato-Man,” which rises above its title, if only barely. The titular character is a would-be super-hero (Scheirmann), who lives with his mother (Sevrin Mason) and is searching for a sidekick.

Answering a classified advertisement, which he misread, is the nebbishy Larry (Brian Robertson). Hilarity ensues, director Stephanie Ayling and her cast giving the script more panache than the professionally written play promises. We’d call it “sophomoric,” save for fear of offending sophomores in the audience.

Last up last Saturday was another professionally written, student-directed “Slam!” by Jane Willis. It’s a coming-of-age drama, in which teen-ager Linc (Steve Connell) reveals to his best friend (Greg Crooks) that he’s about to enlist in the Marines.

Willis’ script, evidently supposed to take place in the present, includes such pop-culture references as Annette Funicello and the Bee Gees that are strange in this context. Don’t today’s kids have their own icons? For that matter, isn’t “Slam!” (as in “slam-dancing”) a dated term, replaced by “mosh”? Still, Connell and Crooks give powerful, energetic and convincing performances under the direction of Sean Budway.

Also available for view are a series of student films and, when the cast doesn’t have to work, a second choice for the final play, Gabriel Tissian’s “Night Baseball,” directed by Richard Foss.

Details

* WHAT: Student One-Act Play Festival.

* WHEN: Fridays through Sundays at 6 p.m., closing Sunday.

* WHERE: Forum Theater, Moorpark College, 7075 Campus Road.

* HOW MUCH: $15 general admission, includes dinner and dessert; $10 for students, senior citizens and staff. Tickets for the first two plays (suitable for family audiences) and dinner only are $6 for children and $10 for accompanying adults.

* FYI: For reservations or information, call 378-1468. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” requires some walking (wheelchair inaccessible) and warm clothing.